City Council - Regular Meeting

Well, good evening. It's uh 6:00 on uh Tuesday, April 28th, and I'm call this Lacy City Council works session to order. Uh, council member Greenstein is attending remotely, but all other council is present. Um, I also want to acknowledge that we, the city of Lacy, are on the ancest ancestral land of the tribal people, the Treaty of Medicine Creek, including the Nquali Indian tribe and the Squaxinian tribe. That can I get a motion to approve this evening's agenda? Move to approve the agenda as published. Second. It's

been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of that motion signify by saying I. I.

Is there anyone opposed? Then that motion unanimously carries. And we have an agenda for this evening. Uh first up on our agenda is public comment. So we didn't have anyone uh sign up uh pre-register for Zoom. Um I didn't receive anything um here, but is there anyone wishing to address the council this evening? Seeing none, then we'll go right into our next agenda item, which is the proclamation for child abuse prevention month. And people might be saying, why are we doing a proclamation in a work session? Well, um this was normally scheduled for last week um that but we had a joint work session last week which took up our meeting and so we wanted to make sure that we were able to get uh this proclamation in uh by the end of the year and then also we had um some the later on you'll see some budget amendment amendments that we also wanted to get to as well. So that's uh why a couple reasons oh along with the opioid settlement. So

that's just a briefing tonight. Yeah, that's along with the opiates element. So that's why uh you're seeing some unusual things in the work session. But with that, can we get get started with council members? City of Lacy official proclamation. Whereas the city of Lacy recognizes our future rests in the hands of our most vulnerable and cherished assets, our children. And whereas all children deserve to live in safe, stable, and nurturing environments, which promote their healthy growth and development. And

whereas child abuse, neglect, and other trauma are recognized as serious public health problems affecting both the current and future quality of life in our community. And whereas it is the responsibility of our community to ensure parents, caregivers, and other adults who influence the health and well-being of children have the support, knowledge, and concrete resources necessary to ensure that these children thrive to their greatest potential. And

whereas effective child abuse prevention strategies succeed because of partnerships among agencies, schools, religious organizations, law enforcement agencies, healthc care providers, and the business community. And whereas we as city of Lacy residents continue our commitment to protect all members of our community and call upon everyone to join together to increase public safety and prevent further abuse and neglect of our children. Now therefore, I, Andy Ryder, mayor of the city of Lacy, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 as child abuse prevention month in the city of Lacy. And I encourage all community members to increase their participation in efforts to support families, thereby preventing child abuse and strengthening the community in which we lived. Signed by myself, Mayor Andy Ryder. on this day. If uh come up and uh want to say a few words and then Hello, Shelley Willis, executive director of family education and support services. And I'd like to invite one of our board members, Jill, up here to say a few words first. J,

thank you for having us. I just would like to say that um we've been going around and doing this with other uh jurisdictions and in every jurisdiction that we have visited I could find something on their agenda for that meeting that was connected to the prevention of child abuse and neglect and in yours tonight obviously it's opioids. Um people call those deaths deaths of despair and one of the major causes of despair is abuse and neglect as children. Another agenda item on many uh city and municipal agendas is housing. And I would cite I I realize that the major source of problems with housing and homelessness is lack of of affordable housing, but child abuse and neglect is another underestimated cause of people growing up to be homeless. And we that my experience in volunteering at Coyote Village made that so clear to me. So clear. There were never um homeless people. Well, there were not ever. There were very very few homeless people who had not suffered from severe abuse and neglect as children. So this is when you prevent child abuse and neglect, you prevent so much more. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Jill. Uh the pin wheel represents something every child deserves, a safe and healthy childhood. It's a powerful message and it takes an entire community to raise healthy kids. We know it is far less expensive to raise healthy kids than to go back and try to fix uh traumatized adults. We're really happy to see see our colleagues the YMCA here because the more we can intervene and provide pro-social positive activities in the community, the better off our kids will be. Glad to see you're supporting their efforts and thank you for thinking about the welfare of kids. We've left you. We'll leave you some pin wheels so you can help us continue to spread the message and thank you.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

Thank you so much. Thank you. So, uh, next up on our agenda is the, uh, six remnant defense defendant national opioid settlement. Turn it over today. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, deputy mayor, council members. Uh, good evening. I'm here for likely the last time with an opioid settlement. Um, as council is well aware, there's been four recent or previous settlements with the related to opioid litigation that the city's elected to be uh participant in. This is yet another one. It's a new national opioid settlement that contains um and is a settlement with six what are known as the remnant defendants, the last um distributorsarmacies um that have been involved in the litigation. Lacy is a non-litigating subdivision but is an eligible subdivision nonetheless. Um it's important to note that the this is not a settlement that involves the state of Washington. Therefore, the one Washington memorandum of understanding um that the city's a party of is not going to be applicable here. Um the settlement funds that come in which will be small relative to the other settlements um are still need to be used for opioid remediation but the city will have its own discretion and perhaps the city's going to choose if it does participate to pool them with other funds but perhaps not. In any event, they're going to need to be utilized for opioid remediation. Um participation does require the city to enter into participation agreements by May 4th, which is next week. Um, we are asking that this council authorize the city manager to enter into and sign any and all necessary documents uh so that the city of Lazy can participate.

Any questions? Is this in addition to the other funds that we've already discussed? Yeah. Okay. And you can see it's a if you look at the the six defendants, uh I don't think any of them operate necessarily in the state of Washington, do they? So not that I'm aware of.

Yeah. And so that's probably why our, you know, uh our settlement value is considerably considerably lower. It looks like a little over $5,000. I mean, uh, that's obviously we should, uh, enter into this agreement and, um, you know, put those funds to, uh, to use, but, uh, you can see it's not like past settlements where, um, it's a bigger dollar amount. But, um, I would recommend that we authorize, uh, the city manager to execute all documents necessary for the city to participate in settlements with the remnant defendants. I would second. Second. Uh is that a motion? M Yeah, mo motion and a second. Uh now we're on to discussion. Go ahead council.

Yeah, I have a question. So with the settlement agreement or the participants agreement, does that mean that um these companies cannot engage in bad behavior in the future? Are there some guard rails? Well, they certainly shouldn't. They shouldn't, but they're so of course any defendant can

not going to be they're still going to take their own action. Certainly the hope would be that these defendants, all these defendants have taken steps to avoid um continuing the same actions that led them here. What this is going to do though, it it will I mean it'll the city will receive all the cities that participate will receive um their fair share of the settlement funds. Um, the city will collectively be releasing these defendants from any future claims, any claims up to this point. Any act they took in the future could certainly be um, you know, contested or litigated against, but we'd be releasing them for all claims up to this point.

Thank you. Is there any other discussion? So is it implied that uh we as a city can't take any further action against these defendants if we enter into this agreement that's correct and it's up to this date it's not realistic that the city would be litigating on its own behalf. Yeah. Any other discussion then it's been uh moved and seconded to authorize the city manager to execute all documents necessary for the city to participate in settlements with the remnant defendants. All in favor of the uh motion signify by wait. All in favor of that motion say I. I. I. Is there anyone opposed?

Then that motion unanimously carries. Thanks. So next up on our agenda is the YMCA facility update. Somebody can come up. Yeah.

Is it just on? I got to hit it. If I want to talk.

Well, thanks everybody for having us here today. We're super excited. I've talked to many of you and uh I think we'll introduce people as they start talking and when you ask questions. So first of all I want to say thanks uh for having us and also for the proclamation about protect protecting children that is very important obviously to us and our they left but our partners. Um I'm stoked to be here. I' like I said I've talked to you. We've we've talked about the possibility. I I got here I think 10 years ago. Uh met with the mayor right when I got here talking about the the idea of a YMCA in Lacy. We've been talking about it probably 17 years or even longer than that. Uh trying to solve for the lack of recreational infrastructure for families. Lacy is obviously still growing and people are begging for space. They're begging for aquatic space. They're begging for uh indoor gym space and indoor recreation space, um intergenerational space where people can come together. Obviously, uh, our pools are full, pools are closing. We need to do something about it. And so, we've been we've learned a lot of different lessons over the last, I don't know, 10 years or so that we've been here. And when we built the Shelton YMCA, we understood that the Y, what's that?

Oh, nothing. I was saying bless you.

Oh, I didn't hear some mistakes, but bless you. Um, when we built in the when we built the Shelton Y, we realized one big lesson and that was that we can't do it alone. Cities can't do it alone. Businesses aren't going to do it alone. We have to come together to try to figure out how do we have the answer to all the different uh recreational needs that people have. And so really, it's all about collaboration. And you are a massive player in that quest for collaboration. So today, um, I have Sarah Clinton here, uh, Dr. Dr. Kelly Golob and Jake Greater from the YMCA. We'll go through the slides here in a second, but I just wanted to re-emphasize the need. So, the Briggs YMCA, which you might know, is uh located on YM Highway, we have about 1300 kids a month in swim lessons. That pool is full. In the Shelton Y, we do about the same, maybe half that,

about 200 kids a month.

200 kids a month. So we are full in the aquatic space. We need to build more pools. We have gym space. Like we have waiting list upon waiting list upon waiting list of kids to play volleyball, basketball and anything that would require a court and it's not and and people are moving you know to Lacy in droves as you all know. One of the things that we did in uh 2025, Sarah Clinton, who works in our as our executive of advancement, she started meeting with uh community leaders and prospective donors uh in the Lacy community and overwhelmingly they are supporting this project. They want this to get built. Uh and some of the we'll get to the honorary committee here in a second. So we build these thing you know part of the process as we move through is that we try to figure out like who is supporting the project and that and we've created this honorary committee which we'll show you here in a second but I don't want you to get caught up in the pretty pictures that I'm about to show. Uh and I'll give you just a a couple things. One of the things about the Shelton YMCA that was two lessons learned. One was the collaboration thing that I already talked about and then the second thing was you really need to have a utilitarian construction process. So the thing that gets built has to actually work for families. It has to work for intergenerational people to come together at the same time. It has to work for kids. It has to work all the time because it's such a a huge endeavor. And if you go to the Shelton Y after school right now on any given day, it is full of kids. And I don't know if some of you may um not know this, but the the critical part of that

collaboration was the city of Shelton. If the city of Shelton doesn't come as a major collaborator and partner, that Y never gets built. The second huge partner was the school district. The Shelton YMCA, if you don't know, is constructed essentially on the campus of Oakland Bay Junior High and Shelton High School. And so between the three little we share a parking lot and that was huge. That allowed us to build even more of a building than what would typically get built. So all of those things came together. Then another interesting thing came together is this concept of new market tax credits. Lacy, this project does not qualify for that thing. But here's the nature of collaboration in a city that was begging for a YMCA or a community center is I went to the uh Mason General Hospital and I went to work pack mountain workforce uh development and this is in 2018. So, two years before the YMCA is actually built. And I said, in order to qualify for this level of funding that we need from new market tax credits, I need you to commit to being having space in this building to pay fair market rent in this building. And they all said yes. And they had no idea what the programming was going to be. No idea. Two years down the road, then we build the Y and CO happens. So, we open a grand opening for a YMCA with 50 people and it struggles for a while and now it's full and those same partners are still there and now we have a wick office again. The hospital had no idea what they were going to do. So, the lesson learned around collaboration was that everyone was in because they knew how important the project was. So, uh that that was the other thing. The other thing kind of funny thing that we learned is that there's not enough outlets to charge all the phones that come into the building at this point

with all the kids. So that that was another lesson learned. Uh the last thing that I'll share before I turn it over to Dr. Golob is really what's the process? What's the timeline? So what happens when you get into a a capital campaign is there sometimes there's a quiet phase. Obviously after tonight it's not going to be super quiet because there's reporters here and they're going to talk about it. And then when we bought the piece of property at 3,300 Marvin Road, obviously that was a public event so people know about it. But generally what happens is you take, you know, some amount of months to really understand from people that have capacity to give whether or not this project, you know, fits what it is that they want to give to. Early indications are that this is a strong project. We're excited about the 70 to 90 people that we've met with so far. Um, but it will take a lot of of people to make this happen. So, I this is why we're starting with you here first is really how important that is. Um, I'll I'll give you just a really quick thing here. Um, do I just hit that middle bit?

Yep.

Uh, I talked about this. So, thriving wise, you know, it's it's a two-part process to build a Y. You have to raise the capital dollars to build the thing and then you it needs to be able to sustain itself. We'll get some more data for you about that now, but we're pretty comfortable around, you know, what the optimal size is, which I'll show you in a second. Central location. We thought we'd be priced out of Hawk Prairie. We were not. We have a great spot. I talked about the utilitarian programming spaces, community co-creation. We've uh worked with um all the data that the city of Lacy has has gone out to public comment and gathered all of that. So we feel like we really understand what it's going to take to build this Y. Here's what it looks like. It's about call it 77 to 80,000 square feet. Could be 75, could be 82. The big part of what this is, if you're familiar with the Briggs YMCA, this is about twice the size of Briggs. And when you look at, we're gonna go twice. Uh, fieldhouse. You got four indoor high school basketball courts. The natiatorum is what the fancy term for where the pool is located and pool tanks are located. And then the rest of the facility is a core facility similar to what the Briggs YMCA looks like. The idea behind the, and Dr. Golab will talk about this when we talk about the fieldhouse. I mean that is another driver of bringing people to the city of Lacy for all kinds of different uh you know restaurants and hotel stays and stuff like that. And I I know I know the city has studied the concept of an indoor sports complex. This is what it might look like from the outside and I stress the idea of might. This is the pool. One cool thing about the pool and what we learned in Shelton, we have a different system than what this looks like in Shelton. And hopefully we're going to move to this this system here, um, this concept of a

dome and it can open. And the one in Shelton does open and it's a game changer when it's nice and in August uh, in Shelton and the cover's kind of off, man, it's a it's a game changer. It's pretty cool. This is our project endorsements or the little thing that I talked about earlier. You can see who's on there. I'll leave that there for now and I'll turn it over to Dr. Golab. I'm Kelly Golib. Uh I'm a chiropractor. I um own Tomwater Chiropractic Center and practice there and we do a lot of sports medicine stuff. And I also run a basketball club, South Roots Academy. Uh we started in 2016 with the mission to make uh youth sports, specifically basketball, more accessible to all kids regardless of their ability to pay or skill level or what school they go to. And a big barrier um I think for youth sports right now is facilities. Um I grew up in this area. I graduated high school in 2001. Um since 2001, this area has grown a lot. Um the amount of kids under the age of 19 has increased by about 30%. um which is an increase of about 17,000 kids since I went to high school. Um the amount of basketball courts that have been built in the last quarter century uh in this area is a net gain of three basketball courts in 25 years with 16 to 17,000 more kids in this area. And that's not even counting adults who also still like to play basketball and need places to play. Um, and so, you know, normally right now I'd be down in Centriia coaching one of my teams. And, um, you know, South Sound Roots, you know, we're just one of many basketball and sports clubs. And we have to have majority of our practices down in Centria because it's the only place we

can get gym space. So 90% of our kids are from Thirsten County. And two nights a week for a large part of the year, they're all driving down and back. I try to carpool and take as many kids in my van as I can, but my minivan only fits so many people. Um, and so, you know, it's a big it's a big barrier. Obviously, it's a cost for the families. Um, it's a cost for time, it's a cost for transportation, and we have the hardest time reaching kids in Lacy, to be honest, because it's further for them. So, most of our kids are tum water. We do have Lacy kids for sure. Um, but, uh, you know, I've been looking at this issue and trying to help make things happen in this area for a long time. when the city did the study back in 20 the two studies in 2019 I was one of the people that the consultants interviewed both times about the need for indoor sports facilities and um you know basically for those I don't know how familiar how much you guys talk about this stuff that was seven years ago now the first study was like is there a need for an indoor sports facility in this area and it looked at Washington Idaho Oregon and mapped out the places where there's big sports facilities and there's this big gap between Portland and Seattle really centria just filled it a little bit with the hub which was a public private partnership.

Um but so the first study said yeah they definitely you guys definitely need it. Um this could be a great location. Lacy specifically could be a great location because you could draw from Tacoma and you could draw south. Uh and then the second part of the study was okay where in Lacy should we put it? What are the economics of the different types of uses and the size? and the consultants went huge and came out with some really big recommendation near Cabela. It's been a while since I've read the actual report. Um, but it's just it costs a lot of money and it's really expensive to and I don't know where that's at or what the what the long-term projection that is, but in the meantime, we just need anything. And so, I was working with a group of investors a couple years ago about building something smaller similar to this. And it just doesn't pencil out for a developer to do it because you sports, you know, it's it's a public benefit and um the costs, you know, we're a non Southtown Roots. We're a nonprofit. We don't have any employees. We're volunteerrun and you know, try to get by where we can. You know, we couldn't pay the rent on a building that a developer would have to build and then charge us that lease even if we're using it 24 hours a day pretty much. It's very difficult. So, um, when Kyle, uh, approached me about this potential project here and he was talking about the size of it and the location and I I was like, "Yes, this anything I can do to help make this happen." Um, and you know, I just think, you know, Lacy has obviously realized the economic benefits from having the rack. This would help. This is going to draw people too. This would allow Lacy to host basketball tournaments and volleyball tournaments. Um, you know, right now there's just not enough gym space to do it and make it logistically possible. Um, let alone the practices and all the other stuff that that kids want to do. So, um, I think that's I don't know. I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to say other than that

it's, you know, there's a huge demand. You could, if when the Y builds this, we're still going to need more facilities. This is not going to satisfy the demand for and the need to get kids off their phones and exercising, playing with other kids in person. Wild concepts that as a as a father of a 13 and 15 year old right now, I'm like, it's just so different, you know? It just really is. We're living in a different time and makes I think facilities like this even more important. So anyway, I Yeah, that's all I guess I have to say.

Thank you for that. And um obviously uh we go back um from when you first started Roots because I had a a daughter who was uh in basketball and participated in you know the 9010 organization and also Roots were you know maybe the first year you you got started. And so, um, the need for indoor facilities is something that I have been championing, uh, really ever since I I got elected. And I was, um, one of the people that was, uh, really pushing on from this council to look into those two studies that that we came up with. Um, and, you know, we we put some money aside. finally uh you know we had enough uh um um support here on this council to to do the studies and and both times we got back information saying we desperately need it and we need it right here in Lacy and so uh I have been working with Kelly I have been working with a Y I've been working with anyone who had talked to me about what how we get this built and uh the first time around is was really one of the big impetus of getting the Metropolan Parks District passed and I appreciate Kelly and all of your help and support for that. Um unfort unfortunately we came up a little short. Uh this past time we thought for sure we were going to go get it over the edge. Uh and we came up a little short too. those were going to be our funding, you know, uh ability to fund uh hopefully an indoor facility or or or more courts because it's desperately needed. So, this is something I've been passionate for a long time. Now, my daughter's gone through the whole system. Now, she's about ready to

graduate from college, which is hard hard to believe, but we still need the space. And as has been pointed out, um, we'll still need even more space, you know, when this gets built. And this will get built. I am confident this will get built. Go ahead.

Say one more thing. You know, my kids are they're going to be aged out before anything's built. And to me, this this is a public health issue. Um, but I think one of the reasons that makes this possibility maybe the most realistic thing that I've seen in 10 years is the fact that it's got an ongoing source of operating budget to sustain the operations that doesn't rely just on renting it to teams and tournaments. It's got the YMCA's, you know, the fitness club, you know, like the Briggs National brand.

Yeah. brand, but also just the other business use that helps sustain the operations, which I think is really important. When when I was looking at doing something smaller, that's what we were trying to do is, okay, what other businesses fit with sports stuff that could kind of subsidize subsidize the rent a little bit, but nothing probably could be better than the YMCA with, you know, the, you know, the gym business. And what what's amazing about the YMCA is just like your program where you don't turn anyone away, the YMCA doesn't turn anyone away either. So if you're a kid and uh you want to go to YMCA, you can go to YMCA. And so this really is a a you know, one of the perfect public private partnerships and uh you know, something we've been hoping for, you know, really ever since I've been on this council, you know, 17 years. And so it's, you know, when I found out that, uh, you know, we've been talking, discussing, we've been looking, you know, there are several different locations and we're keeping our fingers crossed. And then when I heard the why purchased that property, it was just like, you know, it it was almost like it was felt like a miracle come true because we've been, you know, hoping for this day for for such a long time. And so, uh, I just, you know, want to thank Kyle. I want to thank the Y. I want to thank Kelly. I want to thank everyone who's been supporting the city of Lacy recreation for, you know, really since I've been in office. Uh we've had a lot of volunteer hours who've been supporting the idea of we need more indoor facility space. Anyone who has kids now, they need a place to go. It rains as we know uh nine months out of the year, you know, and and we have to have a place for them to go and practice. And I was one of those parents that was driving down to Centriia uh to take my kid because uh I wanted her to participate in team sports and be active

and everything that uh you know all everything it has given her um which has been a lot you know and so we need to be able to provide that for for more kids here in our community and we've been searching for this model and it's finally right in front of us. So, uh, council member,

um, well, yeah, obviously as a gym owner, I'm supposed to be totally against this. So, let me just throw that out there, but I'm not. And I I maybe surprised Kyle when we get a chance to talk, uh, about that because I'm actually really excited about it because every day firsthand, I get calls asking for services that I know that I can't provide and this provides that. And I said, this is what the community needs. Um, so I I'm really uh excited for it. I'm also um in touch with a lot of the basketball coaches and I hear all the time about the biggest limiting factor they have is the ability to get on court especially during the offseason. Um and I think it hurts our community and um anything that I can do to help out and make this happen and uh I'm I'm I'm on board and uh any advice along the way about that lace community I'm I'm totally supportive of. So I I I hope you guys can move quickly.

Thank you, Council Member Um yeah, let me thank you again for um meeting with me uh yesterday to talk a little bit about uh this this um concept and I do like the idea of having some indoor recreation for people across the lifespan. I think that's great. I I do have several questions from an equity standpoint. How do you support people who can't afford a membership? And if you have scholarships, will it cover all kids and and all people who can't afford it? Uh yes. So we raise so annually we raise money to support anybody that needs scholarships. We give away what 985,000 a year give or take. But at the end of the day if somebody needs a membership at the Y and they can't afford or even a program even if it was just basketball or swim lessons or child care we're not turning people away. So we just don't collect the fee at that point. It's just 100% scholarship.

Can I add to that? Okay. My name is Sarah. Um, we also work uh with partners. So, we work with the state, for example, with for our child care programs with DCYF to to make sure that families are getting the support they need through through that program. We have community partners. So, there's some instances where um we can't for one reason or another offer a full scholarship and we have community partners that will step in and do that with us. So, we partner with a variety of groups, both state and local and nonprofits, um, to really make sure that that kids and families have access. Okay. So, it's not just a slogan. You really don't turn anybody away. That's great.

Thank you. Definitely not definitely not a slogan. Is there anything else you want to add to this? Uh, I guess

Yeah, just real quick. Um indoor activity space in Thirsten County is fairly non-existent. Uh definitely at a premium. Um as a you know father who put two kids through Lacy's schools um Kamachin uh Timberline and so on. Um it was it was always an issue. Uh you know are you going to play sports? You're not going to play sports. Is there room for you on the team? Well is there gym space? Uh came down to always gym space. Uh and and it was always one of those things where it's like, okay, well then we can go to another jurisdiction, right? And I understand that it doesn't pencil for jurisdictions to do something like this. You know, we've looked at the studies. We've worked on them. We've sat there and tried tried tried tried to make it pencil and and often times it just doesn't like um you know, community space can be costheavy for a jurisdiction uh and oftentimes runs at a deficit. I don't know of many community spaces that don't run at a deficit uh in in this community uh or others. So, so you know, even though it doesn't pencil for a jurisdiction, it doesn't pencil for a developer, you guys have a model that is sometimes hard to find, sometimes hard to get into a community. Uh, but I'm glad you guys persevered and and found something here that you could afford, something here that that you could make pencil and something here that you could use to make a change for this community because I know there are, like you said before, to your point, people would come from north, people would come from south to just be a part of it. Uh, and it just so happens to be less than a mile from my house. So, um, I am I am a full supporter of what you guys are trying to do. So, just wanted to make sure that that's on the record. you know, we're we're a unique um community. Obviously, we're we're a military community. We have a lot of military families come in. Um and so there's a a unique aspect to

that to support, you know, military families. Um and uh we've been a growing community for such a long time that it's already been stated we just haven't be able to keep up with with the growth that's been out there. And it's it's really hard because you know as an elected official when you when you see a massive issue like this and um all you want to do is try to figure out how to fill the gap, right? And I've been trying. I've been trying. I've been trying. I've been trying. Um, you know, even had support from, you know, the council and we just haven't been able to get there because we haven't been able to find an ongoing funding mechanism to fill that gap. Um, because we know it's, you know, a lot of them do operate at a deficit. And so, I so appreciate the the why stepping up. there's still going to be a huge gap. And so that's why how this is why it's so important that this project gets built and gets built as soon as possible because we're not filling the gap. We're not it's not even close. Um you know, we'll need, you know, three times, four times the amount of this and it would still probably be booked all the time. And so, but without this, we are are putting our kids, you know, um, on the street, you know, and and not in a good place. And and that breaks my heart when all we want to do is is try to solve that issue. And the fact that we haven't been able to do it at all after all these years has been, I think, uh, one of the things that has ate at me the most as elected official. It's like you can see the problem, you know what the answer is and just you and you can't get there. It's it's so frustrating. Um and so again, thank you.

Why um I will do whatever I can uh to support you guys. Um you know, I know there are so many people in our community uh who would love to give to a project that would help build and strengthen our community, and that's exactly what this will do. Um, it will strengthen families, it will strengthen kids. Um, and so there's a lot of people out there who um who care about our community, care about Lacy, and I I think you'll be uh pleasantly surprised of how many people are going to step up um to support such an endeavor. So, go ahead. I I have to ask I I want to to see this uh project be successful, but we're talking about raising a lot of money. Have you considered a feasibility study or have you already done that?

Yeah, we've so we've done two different uh studies. We did a study a while ago about feasibility. Sarah like in 2025 has been talking to uh people that we think have capacity to give and there seems to be project alignment with you know people's capacity to give. So we feel pretty good about that and we're doing we're getting some more numbers. So there's two different feasibility studies. There's one can you raise the money the other one is once you build it can you sustain it and we're getting more of that data. We've run some really conservative numbers to say that if we had the current Briggs membership then this facility would be sustainable and we think we would surpass that based on the current demographics that we're seeing but we'll get more data on Thursday. So that so I can get back to you later with more data.

Thank you. Yep. Anything else? Any parting words? Go ahead. I just want to say yay.

Yay. That's exactly right. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, it sounds like you have uh the full support of this council, which I was not going to be surp, you know, not surprised at all. Like I said, this is uh something that's been an issue that we've been trying to solve for a very long time. And we've been looking for the right partners and uh you know, between North Public Schools and and what they're doing with their new family center and and that is a much needed and I know they've they're looking at indoor space they need as well. So, we know there's we know there's additional need out there that they would love to figure out and and and so um yeah, let's just keep going and and uh I know we'll get there together.

Fantastic. Thank you everybody. Thank you guys.

So, next up on our agenda is our public art donation policy briefing. Well, good evening, mayor and deputy mayors. I know I'm I'm not listed here on the agenda, but I did want to take this uh special occasion to introduce uh a new face here, and that is Chanel Pierce, who is our new special project administrator in the city manager's office. We're very excited to have Chanel join us. Chanel comes um from almost 20 years of experience in the state and what I will say is she's taken local government in stride and picked this up really quickly. We've thrown a lot at her in a very short period of time including public art um and public art donations. Um I'm also really excited because she's going to be taking on a lot of um citywide initiatives. So you're going to be seeing her uh around council meetings here a lot in the near future taking on special projects as they come up. um some of our our process improvement projects and working with uh internal and external um stakeholders on a number of key initiatives here in the city manager's office. Um and finally, I'm really excited that we also have another husky in the city manager's office.

Um and so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Chanel once again. We're very excited to have her.

Thank you so much, Shannon, for the warm welcome and thanks for the opportunity to be here tonight. Before I jump in about the new donation policy, I want to refresh our memories about our current public art policy. As you know, our public art policy is part of the council city council policies and procedures manual. And you also know that you all regularly update that manual, including updates to the public art section. The policy offers guidance on selecting and installing art and lists objectives and themes. Public art must fulfill one or more of the objectives and one or more of the themes. In section one of the policy, the list of objectives includes items such as B, create a sense of community identity and character or C, reflect Lacy's history, heritage, community values, and culture. In section two of the current policy, the list of themes includes themes such as the natural beauty of the city as reflected in its lakes and trees or D, Northwest artifacts, symbols, signs, including Native American art. And then in section three of the current policy, it specifies locations where art should be placed to complement the surroundings. And the final part of the policy outlines procedures for city staff and the city council to follow. So, one thing the current policy doesn't have is what to do if the city receives an art donation. We've recently had some community organizations show interest in donating objects such as statues and monuments and this revealed a gap and led to the creation of this new policy. The new policy was developed through research including uh donation policies from other municipal governments. I want to highlight a couple definitions of terms that are frequently used in the policy. The policy defines public art as an original object by an artist that is

publicly visible on a city-owned or managed site and intended to enhance the environment for community members. It defines object as an original work of art in various media including but not limited to any portable or fixed sculpture, monument, mural, painting, drawing, earth work, mixed media work or timebased work created by a professional artist or collaborative team. to avoid any type of conflict with other internal city policies such as the enhancements program policy on parks benches or policies about the naming of public facilities and memorial roadways and exclusion section has been included at the beginning of the policy to act as a disclaimer. So the process at a high level if a person or organization is interested in donating an object to the city is first they submit an application. Next, the city manager's office acknowledges receipt of that application and conducts an initial review to verify that everything's complete and it meets the criteria. Then the city manager's office will forward it to the relevant departments for internal preliminary internal technical reviews. After these reviews, the city manager makes the final decision on donations of $7,500 or less. For donations of over $7,500, the city manager's office will have an arts committee review the proposal. Then the city manager's office will present the findings from the internal technical reviews and the arts committee to you, the city council, for a final decision. If you as the city council approve, then the donor and city will enter into a memorandum of agreement. So that's the process at a high level. I want to highlight a step in the process where the city council makes a decision and I want to take a look at the exact wording from the policy with you. So it says for donations of 7500 or less, the city manager shall make the

final decision. The city manager may seek recommendations and input from an advisory board before making that decision and may bring it to the city council for final approval. For donations of over $7,500, the city manager's office will seek review by an art committee. If no art committee is in place, an advisory board designated by the city manager's office will review the proposal and provide a recommendation. Additional reviews by other advisor boards may be also required. The city manager's office will then present its findings, recommendations, and input from the advisory boards and the community to the city council for a final decision. And I just want to note, we chose 7500 as the threshold because it aligns with the city's purchasing policies which require Whitner quotes for purchases of over $7,500. Donations must meet specific criteria. The criteria uh included that the object must be given with a clear title, be an original work of art, the city won't accept copies or reproductions, reflect community values, be free of advertising or promotional content, be given without any contingencies or obligations, and the object must be suitable for city purposes. The city is considering these attributes when reviewing donation proposals. The city is looking for artistic excellence. Objects that are in good condition, objects that are durable, objects that are created by local artists, objects with reasonable maintenance requirements, objects that are safe for human interaction, and objects that are appropriate for the selected site. The very last part of the policy includes a section on maintenance responsibilities. Donors must either contribute to a maintenance endowment fund, which the city uses to maintain the object, or on

a case-byase basis, the city and the donor may agree that the donor does the ongoing maintenance themselves, but they must do it to city standards. Just a bit of context here. Before presenting this draft policy to any advisory board, we sat down with the Lacy Historical Society on a very early draft. One outcome of that meeting was an improvement to the second maintenance option. The option involves an agreement where the donor does the ongoing maintenance themselves. It also includes one year's worth of maintenance funds in case problems arise later. We discussed this with the Lacy Historical Society, how it helps reduce the city's long-term financial risks should a donor suddenly and unexpectedly stop doing the ongoing maintenance. And the Lacy Historical Society seemed to understand these points um and seem to be open to them. I also want to note that art donations can vary widely. They might be a small $50 object like this teamwork print that hangs in the city council conference room or they might be a large object such as a gold star memorial civic plaza. So because of these differences, it's just one more reason why the donor and city enter into that memorandum of agreement. So we can clearly define and agree on what reasonable ongoing maintenance means for any particular object being donated. The screen shows a list of the steps that we took to review the policy. Each advisory board did recommend adopting the policy. The first advisory board to review it was the Commission on Equity on March 23rd. They voted to recommend adoption, but they wanted to see one change. They wanted to add language that allows an object to be returned to the donor if the city decides to remove it for any reason at any point in the future. So, one way to do that is to add a checkbox to the application form that says something along the lines of, "I'm interested in having this object

returned to me if the city decides to remove it." as well as to include clauses in the donation agreement outlining the conditions for returning the object. In the version of the policy you have in your agenda packet, that change is in red track changes so it's it's clear for you there. And then on April 1st, the parks, culture, and recreation board reviewed the policy. The discussion center around clarifying questions, including one about the board versus the department's roles in the process, and the parks board voted to recommend adopting the policy. The historical commission reviewed it also on April 15th, and they recommended adoption. They had a few clarifying questions such as why for donations under $7,500, the city manager has the option rather than the requirement to seek uh advisory board input. And our reason for using may instead of must is that for instance again if someone donates a teamwork print it likely won't require advisory board approval whereas an object like the gold star memorial would. Um the policy implies that the city manager will exercise good judgment about when to seek input from an advisory board and avoid unnecessary reviews that don't clearly require advisory board input. On April 21st, the Lacy Youth Council reviewed the policy. Tonight, you're reviewing it, and the policy is set for action by you on May 19th. On the screen are your future action options. You can adopt the policy as written or make additional changes before final adoption or make no motion at this time or suggest options not listed above. And the floor is open for discussion and

questions. Well, I have several, but I'll let the council go first. Does anyone have anything? The I mean, I'm I'm glad you um explained where the 7500 came from. I I still feel like it potentially is a little bit low, you know, four or five years from now. Um, you know, having having that discretion. Um, I'm that's the only real real like I think it could be a little bit higher. Um, but I just wanted to get a feel where everyone else kind of thought about that too. I had I had one question. Um, you said that there was some type of an event that exposed a gap. Mhm.

Right. Um, and I guess I'm wondering if the donors um, at any time were brought in on this process, potential donors, donors that you know that that helped the the gap be exposed um, people who may want to donate and did they have any thoughts or ideas about what we were trying to put forward. So, one group, as I mentioned early on the presentation, the Lacy Historical Society was one such group that is interested in donating um a statute to the city and we did involve them in the process early on and had them review an early polic uh early draft of the policy and they gave some amazing uh insights and guidance that help shape it moving forward.

Okay. Um I remember there was a group who came and wanted to um furnish a statue of Dr. That's the group. That's the group. So, the same group. Okay. And so, so they felt good with the 10% and and hey, you know, if it's $7,500, we can pay $750 a year uh for maintenance. Um, see, is that is that what I'm understanding? Mhm. Okay.

So, there's the second option which is one we discussed quite a bit with them where on a case-by case basis if the city and the donor agree to that the donor does the ongoing maintenance themselves that's a part Shannon anything you want to add there that they were interested in and we explored more with them. I was just going to offer a point of clarification on the first option would be to put up to a maximum of 10% of the total, you know, value of the art. And that way there's a fund that the city has to utilize for future maintenance and cleaning. And so it wouldn't be something where a group that donates is um necessarily having to provide an annual maintenance cost. We would have that upfront. And then in the second case like um Chanel just mentioned it would be that you know um maintenance with that group taking on the maintenance with one year's maintenance in reserves with the city

and they felt that that was fair. Correct. Okay.

So I actually have a an an issue with a couple things. Um, and I I appreciate all the work that's gone into this, and I know that we're trying to find a balance. Um, but let's first start with the the what got us here to make us look at this policy, and that is the the statue of of Dr. Healers. Um, that's trying to be donated by the historic society. I I think as a council we need to decide is this a piece of art that reflects our history, our values, all the the things that we are into consideration and if it is then we should probably take care of it in perpetuity. if someone is going to donate a statue of a historic person in our community um and where they're just looking to put it into the our lobby of say our Lacy Community Center to then ask them to put money aside to to dust it or I mean it just doesn't it kind of feels like a slap in the face. We either we have to there has to be a decision point where this is a piece of art that we value as a community and as a community we're going to take care of it or we don't and if we don't then we say no thank you we're not interested in in in your your art right I mean that there's there's the line um and right now I'd love that for be to go to an an art committee we don't have an art committee So, it would make sense that goes to an

advisory committee. And in this case, it should be our our historic commission because what we're talking about is something that has historic enough value that we're going to accept it and either take care of it or or not accept it and then we're not going to be taking care of it. And and there that needs to be the decision decision point. I don't see a lot of this happening. And so I I I appreciate there's this whole process, but I really feel like uh the the $7,500 is is somewhat arbitrary, and I understand why you you came up with that number because it goes along with other policies, but there may be a a piece of art of historical significance that you can't put a dollar amount on, and Right. And so that that should be something that goes to you know an advisory board to see you know does it meet our all these values and where do they want to put it and anou happens out of that agreement if they we want to donate where do you think about going it you know if if it's if it does like if it's out in the public where it definitely needs more maintenance then there needs to be a decision. Do we do we we do this or not? But I I it doesn't seem right to to expect someone to donate something of historical significant that that meets all of our criteria and then say, "Oh, by the way, you got you got to figure out some way to maintain it." Or I don't know. I I just have a that's not sitting well with me at the moment and something I think we need to think about. and the the the dollar amount.

It's so hard to come up meal with a the with a dollar amount. In some cases with a a statue, we kind of understand how much there it's going to cost them to do that. But in other cases, you what you have appraised and make you make the public jump through a bunch of hoops, which is what we're saying is we don't want your art, right? And so again, I have an issue with that. I'm not quite sure how we get there, but I'm I'm this doesn't quite feel right with me. Council member Greenstein, I don't disagree with you, Andy. Um, but it's very similar, if you think about it, to our the Gold Star memorial, right? An outside organization is taking care of the maintenance and cleaning of that.

It's the same kind of thing. In this case, it's the historical commission that that's looking to donate the statue of Duck Duckers, and they are willing to take care of it. I mean, I don't have an issue with that, but I do I do agree that going forward, we've got to figure out an easier method for the the care of things once they're donated to us. I think it does kind of fall into our responsibility at that point if we accept it.

Yeah. I mean, the the Gold Star memorial is something specific with in a certain area with a group that's come to us that are, you know, that is sort of okay, I get that. I guess that falls into the art category. Um but you know uh I can see a lot of other circumstances of of something that would um you know historic significance you know maybe has a a dollar value and as a community we would want to see it here and maintained and whatever and it's sort of up to if they're willing to give it to us it's sort of up to us there has to be a decision point you know and maybe there's maybe I I don't know what that is. But

how do we handle donations to, you know, like right now we have people donate stuff to the museum, right? How do we handle the maintenance upkeep of things that are donated to the museum? Does that become a city responsibility? Yeah, we take the we take we take it on if it's a it goes to the historic it goes through a a process with our museum curator. I'm going to look back at Jen to kind of back me up here. goes to the museum curator and then they review it and then they will make a recommendation to the historic commission and then the historic commission will make the final call and then once they do accept that donation to the museum then we will take over possession and ownership and responsibility for it.

To me that seems like it should be a similar type thing right if we accept the if we accept the artwork I think it kind of becomes ours to deal with it that much. So I know that uh the council mentioned about the the value may be too low. You're concerned that there be any value discretion that everything does go through because there is such things that could have an intrinsic value that has no value and then also of course the maintenance I think council cox do you have did you have yeah I have a a couple of thoughts here. I I tend to agree with what the mayor was saying about ask you know it feels weird to be asking people who want to give to the city oh you got to give this more and you've got to jump through these hoops

obviously we have to have the criteria and I think you all have done a great job figuring out that criteria it up to this point I think there's there's different layers that have to be thought about as well like you know for a statue that's indoors there's obviously not going to be much maintenance But um what if it's a you know an outdoor mural

interactive thing or a mural or that sort of thing that that's going to be taking on a little more. Then there's insurance. I don't know if that's been thought about in this process, but you know that's going to be a city cost. I would think we I I would not expect a donor to to pay for insurance once we take possession of something. Um, so I guess I' I'd say I'd like to see a little bit more thought about those areas before it comes back for a final decision. I mean, I'm I'm all for um updating our public art policy and getting a little bit more active. And I would really love to see an arts commission uh established. That's something I've wanted for a long time. But um because it's I I do disagree with one thing that Andy said and is that's you know a historical commission may have gravitas on something like the Dr. Eers's thing but they don't necessarily have expertise in what is art and so if you have a group that is

devoted to that then I I would love an arts commission. I'm just saying in the meantime it has I it needs to go through some sort of advisory committee first. Um and since we don't have one established it seems like we at the very least it should go through the historic commission or the commission on I don't know some advisory and depending on

or be an ad hoc committee or committing a permanent committee I don't think either. Yeah, not not all art is the same and so something may need to go to the story commission, something need to go to commission on equity, the parks board depending on where being located. There's multiple layers here and not like I said all art's not the same and then you of course you have the you know things like the gold star memorial and things that may just have to be a function of a council ad hoc committee that's formed for a particular instance.

Um and so you know looking at this you know and as well as you know whether there's a a policy I think uh know what the policy that's been developed so far has been best on you know looking at other models across the state and other jurisdictions best practices going through the commit board communities advisory board reviews but ultimately gets back to how do you handle the long-term maintenance and I think whatever comes out of this conversation you know just having that decision criteria of looking at the maintenance so that the city is prepared to to handle a donation much less who's who's responsible for it right yeah absolutely can we add maybe a couple of points clarification and if you want to start how you

so I just want to reemphasize a couple things. um the $7,500 more or less city manager for less than he may come here. Right? It's about using good judgment. So if something is of intrinsic value, it doesn't matter the dollar amount. If it makes sense that a historical commission should look at it because of the nature and theme involved, we're going to go to that advisory board and we're going to bring it here. It's not superseding that. It's just to help with things like in the example of something that's so obvious, a picture hanging on a wall is not going to require a lot of maintenance. Why would you want to spend your time, you know, reviewing that? Um, and then the other point I want to re-emphasize is that the donor and the city enter into a a donation agreement. So that means they have to agree about what that is. So if people don't agree about what that is, we're not going to be able to enter into it. So it implies we're going to be fair and reasonable about the maintenance and about all parts of the donation agreement based on every object could be so different. So it needs to be reasonable and good judgment based on what it is. Um and emphasizing that it could be up to 10% of the value. Again, these numbers and things were based on research at other jurisdictions of what was used there. So I just want to reemphasize the points around good judgment being exercised and and involving the city council in that even though there's that threshold for less than.

I'll just add on to that. I I I've I've I've heard the council that there we can take a look at, you know, the um the contribution and the case by case agreement. That's certainly something that we can come back and get some more information on. But I just want to highlight, you know, one of the things that um Council Member Cox, you brought up of the difference between an indoor and outdoor, you know, art piece. That was something that was contemplated and that was actually something we discussed with the historical society and their um potential statue that's coming up. And that was where that maximum of up to 10% was talked about and it's something that we've seen other jurisdictions. So I just want to highlight it's not abnormal to have something like this to make sure that there is um sustainability in the maintenance of art. Um highlighting that you know it's donations in this particular case and that might be augmented by projects that the city is taking on itself with its own art project and ensuring kind of that continuity and that sustainability of those art programs. There are um other art programs though, however, that don't have this as well. So, you will find both of those out there in other jurisdictions.

It seems like the kind of thing you could fund raise for as well is to establish an endowment to maintain the city's art collection.

And I I really think it's a casebycase basis, right? I mean, and that's why I'd love for there to be an art commission for them to make a formal recommendation to us, but I think in the meantime, um, you know, an ad hoc committee or whatever it is, and I want that to all be considered, you know, uh, I just don't want to be a situation where now we don't have people approaching us for something that could be of um, community benefit, but they just don't want to jump through all these hoops and then now we've lost an opportunity to um improve our community through, you know, something meaningful um because we put something arbitrary up front and I that just doesn't feel right to me. I no matter what you write, there's going to have to be some agreement that everyone agrees to, but um you know, if it just ends with a dollar amount, that doesn't feel quite right to me without us making a decision on it. So, you've been um wanting an art commission for a long time,

forever. And we've had little personal meetings about it and met with city manager about it and and hopefully it does happen one of these days. I'm I'm kind of wondering if we if we did do the 10% or up to 10%. Um obviously, you know, 10 years that's again the cost of of the piece itself. However, if the donor no longer exists or somehow they don't make it through COVID or a recession, whatever. Uh then then then what do we do? And if they're if they can't pay their 10%, 5%, whatever it is, do we just decommission the art and try to return it to them? What if there's nowhere for it to go back to? Correct. Have have we had that conversation?

Well, and like I said that it's so widely like a mural on a public building, right? the ongoing upkeep for that, you definitely would want to make sure there's committee in place in the public that is going to help maintain it, right? And that needs to be in anou. And but I want that. I want to see that mural. I just want to make sure, you know, but there are so many other, you know, art is such a subjective so subjective and the c the value is so subjective. um what I think something is worth that's near and dear to me may not be worth that at all to someone else. So I'm just saying it's tough when you start putting dollar amounts on on art, you know. Yeah, that's what I was just I was just going to say I I do think the dollar number is uh a little arbitrary and I also think um something that we would didn't really say is like there's probably going to be some organizations whether it be a VFW or a Rotary or you know like that's going to actually want to be the ones going out and maintaining some of these projects as part of what they do. Um, and so, you know, the way I think about it, it's it's versus a dollar amount, it's okay, there's a I I would rather have if it has ongoing maintenance cost, well, then there's a, you know, some memorandum and and obviously if it's a benefit to the community, we would say, yeah, we'll cover the cost. Um, unless they want to and I think that's it gets rid of some of those arbitrariness versus if it's just a plaque going up,

do we really need to? And that's why, you know, the cost factors in there, it could be 10,000, be 5,000, it doesn't doesn't matter. I just think, you know, if there's a decision has to be made about how you maintain it long term, then that should probably brought up, you know, that should be talked about. Yeah. I I guess that is the really the distinguishing deal, right? I mean, if it's a something that's going to hang that requires no maintenance ongoing, it's I think if it meets our criteria or if it's a statue in a library that gets wiped down with feathers, that's not maintenance to me. You know, it's like if there's no ongoing costs, then that's one thing. that way. If there's some sort of ongoing cost and maintenance on where it's going to be on public space, then that's something outdoors. And

I think I just to highlight again um that you know that's why it's contemplated in the draft that it is an equal a maximum of 10% and I think that's where that discretion comes in where we can have those discussions internally and that's part of one of the steps in the policy is that there would be an internal group to be able to evaluate what we think the maintenance is going to be for that particular item. Um to your point, is it something that a feather duster is going to be, you know, applied once a year or is it something where maybe we have to pressure wash it and it takes, you know, three days to pressure wash and so that gives us that ability to kind of gauge and determine what could be a consideration when we go back to the potential donor and have a conversation about, you know, what are the maintenance costs associated with that. And I just um deputy mayor, you you had made a comment and I just want to make sure that gets responded to about um you know what happens if the organization no longer exists. And I think that's why a lot of jurisdictions have set up the programs as um written like here is to provide that option if something were to happen um with that case byase maintenance, right? You have that one year and so you do have some dollars for some funding and then the ability to determine what is a more sustainable path moving forward. And then with that potential up to 10% maximum set aside, you would be able to obviously have a a program created internally without having to contemplate, you know, the donor being part of that. And so that's what we have seen in researching other jurisdictions set up to help um provide some security in case some organization that donates something says that maybe they are going to maintain it but then no longer um is in existence in a couple of years.

I like your thought about sustainability there. I have to think about the

I think I think the decision point should be at the council level though on on if there's an ongoing cost and all that should go into consideration and that I think the council should make the decision does it you know with everything you know this is and there needs to be a decision point yeah you know are we take the risk are we are we do we feel good about you know the the what the ongoing costs possible cost could be and if it does fail And you know, we we do have a dedicated source of funding for art, and I would love for us to see that be used more. Um, that being said, uh, you know, I I think we're close. Um, I just think, uh, you know, a lot of this is almost a a a case byase basis. Some of it could be real easy, but other of it, you know, needs to go through some process. So, do we charge or do we not?

Yeah. So, we'll take u all this conversation and feedback and I digest it and then maybe uh schedule another time to come back and have a second conversation with the council um responding some of this feedback. Also, I think there's some examples to um talk about the long-term maintenance, but there's also issues with unique types of maintenance depending on what's donated to. Mhm.

I'm thinking of a particular um old clock that has a lot of community value, but there's only very few um technicians out there in the state that have the the ability to work on it. So, those are other things. And I think also too, talking about this long-term maintenance and making sure the art donations kept up to its um uh to its quality and standard, that's also a desire of whoever's donating that to. We want to make sure that it is taken care of as well. So, there's some conversations to be had in the tech review. Uh, but we'll take this information, come back uh to the council after we get a chance to digest it, maybe have suggest some other options to consider and pass through to move forward. Yeah, I think we're close. I think we're close. And thank you for all the work. I really appreciate it. And your name is Chanel.

Yeah. Welcome to the team, Chanel. Thanks. Thank you for all your work on this. Thank you. One more thing. Yep. Council member Cox. Sorry. I mean, no. So, don't be don't get discouraged. you've done a lot of good work here, right? Yeah. I I just wanted to highlight, you know, um I've heard um you know, ad hoc and art commission come up a couple of times and I just want to again say why I'm so excited to have Chanel here because those are things that are going to be future projects, you know, that Chanel's going to be taking a look at and so like I said, she'll be back in front of you all with more information um you know, shortly on a number of topics related to public art. So um look forward to future discussions on that. Well, I'm excited. Yay. Yeah. Could you say what the job title was again? Because that just flew right by me. Special projects

administrator. Sounded longer than that for some reason. Okay. Um, our next agenda item is our uh 2026 budget amendment briefing. Troy,

good evening, council. Um, we have a an update on a an out of cycle budget amendment. I think we talked about this when the council authorized the hiring of three positions for our uh meter transmission uh unit uh project. So, we are here before you, but we decided to add additional amendments while we're at it. So, I'll I'll kind of review some of the more significant amendments that will be included. Um first is uh we are going to include the revenue uh projections from the utility tax on cable services that the council adopted last uh December I believe. So that will be in there. Um we do have one out of uh cycle position um in the amendment. Uh this is a journey level technician position in our parks maintenance division. Uh the council might remember this has been a top priority for at least two budget cycles if not longer. In fact, uh we bought uh equipment for this position for the maintenance of the new Cuyo Park. Um we wanted to kind of wait to see what revenues were going to do in 26 before committing to that position. Um so far revenues are looking as projected. So not any worse but not that much better but we feel um good about moving forward in terms of background why this is the most important position. Uh this is a division it's has a deficit of about two full-time equivalent employees. Um if you think about here in recent history since about 2017 or so we've added uh 10 different traffic uh projects. It includes uh a great deal of rightaway maintenance. Um, we've added three, uh, water facilities that also include ground maintenance. Um, and we're about to open a new police station that has quite an extensive ground maintenance commitment. And of course, Cyo Park

that's opening up uh this year as well. So, uh, definitely the the biggest need right now for the general fund. You might remember during the budget process, we did add three positions to the budget. Um, all of which are either directly paid by utilities or reimbursed by utilities. So, we did not include any general fund um positions in the budget until uh this position here. Um we also have a grant that we received from the uh Department of Transportation. This is a uh ebike program for employees. It's a lease to own program. This is fully funded by uh the Department of Transportation. It's really about changing habits and uh getting folks out there and exercising as well as uh uh trip reduction um out there. So, it's a $216,000 program. It's going to purchase 30 bikes, safety equipment, training, all of that sort of thing. So, great program. So, glad to have that in the budget. Um we also have another grant I like to talk about. This is a another Department of Commerce bud uh grant. Uh this is for uh climate initiatives within our comprehensive plan. So this is a $350,000 grant. So we'll uh kick that off this year as well. Um we have about $140,000 in the uh amendment that will go towards uh economic uh strategic investments. You just adopted your two-year uh work program. This is moving towards that implementation. We currently have about 900,000 or so in the budget for um economic uh strategies. This is another 140,000 on top of that.

I have a quick question. So um the the new utility tax on cable services or did you create an own fund within the general fund because that's a it that goes to the general fund. Correct. Correct. Correct. And have you created a fund where that's going straight into it? So, we're keeping track of it or how how are we keeping track of this new fund?

Uh, we're not tracking any differently than we do our normal taxes. So, it's just another line item in the budget of $710 or so,000. Um, it's really reducing the amount of cash that we're using to balance the budget at this point. Sure. Um so obviously uh we implemented that and it's start January 1 or starts January it's like the first week of January or so the first week of January and so have we already collected our first month's worth of we have

we have and um based on that is that 710,000 since you I imagine it's pretty can be pretty stable throughout the year. So what you collected for a month should tell you basically unless we see some major um you know the apartments for example use cable more than um you know single family residents um so on so forth. So, um I just when when we say we're going to receive an estimated dollar amount, I always like to make sure that in the year, were we correct on that or where we at? And so that would which means we would have to track that number. And so is it going you have a special line item within the the fund that you're

Yep. It has a separate line item. Um we projected about 60,000 per month based on historical data. Uh received right around 55,000 for January. So pretty pretty close. Okay. Thank you.

Um another significant amendment is in our uh community development block grant fund. Um we have a $686,000 request and this is really to allow us to obligate those funds. So that is made up of what we received in 2025 and what we anticipate receiving uh this year in 2026. Um there's some um within kind of through a couple different funds, but all going into the parks and open space fund is about $350,000. that is uh really a reconciliation of funding for uh both uh the grant that we received for uh Bush Park playground equipment as well as the improvements at Rainer Vista. Uh now that we have the final numbers, we're just reconciling the the funding for those projects uh for our match. So again, 350,000 there. I'm in your water operations fund. This is the reason we're before you is really to uh make sure we amend the budget to accommodate the uh the meter and meter transmission unit replacement project on the council last year endorsed about a $1.2 million program multi-year program for that. Um so in this amendments about $36,000 for partial year salaries as well as kind of startup equipment uh for that team. um whether it be vehicles and uniforms and and whatnot. So um you did get an email from the city manager yesterday or maybe it was well this is just Tuesday so yesterday. Um but you know for the benefit of the public and as well to publicly thank the council for their support in this program we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We just were not able to keep up with the failing uh meters and the transmission units. Um we're actually replacing at a faster pace than they're failing. So that's great. Um so the program is going

really well. Um we've replaced about 1,400 meters since last November. Um the existing maintenance operations staff started replacing as soon as you authorized the program and we hired um those positions. They started in in March, I believe. So again, u really appreciate the support for that program. Uh we're already seeing the benefits of that. um we're doing far less manual reads. Um we were averaging somewhere around 2,000 1,800 to 2,000 per month. Uh this last month we only had to read around 1500 meters. So definitely making progress on that. So again, I I really appreciate the support from the council. Uh the I see for the capital equipment fund um for the police department's body warn um and vehicle and taser camera lease uh $100,000 um is is this an increase? So we were we thought it was going to be 300,000 but now it's going to be 400,000.

Right. So, we renewed a lease earlier and we consolidated um um multiple contracts. Anytime we added a camera, that basically ended up another lease agreement. So, there's a consolidation of all three programs, vehicles, uh taser as well as bodywn cameras under one company, same company. Same company. Okay. So yeah, so yeah, it's just a, you know, it's partially an increase and part of it is from just that consolidation of all those contracts.

Okay. So is that like a like signing for the first time? It was a a higher cost than the ongoing cost. Well, it it's it's uh renewing the contracts for another three years and some of the contracts um extended to the rest of the year and that was prorated into the new lease agreement, but the overall cost of the lease going forward with inflationary factors increased about to $100,000. Okay. And um and as as as Troy mentioned, as we're adding on u camera systems and updating those camera systems, that's another piece of that release renewal.

Okay. And the last area I want to highlight is the water capital fund. Um I have three different amendments there for you to consider. Um in May, um we do have a design on Grey's well that's ahead of schedule. So um that's that's new to the budget. Um we have a land acquisition of $6.2 million for well 7 uh that we're want to make sure we have budget if that um comes to fruition. And then we have 60,000 in there for a water rate analysis. This is a bit of an out of cycle um rate analysis. So, uh water rates are uh we do have an approved multi-year schedule that actually ends at the end of 2027. Um so, we want to reconcile the timing of our water comp plan that is still pending as well as the wastewater comp plan that is starting up as we speak. um we want to have those two rate studies uh come forward together. Um we've always talked about um all of our utility rates being cumitive in nature and we want to make sure that the council has full consideration of that. So a little bit of an out of cycle um uh rate study for the water. Uh but it makes some sense in terms of coordinating that with our other utilities. Um, all in all, we're estimating that this amendment will be about $9.5 million and we plan on bringing that to you uh next Tuesday night. And if you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

I had a quick question about CDBG. Um I know when we first started talking about and we transitioned from one to another um from you know being a part of a collective to being individual we talked about you know um making sure that you know we get kind of get our feet wet with you know the contractual obligations and and how the funds are spent and so on and so forth and we would make sure that um we were going to use those that first year's worth of dollars you know on city projects so that we could you know make sure that we're getting it done right. And when I see these numbers lumped together um for 25 and 26, it makes me wonder if we're still following that same uh process and program. Are we making these funds available to the public in 26 or are we going to go ahead and how's that going to work?

We're looking at that the first two years of looking at um um city projects and getting to understand the reporting requirements. Okay. And then as we get uh going into year three start looking at um coming back to council and say okay how do we start distributing these funds uh to the to the committee for community projects public projects or service providers. So this 685891 that's 2025 estimated 26 correct

so at the cells under the impression that we were just going to do one year um and then make it available to the public after that. Did I miss something? the um you know we look back at Shannon but I think when we briefed the council it was looking at the first uh first year for sure and looking at the second year program in the same way as we get used to uh reporting requirements and then also um you know as we look at uh start distributing out to um nonprofit service providers like we've had in the past. What's that look like in terms of u reimburseable expenses and uh um meeting those those programs? So,

so are you saying we are not going out the public in 2026, we're going to go out the public in 2027? That I believe is the schedule that Shannon want

Yeah, I could provide a little bit more background on that. And I think um I guess the the big takeaway that I'll say is we will be coming back to council here shortly for some more consideration on community develop um block grant dollars um in connection with our human services strategic plan. So that's on the docket to come back to the council here sometime in midsummer to talk about that. And one of the things um we are just starting up this uh program and with it there's a lot of work you know I know uh Michelle Chavez has been in front of you all to provide some information on you know what goes into creating the the program itself um but there's a lot of work in setting it up. We've gotten our big you know consolidated plan and our annual action plan in place. And so we really want to take the opportunity to use the first couple years of dollars to get um you know well-versed in all of the um requirements that we're going to have with HUD and then to bring back that information for you all to take a look at and review because there's going to be a lot of considerations to get more information on in front of you of you know how much uh resource and workload goes into you know different types of applications uh because there are you know different requirements when you use block grant dollars comparative to say the human services grant program. So, all of that to say, a very long-winded way of saying it is we do hope to come back and have additional conversations later this summer on uh human services strategic plan which ties into block grant dollars in future years. And and I jog my memory too and looking at the first couple of years as we're looking at the entitled census tracks which has different requirements and if we send out there's different reporting requirements if you send it out to service providers or other locations that have uh they have a different threshold in terms of meeting HUD guidelines for

is fund reset. Is there obligation guidelines? Do you have to obligate those dollars by a certain time? Yes, you have um six years to use the dollars. Six years. Okay. So we have plenty of time. I just wanted to make sure I asked that because when we initially talked about it, we only talked about, you know, the one year that we were going to absorb absorb those dollars and hold them back from the public. And now it looks like we're talking about two years and I wouldn't want to see it go to three. I'd really like to see it be one year if at all possible. Well, have we received the 2025? Have we received the CBD dollars at all? We do have the $225 in hand.

Okay. And then the the 2026 uh is that and that's estimated based on the 2025. That is actually the letter um from HUD that we received. That is the amount that we're going to get in. So that is the dollar amount that we'll that we we'll see anticip receive later this year. Okay. Okay. So we know where that dollar amounts at now. Okay. Well, it looks like we're going to have some further conversations this summer about about this. So, need to do that. Yeah. Okay. Is there anything else? Oh. Nope. Were you looking for some action? Nope.

No. We'll bring this back next week in ordinance form. Any any questions from council? Uh, just thanks for the usual wonderful job. Great. Thank you. Thanks, Trey. Uh, so now we're to council reports. Does any council member have a report or something they want to get out? Go ahead. Do you have anything? I do. Okay, we'll start with you. Okay.

Uh, let's see here. Um, joint animal services met on April 20th. Um key takeaways there is that our intake number numbers have leveled off. Um shelter intake has leveled off. It's still very similar for each jurisdiction in terms of the percentage and uh thirst county is is usually half um of the intake uh followed by Olympia with uh 24% and uh Lacy with 19%, Tumb Water with uh 8%. uh positive outcomes um are really working well uh this year uh even though they are slightly down but the intake is also slightly down so there there's a commensurate change there uh field calls are up and um so so uh new a couple new employees have been hired as well uh but field calls by jurisdiction um are broken down uh as thirst county is 49% uh Olympia is 22%, Lacy's 22% and Tumb Water is 10% and uh actually Thirsten County is 46%. So they are a little bit down on on field calls. Um uh the the committee has has authorized the executive director to enter into an agreement um for uh what's called the embed program uh through Best Friends Animal Society and Joint Services. Um Best Friends has been a longtime partner of uh Joint Animal Services. They've committed a lot of financial support um to the tune of about $68,000 over the last seven years or so. Um but the National Shelter Embed program, what

that does is that embeds a Best Friends employee into the Joint Animal Services at their cost. And the goal is to um well, it it's a six-month uh with on-site at Joint Animal Services, fully funded by Best Friends. Uh the contract would run through the city of Lacy and the goal is to uh reach 90% um or above lifesave rate and we're already at like 86%. So so um you know getting us over the 90% is the real goal. So what they're going to do is they'll come work side by side work in joint animal services. Uh the focus areas are going to be field service and manages and managed intake. Uh return to owner strategies. That's going to be a big one. uh community programming uh adoption, community engagement. Um what they provide is on-site operational support, access to national subject matter experts, training and program development, uh datadriven strategy implementation. So it's a big benefit to join animal services. Uh and that program should start in the beginning of June. Um vet services team uh have done 364 surgeries so far. uh 786 medical exams. I don't know how many how they do all of this work in such a short amount of time. Um let's see what else. Uh so far this year there has been five events of outreach. Uh and our next meeting is actually going to be more of a retreat. Uh it'll be a six-hour strategic planning session uh early June. Uh let's see. The EDC met on April 22nd. Uh our first conversation was about opportunity zones. Um so the Washington State Department of Commerce is, you know, opening the application portal for

communities to apply uh for approval of opportunity zones. Uh there's going to be seven census tracks in Thirsten County um that have been identified by the US Treasury as eligible uh opportunity zones and the EDC will be working with the jurisdictions on their individual applications. Um Tom Water, Olympia, Lacy, Thirsten County uh to assist in the process. So the board approved a blanket letter of support uh for each of the census tracks uh that will be included in those applications. Uh under new business, we kind of discussed Um, land use was the big topic. So, a couple meetings ago, uh, we kind of got into a conversation about, uh, land use in Thirsten County, you know, development in Thirsten County. Uh, a lot of people were really kind of talking about, uh, their pain points, uh, the the the kind of um issues they go through, the amount of money they spend for, um, projects to get underway and maybe not even get finished. And so in this room we have uh multiple developers, multiple attorneys, um there's Ole Fed Bank, there's Heritage Bank, there's there's just a lot of of development um people in the room. So uh in that meeting a couple months ago, I said, "Hey, do you guys just want to have just a meeting about land use?" Right? And it was unanimously yes, we want to have a land use meeting. And so uh we got talking about land use and and what we want to really get out of this and we're going to continue this conversation. You know, one one meeting is not enough for all these people to talk about land use. So it'll continue. Um but the conversation included how the resources of the organization uh should be proactive and consistent to support agencies and jurisdictions for positive land use and economic developer development opportunities. Um, so

you know, the conversation went on and on. I I carved out like the majority of the space for this meeting for this topic because I knew it was going to be a hot topic. And and the goal is to to really just kind of, you know, set in motion what the EDC can and should be doing to help promote and develop um the not only the developers, but you know, the the projects that they're that they're going after. One one of the uh guys in the room, his name is Mike Brewer. um he uh owns American Pump and you know he spent all this money on uh this place called Salish Landing that didn't work out pulled his permit after $2.4 million worth of investment and so um you know you've got some frustration in the room uh have yet to invite any of the elected officials that are not on this board but um that is part of the plan uh once we kind of get a little bit further into this conversation. So, that's just getting started. I'll brief you guys a little bit more on that um as it develops and um this is probably going to be that's probably like one of the funnest things that I've done in committee work in years. Um ELTAC met on April 23rd, so obviously is a busy few days. Um we talked a little bit about this upcoming budget. We did get to go over um the the uh dollars that were spent last year. There is a little bit of carryover. I think it was somewhere in the tune of $22,000. Um, so one of the things that we focused on was, you know, the the cycle uh reviews, the use of revenues, and you know, this council's um direction that was given last year. You guys remember uh we all talked about how some of our facilities that really produce the heads and beds need to be getting more funding. And uh that was reiterated to us again

uh seems like about the third time, but ELTAC is taking very seriously this council's uh direction on making sure that funding um isn't just kind of going out outside of the community too much uh and really focusing on the heads and beds portion. Um we talked a little bit about expenditures. Uh I don't know if you guys remember but last year we talked about um a new kind of a thing that we did where you know for for those people who have increased marketing expenses that they could draw on some of the eltac dollars prior to their event for marketing expenses up to I believe it's 30%. Um seven seven of the entities took us up on that. So it got some real traction real fast and so now they're kind of saying okay you know what let us use some of those marketing dollars early so that we can have a more successful event. uh and they've been really talking about that and and have done that. Um the attendance outcomes were one of the main things that I kind of looked at and thought, "Wow, we really um are having some really good attendance for these ELTAC events." The attendance outcome is over 925,000 um for ELTAC events. So a pretty significant um one of the things that um that I liked that came out of last cycle was uh for all the elac people who were awarded dollars, the VCB has given them additional services for headcount um all these different things that they can that you know advertising some promotion uh these type these different types of things that really help pre create and produce more successful events. So, um I wanted to just make sure I give a shout out to the VCB for, you know, stepping up and helping out all of our ELTAC recipients um have more successful events. But the one thing that I um wanted to make sure that you guys knew is that the rack had 775,000

uh visitors last year. So, pretty significant. And you know that just lines up right along with you know this council's saying hey we want to make sure that you know our our major heads and beds are getting you know the funding that they need. Uh Lake Farware's 180,000 Washington Center was 95,000. Sway Sway Night Market um 94,700 people for an event that happens you know once a week. Uh Thirsten County Fairgrounds 58,000. um funding outcomes um the attendance impacts are pretty amazing. Um the paid overnights are more than doubled in 2025 as a as opposed to 2024. So in 2024 the paid overnights came in at 11,000. In 2025 they came in at 24,000.

Uh people from 50 miles or more went from 33,000 to 99,000. and overall tenants went from 1.1 million to 1.348 million. 1.16 million to 1.348 million. So, um uh the the amount of people coming to visit this area, this region is just is just going up. So, um it's anticipated that we'll have about $680,000 685 uh for this this upcoming cycle. And um let's see, we did kind of come to a consensus on on the rubric a little bit in that, you know, we we went with the scoring rubric a couple years ago. Uh and it's it's you know, along with the online um application as opposed to paper applications. There was some repetitiveness in the scoring rubric. So So those will be now static. So if it's in Lacy um and it it's a multi-day, it'll just automatically score that so we don't have to continue going through it that way. Uh and then it also the Jark reporting um was suspended for 2025. So that's where we report these activities to our legislative um uh representatives and that one that reporting is suspended for 2025. uh 2026 is to be determined. And then we kind of went over Lacy's hotel pipeline as well, just so that we can kind of get an idea.

Why did they suspend it? I don't know. I That's a good question. That might be a better question for the assistant city manager because she was the one who kind of brought this information to us. Uh they didn't I don't Is it a trust issue? They they trust us more. Well, um I I think part of it was just uh looking at what they've been doing with the data over the past couple of years and evaluating, you know, what they're going to do with it in the future. And so, they're going to continue to take a look at whether or not this needs to be collected in the future. So, like the deputy mayor just mentioned, it's a one year of not having to submit this information and data, but it could come back and maybe look slightly different in a future form.

So, maybe they they just feel that we're doing that good uh with the dollars. Uh we looked at Lacy's hotel pipeline a little bit with the estimated 362 new hotel rooms that may come online. Um there is the residence in um by Marriott, there's the Homewood Suites, and there's the True by Hilton. All of these, I believe, are in um Hawk Prairie. And you know, should they come online, we will have um a much more sizable ELTAC budget to work with. Uh and maybe we can help out the rack a little bit more. Uh and that is my report.

Thank you. Thanks for taking the heat on those developer conversations because I know those tend to be more like butt chewings than conversations sometimes. So, um it's necessary, but yeah, that's needed. Thank you. Yeah. Uh Council Member Cox.

Yes. I have two reports. Um the first is from the um Olympic Region Clean Air Agency meeting of April 8th. Um some highlights from that. Um the meeting was followed by dedication of the James Jimmy Warner air quality monitoring station at Mountain View Elementary School. Um Jimmy Warner was a muchloved uh orca is the acronym for this agency. Uh employee and mentor there. City manager myself attended. I I was actually attending on behalf of council member Cu uh who was out of town. They finalized election officers. Um Greg Brotherton of Jefferson County is chair and Emily Klouse from Thirstston County Commission is the vice chair. Um they did a nice presentation on how uh they measure particulate matter in the air to determine what the air quality is in our area. And it's it's pretty fascinating. There's like four different methods and by combining them with different pieces of equipment, they get a pretty good picture of how that works. And then um the the big me big overriding message I guess for all of us is that um with the El Nino setting up to be a super El Nino uh now uh the executive director Jeff Johnston was just warning that this is setting up to be a really bad wildfire season and um we're you know we're going to have to be dealing with that just you danger from fire itself if not that the smoke and what that's going to do to the

area. So, not good. And then um on April 15th, Inner City Transit Authority met and it was pretty basic, you know, authorizing various contracts. We scheduled a public hearing for May 20th to receive comment on the draft to intercity transit transportation improvement plan. um blah blah and the I guess you know the the really big thing everybody's focused on right now are the system changes that are happening on May 3rd where we're having the big overhaul of all the route numbers or most of the route numbers will be changing some routes will be altered slightly um for the most part they're hoping to you know get more efficient use out of the buses you you may be on the same bus, but it's called two different things depending on where you are along the route. Um, they're really going out of their way to do a lot of community outreach to help people understand how they'll be affected by the changes and help plan. They'll have ambassadors at the Lacy Transit Center as well as the Olympia Transit Center and on some buses on the more heavily traveled routes just trying to help people get to where they're going. But the the upshot is it should improve service some and set us up for future growth of the system. So that's my report.

Council member,

um I'm like one and a half reports. Uh we had the tourism conference up in BC last week on the 20 um 2nd and 23rd. um took a lot away of that, but we do have an a afteraction this week and I'd really like to um go through that with the rest of uh the members of the VCB before bringing that to you guys because I think there's there was a a really good discussion and a lot and I want to make sure that I um am able to pass along the kind of the vision uh of what the VCB could look like in the future um and its role uh moving forward and and get um as much to you guys as possible because it really I thought it was a really um successful uh conference and then um I wanted to bring uh two things to you guys. We had the uh regional housing council meeting uh on the 22nd and there were um two issues that I had uh discussed with the city staff um prior to the meeting. Uh and I wanted more time to discuss uh with you guys. Um uh so I'm gonna I'm gonna bring those up here. But the discussions I would like to have like at a dinner meeting where we have time to actually talk through some of the stuff. Um, one of those I've been a really big proponent about separating um, uh, discussions with funding decisions. So, for example, um, we approved $21 million of funding after almost, you know, 5 minutes of discussion uh, that we just got a couple days prior without the ability to bring it back um, or really review it just with kind of the expectation that we pass it. Um, and I had I've been bringing that up about how we need to separate discussions about about what we're funding, how we're funding it from the actual decision- making. So that way I have time to bring it to the city, the mayors, and you guys to be able to weigh in on that. Um, so I abstained from from that vote and I had discussed that with the city uh before uh before doing so. And I think that's just something uh that I think we should all have as a council of like what what information

should we be looking at because really kind of the expectation right now is we just approve everything that gets sent to us and that gets sent to commission and they're supposed to approve it. Um and so I would like feedback from you guys on on what that on on how you feel that should look. Um the second, you know, I'm I'm kind of big on on conflicts of interest and something I've noticed um with there's some pretty large conflicts of interest on on um the advisory boards. You know, under the current setup, you know, the chairs and many members of the advisory boards are also members of the largest receivers of funding from um the RHC. And I really wanted to get your guys' input because under the current system, we've we don't really review that much these these uh applications. we just get a short briefing on it and then we pass it. Um I am kind of strict on conflict of interest especially when it comes $21 million. Um just the preceived even though I have a lot of faith and trust in a lot of these members of these advisory boards. I don't think that public the public would be comfortable knowing that the ones recommending the funding are the ones receiving the funding. Um, but again, I'm representing the council and I would love your feedback and actually some time between now and next week's meeting to to think about that and discuss it. Um, because I I I don't want to go there just with my with my opinion and whatever that looks like, including the city staff. Um, it's something I'm not comfortable with, but I want to make sure that I'm making the decision that's involved.

We'll bring that conversation forward for a work session. Okay. And that was my report. Thanks for going to the conference. I appreciate it. Was good. Council member. Um

yes, I um have one report. Um the TRPC met on April 3rd and um here are some of the highlights. Uh we talked about call for projects. The application process opens May 4th, ends June 5th. The process sounds like it remains the same, but there have been some modifications that TRPC is going to have to approve uh at the May 5th meeting. So, I just want to go over what some of some of those recommendations will be. Um there were modifications made to four out of the six evaluation um criteria based on some of the recommendations that came from the transport uh transportation board um as well as the technical advisory committee. Those four areas were sustainable thirst and urban corridors, equity criterion, the active transportation and safety criterians. So there will be some modifications to those. Also, there were two recommendations for regional set aides. The first one um was a rural community support program with a set aside of $800,000 for Lacy to administer. Um and this will ensure that the regional transportation investments um in uh rural communities as well as tribal communities um are supported um and also support regional equity goals. And the second set aside was for $200,000 to extend the Karen Frasier Woodland Trail um

the $200,000 will fund a feasibility study um and strategy. And so the trail would be extended from um well up to the Mallister Park. Yeah.

Yeah. That's uh that it was uh something that was recommended um uh as when I was the chair as chair of transportation policy board. We've been looking for sort of our our next project to um of regional significance. And we got a lot of feedback uh from our trail users saying this is a a a a missing link. Um we actually have city of Lacy has the park in Mallister Springs but and that area of our urban growth area has been you know growing and they don't have any connection into the rest of the city and so uh this was something that uh I I brought forward and with support of the you know TRPC staff to take a look at it and uh you know obviously talking to our city as well. Um and so I was very happy to see that um recommendation go forward for that set aside. So

there's a long history there. Yeah. Also, another recommendation is for the city of Lacy to administer the 2026 rural community support program

um starting in 2030. Um Lacy would administer 692,000 for all the projects that are eligible for reimbursement um beginning in 2030 and then thirst county would uh do the same beginning next year 2027. Okay. All right. So we talked about target zero. Um the goal is to reduce traffic fatal fatalities and serious injuries to zero by 2030. And so TRPC is looking to hire a traffic safety or a target zero manager. Um and that person would be funded through the traffic safety commission. Uh that person uh should be hired sometime early fall or late summer um with responsibilities around convening regional traffic safety coalitions, tracking data and things like that. We also talked about multimodal levels of service. We talked about the fact that we have all kinds of performance measures out there um to look at different modes of transportation. But what we don't have is um any information about how people experience different modes of transportation. So, one of the things that we'll be doing over the next few uh months um is looking at how we can come up with some performance measures, some project goals. Um we also took a stab at a a problem statement, so I'm sure we'll continue talking about that. All right, so that's my report, but there uh two or three other things I also wanted to report on. Um, I represented the city and and stood with the other elected officials at the readers are leaders event um, which is a a great nonprofit that helps to improve literacy skills for for kids amongst other things. I also uh represented the city at the Enterprise for Equity

Openhouse. They were really happy to see somebody from Lacy uh, come there. They help people with low incomes to start or strengthen small businesses. And last, but certainly not least, as um an elected official, I was honored uh by the NAACP to be recognized as one of the um black women leaders in Thirstston County. It was quite an honor and it was an inaugural event. So, uh they're going to do it every year. This was it was a lot of fun and I appreciated it. Congratulations. Congratulations, Council Member.

Yeah. Uh so start I was at the law enforcement uh I'm sorry the which one is it? Uh thirsting county law justice council. That was it. I was looking at the wrong line. And um uh in as the alternative uh to for that council. Um just a couple of quick notes there. We had a really lovely presentation from uh Sheriff Sanders about the difference between Flock and ALPR which is the automated license plate readers. Um and then he went through and talked about the different places that flock are located and the different uh Senate bills and things that have come through uh to regarding flock. Um I think most specifically he mentioned uh Senate Bill 60002 uh talking about how it's started to set up some guard rails uh but only for governmentr run uh cameras not necessarily for the private cameras. Uh the majority of flock in our in our region is actually done by private entities. Um, and the only cities that currently have flock is Yelm, but Reineer Tino have also expressed interest in getting those cameras as well. Um, and I do believe that uh they the family court in Thirstston County also got a grant to get a brand new bag scanner for the first time in like 15 20 years. So that thing they couldn't get parts to repair it if it broke down. So, they were like, "We need to replace this one." And so, that's uh exciting to have safer courts uh there. And then, um also the resource hub, uh Thirstston County resource hub also put out their recent um year in review. And so, you can see some of their numbers and the people that they've helped connect with services over the past year. Um then yesterday I met with lot and got a tour of the lot facilities uh in advance of uh a tour I'll be having with Orca on an inspection for their air filters and uh

in the next couple weeks uh just as part of uh just to see how things are run. And I was really impressed with the lot facility. It was it was uh wellrun. It was clean. And I was just I was really surprised uh um how easy it was to get around. Um and uh and I think the only thing I would like to also add was um I was also at the region housing council meeting uh last week and um in regards to the worries of um what was it uh conflicts of interest uh they did mention that they can get us uh policies about how they proceed when there is a conflict of interest between people on the uh board members and requests and also they can get us their scoring rubrics if uh if we want to reach out to them so that way we can have more transparency and we can see uh how those work better. Um and I think that is all I have.

Okay. Council member Binstein, do you have anything? I do not have a report.

Okay. Well, uh then I'll go last here. Um it's been a kind of busy couple weeks for me. Uh a couple weeks ago I was I was asked by uh Timberline High School um there's basically their social studies department to come and and and talk to their students there. It was kind of their the world history group. there's a um ethics group and um and so I would I spent their entire sixth period sort of talking about the city of Lacy um you know what it's like to be the mayor and you know issues that are you know before us um as a city and um spent some time be able to answer some questions and uh it was uh very well attended. It was a basically the full auditorium was was there. Um and so it was it was great to get in front of the kids and then you know talk to them afterwards about you know specific issues you know things going on in our community. Um we also uh the three cities uh also met um and we've been meeting um with three cities in the county uh every other month really going back to COVID times. So that's when it first got started when we realized we need to um have a meeting on the you know on the calendar where we'd come together to talk about regional issues. One things that we realized is that we can never make it through on time on our meeting because there's just so many uh issues to talk about regional issues. you know, we've we've tried to extend the meeting um and and we still don't have enough time and we realize uh meeting every other month um is probably not sufficient um because you an issue

can come up and depending on when it's at, you know, uh we it may be too long before we get back together to talk about and there's a lot of big regional issues going on right now. um including as we know we just had a our joint meeting with the port and there's a lot going on with the port and the port asked if they could be involved um as well and so we've decided to um bring the port in and then now we're going to be meeting every month so it's another another meeting that we're going to have um and so that was it's a pretty big big you know uh decision that was made there and there There's again a lot to be discussed at those meetings. Um and then this last week we I've had several uh joint planning um me you know meetings um the last couple weeks too at the you know prior to when we met with the port. We just had a a meeting yesterday um to talk about uh you know meeting with the the school district about that joint meeting coming up. Um met with the YMCA as a lot a lot of you did as well. And then last uh Thursday um it was Yelm Arbor Day celebration. And so I was uh out uh there to um give the tree uh or they gave us a tree that um Joe said he was going the mayor said he was going to drop off here and uh got to be a part of that celebration as well. Um, but what I and I was going to report a little bit about on on the transportation policy board, but you hit the the main main spots. I do want to give a, you know, big thank you to the the city of Lacy for for supporting the rural programs that we're basically we're doing is defederalizing funds to allow projects

to happen in South County and and the the the county was doing that on their own and they they approached uh uh TRPC and said they for several reasons they were going to be um it's going to be hard for them to do that going forward. And so the city of AC actually stepped up to um to take that program on. And so um it's it's going to be a win-win for both the south county and uh for the city of Lacy. We have larger projects we can put that federal money on. And so um it works out for for us as well. Um but then I um also want to um let this council know and the public know. I'm I'm sure the public's probably heard by now, but um Senator uh Sam Hunt u ended up passing away um early on on Saturday after a a a short um fight with leukemia. Um and it, you know, came on pretty quick. I got the phone call um on on on on Friday uh that he had gone to uh the emergency room and um and that uh I know I needed to get there pretty pretty quick to be able to say goodbye to him. It was really um great to see, you know, so many people from really the LD22 world, which of course he was a part of for such a long time, being in the House and then in the Senate, um all there um to support Sam and um his his family, Hillary and Nathan, um his two kids. Um and so it was um something that wasn't I wasn't expecting. Um, I've known the Hunts uh they've been family friends going back to when I was uh early in in high school. I've known Hillary um um Sam's daughter for that long. And so uh I've known Sam and and

Hillary's mom, Char, who you know had a long battle with cancer as well and passed away a few years ago. I they've been part of my life for a long time. And when I first decided to run for city council, of course, one one of the first people I talked to was was Sam Hunt and and got his endorsement and it meant meant the world to me. And Hillary was actually my first campaign manager uh way back when. So, um my heart just goes out to everyone who who knows the the Hunt family. He has obviously had such a huge impact in our community into the city of Lacy for all of his years as being elected official. He always knew that, you know, Sam was coming in from a place from his heart, you know, um regardless of what he thought, you know, of his politics. He, you know, he he wore his heart on his sleeve and he always trying to put kids and and and people first and that was always very admirable um to see someone give his entire life uh to public service and it's something I have always tried to to live up to. And so, you know, to the Hunt family, to the LD22 world, and to everyone um who's got the the honor of of of meeting Sam, um you know, my heart goes out to you and and and um big thank you to that Hunt family for all their years of service. So, with that, we have reached the end of our agenda. And without objection, I'm going to call this meeting ajourn. And as always, you keep it classy, Lacy.