Metropolitan King County Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everybody. I'd like to welcome everyone to the August 25th, 2026 meeting of the King County Council. I'm Jorge Barron. I'm vice chair of the council, but I'll be acting as chair today. We're joined by my colleagues, and this meeting is called to order. Before we begin, please join me in acknowledging that we're on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples, past and present. We thank these caretakers of this land who have lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial, bringing their cultural ways of life and greatly enriching our communities. With that, Clerk Foss, would you please call the roll?

Thank you, Chair Barron. Council Member Valducci. Council Member Dembowski.

Here.

Council Member Dunn. Council Member Fain. Here. Council Member Lewis.

Here.

Council Member Mosqueda. Here. Council Member Perry. Council Member Von Reichbar.

Here.

Chair Barone.

Here.

Council Member Dunn.

Here.

Thank you very much. We have a quorum of the council. Next, please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance led by Council Member Fain.

Please stand if you're able.

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 very much. Vice Chair Dunn, may I please have a motion to approve the minutes of the August 18th, 2026 council meeting. Move approval of the August 18th minutes. Thank you very much. The motion is before us. Any questions, comments regarding the minutes? Seeing none, all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. The minutes are approved. Clerk, are there any additions to the council agenda?

I do not have any additions to the agenda, sir.

Thank you very much. We will now turn to the reading of items into the record and the hearing of public comment. Vice Chair Dunn, will you move to suspend the rules to hold an advertised public hearing on item 7, proposed ordinance 2022-0297?

Move to suspend the rules to hold an advertised public hearing on item 7, which is proposed ordinance 2022-0297.

Thank you. The motion is before us. Any questions or comments on that? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. The motion carries. Item 7 will remain in the Local Services and Land Use Committee until the committee has taken action. It will then be placed on the council agenda for action. Clerk, will you please read the items into the record?

Thank you. Item number 7 is proposed ordinance number 2022-0297. Determining the King County Fire Protection District number 24 is inactive under state law, and it is in the public interest to dissolve King County Fire Protection District number 24. Item 8 is proposed motion number 20260178, confirming the executive's appointment of Susan Lussmore, who resides in Council District 6, to the Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium Public Facilities District Board of Directors. Item number nine is proposed motion 2026-0208, confirming the executive's reappointment of Young Sang Song, who resides in Council District 9, to the King County Priority Hire Advisory Committee, representing local business organizations. Item 10 is proposed motion 2026-0210, confirming the executive's reappointment of Drew Gibson, who resides in Council District 9, to the King County Priority Hire Advisory Committee. Item 11 is proposed motion 2026-0211, confirming the executive's reappointment of Dave Johnson, who resides in Council District 3, to the Priority Hire District Committee representing contractors.

Thank you very much. The council will now take public comment on those ordinances and motions on today's agenda for action along with any topic directly related to county business. That is because it's the fourth Tuesday of the month. Listening to the public and taking into consideration the public's thoughts is an important part of our process and one that enhances our deliberations. In order to allow everyone equal time to provide comment, I would like to set the following ground rules. Please limit comments to two minutes, remain seated until time for your public comment, and do not make audible noise during the meeting. This is also a reminder that public comment may not be used for the purpose of assisting a campaign for election of any person to any office or for the promotion or opposition to any ballot proposition. In addition, per Council Rule 10, disruptive behavior can or may lead to the commenter being asked to leave the meeting. Disruptive behavior includes the following among other considerations. Standing rather than remaining seated except when entering or leaving the chambers or when providing comment at the podium after being called on to speak. speaking from the audience without being recognized to provide comment, making audible noises in the audience beyond speaking, holding signs that obstruct the free passage of view or view of others attending the meeting, the use of bull horns or noise makers. For online comment, please press star nine on the phone or click the raise hand icon on the Zoom toolbar located at the bottom of the screen to notify the clerk. The clerk will call the names or the last three digits of the phone numbers in order and will then unmute each line. At the end of each comment, the clerk will lower hands. With that, Clerk Mueller, would you please begin calling the names here in person, followed by those hands raised online for public comment.

Thank you, Chair. The first name on the list is Kevin Althmeyer.

Don't forget me.

Chair, today we stand here, folks, witnessing an atrocity. Last year, August the 25th, 2026, 2025, two men standing up there were involved in one of the worst things you could have done. And I'm accusing these two men of atrocities. Number one, Reagan Dunn sends a letter to the Seattle Times. Feeding them propaganda. Rob Dembowski sends propaganda. Reagan Dunn, you remember that article that came out October the 31st and he said that somebody at DCH needs to be fired? It was Kelly Rider, you know why? Because he had his staff send an email, and I have it, to the Seattle Times and said, because Kelly Rider said DCH had no loss. and said mcgee had no ethic violation and they went through three investigations then they made a legislative uh... a record by basically him passing this ordinance called ordinance one nine nine seven eight It's all de facto. This guy standing near got a writer by the name of Lula Ramadan, Seattle Times. She said, hey, did you notice that Thomas Barrington, who's the director of ethics, says there was no ethic violation. You know what he did? He wrote and said, I've been trying for three years to open up an inspector general. It's in my article. So if you go to King County Oversight Files.com, You can read about these guys. So what you're witnessing are criminals who need to be charged. A federal government arbitrator needs to come in here and take over the King County government because this is an atrocity.

What we have here. Mr. Zimmerman, you can't applaud, okay? That's your first warning.

Now, they may sit there, and I sent out today, I see Sarah Perry's not here, and I see Claudia, because they're probably shocked of all of your emails I got. I have over 60,000 emails.

Mr. Altimer, thank you.

The next name on the list is Alex Zimmerman.

My name is Alex Zimmerman. I'm never clapping. You know what it means. Fascism and Nazi Gestapo principle come to absurd. Yeah, okay. My name is Alex Zimmerman. I'm president of Stand Up America. I open right now auditor office case about Pansy Scams on Transist for $35 billion. This is a serious problem, what we have right now. And I demand that you, consul, will support this. Thirty-five billion dollars, and talking about the Spaniards, have for ten years from the beginning. So thirty-five billion dollars, what they steal from us now, has never happened before in American history. You need to understand. And very important, because we have a leader in this business, Consul Banducci. You know what this means? By definition, it totally destroyed Bellevue. Because first, train, what has come from this Pansy's Ham, has come to Bellevue. What has cost us a billion and billion dollars in train go for one year right now, totally empty. Totally empty. You know what it means? Bellevue is a very rich place right now, one of the richest cities in America. People drive Mercedeses, Bimmer, car for $100,000. Nobody will be used. It's an idiotic situation. I'm talking about this for many years. Balducci don't do this. She possibly be in jail. Trump absolutely right. It's time right now put Democrat, Kif, and Bandita mafia to jail. We need to start something doing right now. So this is my first complaint what I have right now in the auditor office. Second complaint will be about Trump. Can country house an authority who spent $100 million for thousands and thousands of illegal immigrants who violated Trump's executive order? Viva Trump! Viva New American Revolution! Stand up, slap, and happy cow! Now!

The next name on the list is Chris Maniatis.

Yeah, in the afternoon, 3 o'clock.

okay i'm not going to be as loud as these guys i have a safety issue at king county airport i want to talk about there's hot fueling happening since 2025 that's against the airport supplemental rules and regulation it's not in accordance with faa policy that's a public safety issue And it's up to you guys to enforce that, not to encourage vendors to do it or encourage folks. But my problem is there's actually fueling with passengers on board. You have an observer that you have hired who is not on the tarmac when the pipes are connected, so therefore cannot say whether there's hot fueling happening or not. This is a safety issue. Yes, these are ICE flights, but, you know, these people are shackled. They cannot run. They're on the actual airplane when it's happening. For all that is holy, do something about that. Encouraging a contractor to follow a rule is not enough. That's it.

Thank you. The next name on the list is Dan Shikuma.

Good afternoon. My name is Stanley Shikuma. I come representing Tsuru for Solidarity. I'm the national co-chair of that organization, as well as the Japanese American Citizens League. I'm a past president and current vice president for civil rights with that organization. Both organizations have been in support of La Resistencia's attempts to shut down the Northwest Detention Center and specifically for this group to stop the deportation flights in and out of the King County International Airport. I've been working with La Resistencia to observe and monitor flights for the last three years. And I can tell you that it is very disturbing to sit there and watch people being boarded on and off planes, occasionally being taken to the ground. It reminds us from the Japanese American community's history of 1942, when our community, my mother was taken from Shelton, No charges, no evidence, no due process, no hearings, no way to appeal. She was taken away and put on a train. Did not know where she was going, did not know how long she would be gone, did not know what the future would hold. Right now that is happening again. We're using planes instead of trains. But the same process has been going on, and it's time for this county to stop it. Thank you. Thank you.

The next name on the list is Benjamin Sibelman.

Hi, my name is Ben Sibleman. I'm with South End Indivisible. I'm calling on the council to start from the premise that immigrants are human beings, from which it flows obviously that they should not be held in shackles on airplanes that could explode due to hot fueling. that they should not be unobserved when crimes are taking place that could endanger them. There should be somebody watching to ensure the rules are being followed or document when they're not at all times when deportation flights or flights into the Tacoma Dispension Center from King County Airport are

respectively taking off or landing this is you know it useless of course if the rules are not enforced and the I'm sorry can we pause the mic Mr. Alheimer you can't be standing unless you're providing public comment okay you can take pictures you just can't be standing thank you I need you to sit down thank you sir thank you thank you go ahead

So I understand that the federal government could sue to strike down any rules they don't like. That will take time. And in the time that you are enforcing the rules, people will be safer. That is worth it. The fact that you would be standing against the federal government's cruelty is worth it. There should be no fear of the federal government doing something legal against basic treatment of human beings as human beings. Thank you.

Thank you. The next name on the list is Greg Colucci.

Hi, my name is Greg Colucci, and I'm a community member here. I live in Seattle. I'm very concerned also about the ICE flights in and out of King County Airport. Also specifically about the lack of an observer for what's happening and who's on the flights. So has been doing a lot of the observing, but King County should hire a person. And I think they have hired somebody, but that person has to be on the tarmac to do their job. And if they're not, then we don't know exactly what is happening with these people. And so we do want to just have you all have King County follow the laws. Thank you.

Thank you. The next name on the list is Joe Harrington.

Hello, my name is Joe Harrington. I'm with Southeast Seattle Indivisible. And we are, I'm specifically speaking to the use of chains on ice flights. ICE has agreed to follow FAA rules on this. FAA rules are very clear that the planes must be capable of being evacuated within 90 seconds. Flight attendants know this. Pilots know this. The people on these flights are being shackled. They have their hands shackled to their waists. Their feet are shackled together, and those are shackled together. They walk hunched. They cannot walk quickly. If on a flight the oxygen mask drops from above, they can't reach up and put that on themselves. The ratio of guards to people detained on the flights is one for two. So the risk to the ICE agents on the flights is... It approaches zero. There is no point in this except cruelty. We are asking the council to insist that the FAA follow its own rules, that ICE follow the rules that they have adopted, and we would really appreciate seeing a lot more fight. We understand that you can't kick ice out of King County's airport, but we can make a much, much bigger noise than we have been making to insist that they not use unnecessary cruelty. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to start calling three names at a time. The next up is Angela Depp, followed by Cynthia Jatul and Rebecca Kate.

Thank you for your time today. My name is Angela Deppi. I live in Columbia City. I'm horrified by what is happening here in Seattle and across the country. ICE is unlawfully taking our friends, our neighbors, and family members. ICE is violent and has shot and killed individuals across the country. ICE is violating individual human and civil rights. We fear for their safety. I volunteer weekly to witness deportation flights at King County International Airport. We are concerned because detainees are not safe. We also monitor and track ICE's activity because ICE does not share information. We need your help to ensure that our flight witnessing team has clear access to all detainees so we can monitor how they are being treated and track who is being detained. ICE parks their buses in a way that obstructs our camera view. We need your help to ensure that ICE parks their buses in a way that gives us full visibility to all ICE activity during deportation flights. We also ask for assistance from King County International Airport operations team to ensure that airport cameras are adjusted to maximize our visibility for detainees, to give us clear and unobstructed view of what is going on during deportation flights. If operations could consult with us to understand the challenges we are having, we think the camera view can be adjusted for better visibility. Thank you for your time today.

Hello, my name is Cynthia Jatul. I'm a resident of King County, live in South Seattle. I have been observing in immigration courts. I have been to the observation room that is at the King County Airport. And I know that many of us are very aware of the horrors that are going on under the trump administration and stephen miller's mass deportation program and we don't need to elaborate on that what is deeply upsetting is that king county is not doing as much as we can to resist these things There are rules and regulations that are not being adequately followed. These things have been documented by the Center for Human Rights at the University of Washington, by La Resistencia, by SUDU. Everybody is aware. More people need to be aware. How can we help more people be aware? Follow your regulations. Get that observer on the tarmac for every single deportation flight so we know how many people are coming on and off the planes in shackles. We need to know how many people are injured in this process. We need to know if there is hot fueling going on. We need to know these things. They need to be part of the public record. We as citizens of this county deserve this information because these things are happening to people that we care about. I know that a lot of you care.

about this issue and so we need to work together to make sure the rules and regulations are followed as much as possible thank you good afternoon rebecca kate king county resident i'd like to add my voice to the concerns around this topic of hot fueling on these flight deportations um As already reiterated, it seems that the King County Airport is not following its own rules and regulations and FAA policy. This seems like a tremendous safety concern for this vulnerable population of shackled immigrants on these planes where they may be open to tremendous harm if something should happen. To our knowledge, no longstanding disciplinary measures have ever been taken to stop the contractors from violating local policy and putting people in danger. So I think if we're going to say that we support immigrants, we need to assure their safety. This should be the highest priority if we were going to have these deportation flights, which I'm not for and not in favor of in any way. But if we're going to be having these, the safety of this very vulnerable population needs to be assured. Thank you.

The next name on the list is Laura Cooley, followed by Kathy Creahan and Brian Dang.

Thank you very much. My name is Laura Cooley. I live in Northeast Seattle. I'm a former United Nations and UW employee. And the reason I'm here is to add my voice to the concerns that are being raised here, both on the humanitarian front, the safety front, But I also want to make people aware a different angle that people may not have thought about. I'm not sure if people are aware that GEO Group has more than doubled its profit over the last year. We're part of that. Specifically, GEO Group has said that it grew its net income in the first quarter of the year by 96% to $38.3 million from only $19.5 million in the same period. So revenues have increased by 16% to $705 million from $606 million. Do we really want to be part of that? I don't think so, especially when they're not enforcing the rules and regulations of safety concerns that they're supposed to be. So everyone here in the room will be speaking, I'm sure, to various angles of this. I just think, please, show some gumption. This is not who we are.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Kathy Crayon. I'm with South Seattle Indivisible and with Southeast Seattle Indivisible and I'm a volunteer at the Riverton Church in a legal clinic that assists immigrants and I also volunteer at Casa Latina. With all the horrors being perpetrated against immigrants right here in King County and throughout this country. Many of us feel powerless. We're overwhelmed. We don't want it to happen. We don't know what to do. But in this case, you have the power to do something. And I think If King County takes a strong stance of enforcing the regulations, the safety regulations at the airport, and ensuring that your own rules or our own rules are followed, that will be something. You have the power here, and I'm asking you to take it. Thank you.

Good afternoon, City Council. My name is Brian Dang. I'm based in Councilmember Mosqueda's district. I'm here to urge King County Council to enforce its rules at the King County Airport and not just encourage them to follow safety protocols as we're just allowing ICE to deport Americans unchallenged. First, we should be ashamed that we're even allowing these flights to happen. That's inhumane. We're sending people to countries they've never been to before, that they are separated from their families. We're not doing enough to stop it and get in their way. King County has finally hired someone in a position to observe the flights at King County Airport. However, this role is incomplete. They're not exclusively monitoring ice flights, and they're not on the tarmac for the entirety of the time. King County must enforce that cameras are not obstructed from view of the observer's view. We need all Americans accounted for and I keep using this word Americans because that's who they are. Please ensure that hot fueling does not occur and that It doesn't put people in positions of danger where they are already shackled. Again, please enforce the existing safety protocols and get in the way of all these ice flights. Thank you for your time.

The next name on the list is Guadalupe Gonzalez, followed by Philemon Tapia and Delia Scholes.

uh hello everyone my name is guadalupe gonzalez king county resident and a member of la resistencia i've been working with lr for the past couple years to really document what's been going on at the airport and try to contact both airport authorities and the king county executive about the issues to see if any of them could be resolved during these last couple of years Most of last year we were just completely ignored. We often wouldn't get responses from the people in leadership positions and it felt like no one was listening to what we were reporting, which included examples of hot fueling and other issues we were running into when carrying out observations. Really at the beginning of this year is when we finally started hearing back from the county And they got to a point where we were told that once the new position was hired, then that position could document any violations of the rules and actions could be taken. However, it seems that since this position has been instituted, things have changed. We're now being told that they're going to document violations of the rules. But rather than punishing ISIS contractors which break safety procedures, something which the airport supplemental rules and regulations include, it states punishments. and how they're going to increase depending on subsequent violations. Rather than utilizing that, which is in the rules, they're instead going to, quote unquote, encourage contractors on a voluntary basis to follow said rules. To me personally, this feels like very cowardly behavior from those in power, and it feels like there are no point Often when we've talked to the county, they'll often say, our rules at the airport for ICE flights are above what most of the US is doing. Compared to many other airports we're leading ahead, these rules don't matter if they're not being enforced. It's just dead words on paper. So I'm going to reiterate what a lot of folks have talked about today, which is that we need to enforce these safety procedures. I understand that removing ICE from King County's airport is a whole different conversation. But if this county's going to support migrants, as it states within its many ordinances, its many public releases, and everything included, then it needs to actually take actions over what it can control, which is its own airport and the treatment of human beings who have rights within it. Thank you.

Good afternoon, counsel. I know the King County Council has made many good statements, and individual members of the council have been active in the struggle for immigrant justice throughout their lives, which I applaud and respect. But the reality is that ICE is actively and openly operating at the King County Airport, which of course is on King County property, with little to no pushback from the King County Council. There's countless amount of human rights atrocities that ICE commits on a daily basis. And usually there's no oversight because they're given the green light by the federal government to act with impunity in the streets of our communities. But what we're talking about today is ICE's actions on King County property and what seems to be county officials' refusal to step in and enforce existing rules and regulations. These ice flights at King County Airport continue to be fueled while the engine is running in the process known as hot fueling, which according to the National Transportation Safety Board is extremely hazardous. Yet this is done right here at the King County Airport while shackled immigrants are on board. When will aviation contractors like Sky Service be sanctioned or stopped from continuing this practice? And if and when tragedy strikes due to this potentially volatile and explosive practice, will you be able to step in and say you did everything you could to stop it? The GEO Group, the private corporation that operates the Northwest Detention Center, whose detention buses are used in the facilitation of these ICE flights. Buses are parked in a way that intentionally blocks the cameras on the runway. This is a clear attempt to hide their mistreatment of migrants on the bus who are shackled and heard onto these ICE flights for more detention and eventual deportation. Now I know the county recently enacted a sanctuary or welcoming policy, but this means very little if nothing is being done to restrict ICE's movements on Key County property. So in closing, I just want to say the entire council must take stronger and more decisive actions to challenge, disrupt, and ultimately end all ICE activity at King County Airport. Thank you.

Good afternoon. Thank you for your time. My name is Delia Scholes. I'm a resident of South Seattle. I'm a member of several organizations that work with immigrant justice, and I have been accompanying migrants to court and to ICE check-ins for the past year. I'm certainly aware of the many infections that ICE commits. And I am, my house looks at, I live on Beacon Hill, and my house looks at King County Airport. I am increasingly concerned about the humanitarian and safety violations that are occurring from those flights, and I feel complicit in all those that are happening. I think very highly of this body, and I think that it's encouraging that you are in a position to act and to enforce rather than encourage. And I hope you will do that and let all of us as citizens feel that we are participating in distancing ourselves from what's happening. Thank you.

The next name on the list is Leonard Sklar, followed by CJ, and finally Julie Gingerich.

Hello, my name is Leonard Sklar. I'm a resident of District 2. I'm a retired geologist and this is my first time here. Thank you for listening. I'm adding my voice to the community concern over the human rights violations taking place in our public airport. I was shocked when I learned some of the facts of what's going on. Apparently, people are being loaded onto planes in shackles because they're categorized as cargo. My ancestors in Germany and in France, my Jewish ancestors were categorized as cargo and were loaded onto transport vehicles. And we said, never again. And in this context that it is happening again, and people are being sent to countries where they're like in El Salvador, and the deaths that are happening under ICE detention um i think we should all be losing sleep over this we should all be doing everything in our power to minimize at the very least the risk that people are going to die in some fiery explosion because some company wants to cut corners i mean you think about this hot fueling this is to to make money right they could wait They could take the time to do it right, but they're treating these passengers, these human beings, as cargo, and this is an excuse for them to make money. So anyway, please, I hope you will join me in losing some sleep, and you will do everything we elect you to do to stop this.

Thank you. CJ, our rules do not allow for signs at the podium, so I'm going to have to ask you to put it down. Thank you.

Okay, so I'm here also speaking about the lack of safety at the Boeing field. You guys have been just doing performance up here. I have a rising sixth grader who's gonna start studying about government, and they're very well aware of the dark times that we are living through and what's going on and i can't honestly point point to you guys and tell them and share with them what you actually do because i don't see that you do anything except just speak empty words you've passed measures that have absolutely no teeth behind them All of you lack spines to even speak out against the heinous crimes of human trafficking that is happening here in this county every single day. So it's disgusting. And how am I raising a child in these dark times to tell her and show her, oh yeah, we've got government. We've got government that serves and supports the people that upholds values of justice. None of you are an example of that. None of you. So what are you going to tell your grandchildren when they ask you what you did during these dark times? What are you going to tell them? Because you guys have the most power and the opportunity to do something. And all you do is just pass empty measures without any spine behind them. So we've heard about the hot fueling. Do we need to see people actually incinerated on the tarmac before you do something? Just like we see people incinerated in Gaza. Do we need to see that before you actually take action? So before I leave, he who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. That is from Martin Luther King.

Julia, welcome.

Hi.

I've come today as a resident of Southeast Seattle. From my home, I can see Bowen Field. I can go for a walk and go past King County Airport. And the more that I've been learning over time through advocates, Like everybody else, I'm appalled. And today, I'm even more appalled at the things I've heard. And although I don't like to speak in public, I showed up to give my voice and to support other people who are speaking out. And that's that you put some muscle to it. I'd forgotten that we call ourselves a sanctuary city, and I hope you all can find a way to put some muscle to it. Thank you.

The next name on the list is John Beto, followed by Suzanne Parenteau. And the final name on our in-person list is Yvette Dinish.

Hi, John Vito. I'm a member of 36th District Democrats, and we're in a situation where those who are wielding the power of the federal government do not conform to the laws and violate the rights of the people. We, as Members of or residents of King County have responsibility for an airport that's being used to move people that are being subject to to this extra legal confinement and sometimes torture, and it's incumbent on us to find ways to resist and protect those who are more vulnerable than we are and have less privilege. Our council members, people here have been asking you to use enforcement powers, and I think that's the minimum. I do acknowledge that The county did remove those flights from the airport at one point, and federal judges vacated that authority, but there's still some authority that our county should be exercising over these.

Hi, I'm Suzanne Parenteau. I'm a resident of King County. I just want to say from a personal perspective, personally, I owe so much to immigrants in this country who, in my privileged background, basically helped to raise me. And I have a lot of really strong feelings about the gratitude that we owe the people that have I've been in clubs and babysitters and nannies and I hate to say that, but we aspire to these things sometimes in business. And when you get right down to it, they can be raising your children for you. So from a personal point of view, I have so much gratitude for the labor that has been given to or bestowed upon immigrants in this country and I don't see enough gratitude for what our ancestors who were immigrants have built, how much gratitude we owe the black community, how much we owe immigrants. We are on borrowed time. We are on borrowed land. We need to turn our perspectives around and maybe look at the strengths that we have built as a country and Give back, be appreciative, and tune into actual feelings you might have for people in your lives who are immigrants. It's a very personal thing. I worked in mental health my whole life and worked with many immigrants. And immigrants tend to struggle a lot, and they struggle more these days than they used to, I think. I don't know. But anyway, please use the powers that you have through our privilege in this country to follow the laws and fight for freedom. And thank you for your work.

Thank you.

I came back.

Welcome, Yvette.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, council members. At first, I want to thank you for money well spent. This month of August, I participated and gone to the Big Day of Play, Seed Arts Fest, the Nia Festival, the Marina Beach Grill Off Competition, and mostly the festival on Sunday. which feature as a closing act, more as day and a time. It was just wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. That's very money well spent. I really appreciate that. And also, in that same note, I'm wondering if the Office of the Inspector General was created yet regarding a misuse of funds. And if so, can we expect to see an update? Because that was very disconcerting that how much money was screwed off by people, people with no conscience, stealing taxpayer money and using it incorrectly. And then lastly, I have a handout for you regarding, well, kind of sort of good news. It's regarding this program that was started in Philadelphia called the group violence intervention program. And it's an effort to reduce, to redirect youth from lives of violence by providing counseling, therapy, employment assistance, and help completing high school or enrolling in GED programs. And evidently very successful. So I'd like to see something like that emulated here. And I've also given this information to the Seattle City Council, because I'm sorry for your loss. It's a sad day when more kids get shot. And Marina Beach is particularly prone to kids running around with guns. So I'd like to see something like this, at least think on it, regarding implementing this in King County. And again, I appreciate the work you guys do. Thank you.

Thank you, Yvette. You can hand that to our clerk and we'll get a copy of it. Thank you so much. Do we have folks signed up? I think that was the last person in person. Is that right? Can we go to online, please?

The first name for online comment is H. Brown.

The proposed Petrovitsky Park disc golf course project will be harmful to the environment and should be halted. This is a professional opinion based on my PhD in soil management and many years of natural resource stewardship. I authored the book caring for land trust properties for the land trust alliance. If parks cared more about the natural area in park. They would protect this forest home for animals ranging from black bears to hummingbirds. The county issued a checklist. that has numerous errors and the project does not comply with Kane County regulations relating to soil erosion, steep slope hazards, grading, and wildlife habitat networks. My first concern is that parks is circumventing the requirements spelled out in a letter from permitting that lists the actions required if a project disturbs more than 7,000 square feet. The Northwest Disc Golf Association plan estimated the area to be cleared at 121,807 square feet. The second issue is the presence of a wildlife habitat network identified in the critical area assessment by counties consulting firm ESA. Bears, cougars, coyotes, beavers, and otters Travel through this park, but the checklist dismissed the importance of the corridor, which is regulated by King county code. These 2 issues are just a few of the many problems created by this project.

I need you to wrap up.

My hope is that the council will terminate the project because of its shortcomings. At a minimum, it should comply with all of the regulations detailed in my written remarks. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you.

The next name on the list is Caleb Navar.

Hello, my name is Caleb Navar. Good afternoon, council members. I'm the vice president of the nonprofit for Northwest Disc Golf Association. I'm here this afternoon to thank the King County Parks for their willingness to be able to partner with us to install a disc golf course at the Petrovsky Park. As a longtime resident of Renton, I've spent over 35 years using Petrovsky Park from playing baseball as a child to taking my kids as adults to the play area. I deeply appreciate the county's continued investment and enhancement of this park. We have been working with King County Parks on this project for over four years and grateful for their support and vast majority of the community members who also support this. We have already spent lots of time and effort to be able to address the concerns of the community and have gone through all the different regulatory requirements that are necessary to be able to stay within the bounds of the law and be respectful of our environmental regulatory and native sites that are important to be able to ensure that we are being respectful and useful of this land and property. We are so grateful for this opportunity to be able to partner with the parks and the support of the council as well. We acknowledge that we have a small majority or minority of neighbors who are not in support of this course, due mainly to their unwillingness to share their space. the park space near their homes. We want to ensure you that we've been taking all the steps that we can with the King County Parks to be able to address these concerns. If you'd like to hear more factual information about this project, you can visit our Petrovsky Disc Golf Course project website through King County Parks and our website about this course. Thank you so much for your time and your dedicated service and continued support of King County Parks.

The next name on the list is Brandy.

I have been an active Fairwood resident for 13 years where I have served our community as an RN at Valley Medical Center. I have three children in the Kent School District and I'm president of the Trubisky Park HOA. I'm here to express my sincere disappointment and frustration with the process King County Parks has used to advance an unfavorable disc golf course at Petrovici Park. In addition to speaking today, I have submitted thorough documentation and evidence of my concerns. We learned about this project incidentally in 2024, despite being the neighboring HOA already identified as a project concern. We immediately met with parks where both Trubisky Park and Woodside HOAs expressed substantial opposition. We were repeatedly assured it's early and you'll have a chance to weigh in as stakeholders. Then in May, we were blindsided with a finalized design that disregarded every single concern we brought forward at the meetings. No opportunity to weigh in on the design as promised, and the project had expanded from 18 to 27 holes for an even bigger negative footprint. Flying discs will be approximately 50 feet from neighboring homes and 20 feet from the existing trail, despite being able to travel hundreds of feet. When we requested greater setbacks, project manager Charlie Holbein responded with a factually inaccurate code citation, telling us the course could be just five feet from our property lines, as though we should be grateful for what we got. This is just one example of the dismissive disrespect we've experienced from parks. Rather than being treated as residents who live here, know this park, and deserve a meaningful voice in what happens in our own backyard. I expect more from King County, and this does not reflect the standards King County claims to uphold. We are still waiting on outstanding public records requests from June. I reached out to leadership on multiple occasions. Our concerns continue to be sent back to the very people in charge of the project we're complaining about or ignored entirely. We have lost faith in this process, and we are dangerously close to losing faith in King County's ability to hold its own departments accountable. The 740 and growing signatures opposing this project should tell you that this loss of trust extends far beyond me. I'm asking you to halt this project and withdraw the current proposal. Listen to the actual community before our park is permanently changed and your Fairwood residents rally against you.

Thank you. Next name on the list is Joe Kunstler.

Hi, thanks. It's Joe Kutzler here for the monthly open mic time. This month I want to address several issues. First off is the situation around the Seattle Public Libraries. I understand there's a lot of open drug use down there. I've seen Jonathan Cho's videos as well as stuff from WeHeartSeattle, so you may want to send some King County Public Health inspectors. Over to the Seattle Public Libraries, make sure there's no open drug use and that the workplace is safe. I just figured I should flag that for your office, especially considering how your audience is so worried about immigration enforcement. Got to keep the public safe. The second thing is moving along. I've asked you to do this before, and I think this week, with some of you looking forward to a great Sound Transit board meeting this Thursday, you need to adopt Sound Transit's public comment rules for King County Council. Alex Zimmerman should not be allowed to come down there and hurl hate as he does almost every single week, like it's a... Like the King County Council is his punching bag. Like he forgets that behind every council member is a family, giving a family member to a service of Martin Luther King County. And Martin Luther King Jr. County deserves much better than drugs and libraries and Alex Zimmerman's hate. And with that, I rest my comments for the month. I want to thank you all for your awesome public service. May God continue to bless America and protect our troops. Thank you.

The next name on the list is James Hutchison.

Uh, the community partnerships and grants, or has a projects web page dedicated entirely to the petrovsky park disc golf course. It can play it claims that 78% support the disc golf project and survey results indicate strong support among park neighbors. This is based on a 2024 survey that asks. If King county parks were to build a new back country style disc golf course at petrovsky park, I would. That's it. No map, no design, no picture of what it would look like. What does backcountry mean? Where will it go? Is the park bigger than we thought? We emailed Parks and Rec and Reagan Dunn's office and told them the survey was biased. It targeted disc golfers and had no measures to prevent ballot stuffing. We have evidence NWDGA shared this across their network. CPG spent 15 hours conducting their survey. Those 15 hours were spent trying to sell people on the project. Fast forward nearly two years later, that is still the only survey CPG has done for this project. Of the over 400 hours I've spent defending this project, this past week and a half, I spent over 80 going door to door, dropping off per household access codes to an informed survey that provides both sides of the argument. The survey spans eight neighborhoods and consists of responses from over 365 households and 455 individuals. The CPG website claims 78% support the disc golf course. We measured 18%. Let me reiterate what this is. You have a project literally weeks away from breaking ground that only has 18% support from the surrounding communities, while the Parks Department claims a super majority support it. That's a huge, embarrassing difference of 60 percentage points. This should never happen, and it is a scandal. When not sure is excluded, over 80% of votes do not support the course. We have asked Reagan's office to step up and do something about this for two years. Let's do the right thing and put a stop to this farce today. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Chair Barone, I currently have no further hands raised.

Wonderful. Thank you very much. Seeing no further requests for public comment, we will close our public hearing, public comment today.

Thank you to everybody who provided public testimony. We're going to move on with our agenda, colleagues. As a reminder, we're going to Item 7. As a reminder, this item will remain in the Local Services and Land Use Committee until the committee has taken action. It will then be placed on the council agenda for action, but I'm going to call on Councilmember Fain to speak on this item.

Thank you, Chair. This proposed ordinance would effectively move the King County Fire Protection District number 24 towards dissolution. And last week, this body confirmed two new commissioners for Fire District 24. They're going to be sworn in shortly. I'd like to give them an opportunity to be seated and understand the district's current situation and weigh in on its future. before we move to dissolve that body. So for that reason, I'm asking that we defer this matter.

Thank you very much. I don't think there's any objection to that that I've heard.

So thank you very much, Council Member Fain. Colleagues, we'll continue with our agenda. Vice Chair Dunn, will you please move the consent agenda item eight?

Move consent agenda item eight for approval.

Thank you very much. That motion is before us. Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Thank you. Council Member Valducci? Council Member Dembowski? Council Member Dunn? Aye. Council Member Fain? Aye. Council Member Lewis? Aye. Council Member Mosqueda? Aye. Council Member Perry? Aye. Council Member Reichbauer? Aye. Council Member Van Rykbare?

Aye.

Chair Perot?

Aye.

The vote is seven ayes, zero noes. And Council Members Balducci and Perry excused.

Thank you very much. By our vote, we have adopted proposed motion 20-26-0178. Next, we'll move to our reappointment consent agenda, items 9 through 11. Vice Chair Dunn, would you move the reappointment consent agenda, items 9 through 11?

Move the reappointment consent agenda, items 9 through 11, for approval.

Thank you. Clerk, would you please call the roll on the consent agenda?

Council Member Valducci. Council Member Domboski. Council Member Dunn.

Aye.

Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda. Aye. Council Member Perry. Council Member Von Reichbauer. Aye. Chair Padon.

Aye.

The vote is seven ayes, and Council Members Balducci and Perry excused.

Thank you very much by our vote. We have adopted proposed motions 2026-0208, 0210, and 0211. 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, and re-referral of ordinances and motions, items 12 through 19 as listed. Before we adjourn, I want to give Council Member Dembowski an opportunity.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. This morning, I think many of us became aware of the passing of a national icon and a personal hero of mine from Sevierville, Tennessee, Dolly Parton. From a young childhood in Renton, watching on my dad's nine-inch black and white television. I always loved the Dolly Parton show, and her song, A Coat of Many Colors, spoke to me as someone whose clothes came more often from the Goodwill and Salvation Army. although sometimes on a good day, the Kmart, but she rose from poverty to really an advocate for all of the best of America. She was a champion for our LGBTQ communities and Really just lifted people up. Loved her songs, 9 to 5, Coat of Many Colors, Jolene, of course. Do I ever cross your mind? And had the privilege to see her years ago in concert down at Kent at the beautiful Show Wear Arena. In our state, she was a great champion for reading. She founded the Imagination Library in Tennessee, and it spread around the country, providing a monthly free book to children, millions of them, because she saw that her father couldn't read and all that that meant in his life. So I appreciate the opportunity to just reflect here a little bit on the passing of this American icon, great feminist leader, and a great leader for our country. And we're privileged to have been able to spend some time with her as a country. And thanks for letting me say a few words.

Thank you very much, Councillor Domeski. The chair has received the request to adjourn the August 25th, 2026 council meeting in memory of Tashawn Bennett Myers. And I'm going to call on Council Member Fain and then later Council Member Lewis as well. Council Member Fain.

Thank you so much, Chair. Today we are adjourning our meeting in memory of Tashawn R. Bennett Myers, who was lost to a tragic act of gun violence in SeaTac on July 27th, 2021. I want to recognize not only Tashawn, but also the large and loving family who continues to carry his loss. Tashawn was a father of eight, a son, a brother, a cousin, and a friend. His absence has left an immeasurable hole in the lives of those who loved him. Today we honor Tashawn's life and the memories his family continues to carry. I especially want to recognize the members of his family who have joined us here today, including his mother, Dion Bennett, and his stepfather, Jamala Myers, and thank them both for joining us today, as well as other family members and friends. Tashawn was loved, he was needed, and his life mattered. I hope this moment makes clear to his family that Tashawn is remembered and that the love that they shared with him continues to matter today and always. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Fain. Council Member Lewis.

Thank you, Chair. ADMEND OR NOT ADMEND, BUT ADD ON TO OR PIGGYBACK ON THE COMMENTS FROM COUNCIL MEMBER FAIN. I WANT TO FIRST EXPRESS MY CONDOLENCES TO THE BENNETT-MYERS FAMILY. Not only have the family members been long-time District 2 residents, but one of Tashawn's family members was my son's kindergarten teacher. The loss of Tashawn, in addition to being a loss to his family, it was a blow to our community. The bright light of a life that is engaged and involved in community is a blessing to all. Too many of our bright lights have been extinguished by gun violence. The passage of time has amplified the need for us to be vigilant with regard to gun violence prevention. One of my friends, Annie Lee, the former director of Team Child, used to say at every meeting that I attended with her, what opportunities have we given for children to succeed? What are we giving to them in terms of a legacy and How do we pay the debt to future generations of doing more to stop these gun violence incidents? Thank you very much.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis and Council Member Fain. Seeing no further business, this meeting of the King County Council is adjourned in memory of Tashaun R. Bennett Myers.