City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. It is Tuesday, 05/05/2026. Happy Cinco de Mayo at 06:00, and I'm gonna call this Lacey City Council meeting to order. All council members are are present. And if you're, able, please rise for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible,

for liberty and justice for all.

I also want to acknowledge that we, the city of Lacey, are on the ancestral land of the tribal people, the Treaty of Medicine Creek, including the Nisqually Indian tribe and the Squax Indian tribe. With that, can I get a motion to approve this evening's agenda and consent agenda?

Move to approve the agenda and consent 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 aye. Aye. Is there anyone opposed? Then that motion passes unanimously. We've approved this evening's agenda and consent agenda. First up on our approved agenda is our public recognitions and presentations, our utility wrap artist recognition. Sadie?

Well, good evening, council. My name is Sadie Siglin, and I am here to give the long awaited utility wrap project presentation update. So this is a project that the city has been working on for quite some time. Some of these council members may remember seeing our art submissions previously to go through this cycle and process, so we're very excited to be here today and show the outcomes. So for those of you who may not know, we do have several policies and plans that incorporate public art.

There's council policies and procedures which outline the criteria for public art. This is something that's also outdated, excuse me, outlined in our six year public art plan. I believe this council has been hearing some updates for public art recently, and this is also something that's embedded in our DEIB strategic plan to enhance community engagement. The city does have a funding source for public art with $1 per capita set aside for public art and then some designated funding for public art in projects at the city that have a cost of over $500,000. This is he does also have the option to solicit for art pieces as needed.

A little bit of background on this project. The city reviewed, and we're just trying to find a way to incorporate art of meaningful value in the community. And one thing that we have moved forward with is a utility box project, and that is because it's highly visible, highly accessible, very low barrier. So you can drive around the community and not have to pay and get to see great works of art. It's also very engaging.

This encourages our community members to explore Lacey, visit, check out art throughout the city. Also encourages our community members to apply like some of our artists you'll see tonight to create works of art for the city. The nice thing about utility wraps is that they're extremely maintainable. These have an average minimum life of five to seven years, which can vary depending on weather, potential damages, and things like that, but they often significantly outlast that expectancy. They're also very cost effective to produce and maintain, easy to clean, easy to install.

Here in Lacey, we chose to do utility wrap art based around Lacey's history. As you all know, Lacey has a very rich history, and this provides us the opportunity to connect to the past and the present and develop and further identify our community values through art. We have the opportunity to highlight key moments from Lacey and honor where Lacey has been. A lot of these recommendations came from community members and advisory boards when this project was discussed. You will see throughout the community, the utility wraps are everywhere.

We have the opportunity to use utility boxes that are owned and maintained by the city of Lacey. There's 31 total available. We are excluding what you see up here in a circle, which is Lacey's Midtown because I'm sure you've all seen our wonderful Midtown wraps and branding. Other than that, we have options throughout Northeast to South Lacey to put locations. And what we have done is based on the theme, picked a location for the utility reps that's near a point of significance for the individual organization or facility.

So you can see up here, Vivian Hicks and Gladys Broker, for example, are as close to Hicks Lake as possible, so they could be near areas of significance. Doing a brief look at utility wrap phase one, we call it, because over time, we're hoping each year to add new utility wraps and callings for art. Erin Quinn Vouchel, our museum curator, did a really good detailed job about getting history on all of individuals, organizations, and themes based on art themes for this community. We did an art submission request from applicants where we created a website profile. If you haven't had the chance, I encourage you to check it out.

It's still up on the website and gives you a detailed history that Erin has put together on all of these individuals and organizations. This information was available for the community to look and gather inspiration and kind of learn about what they may be creating art around. A brief highlight, I won't go over each. There were 16 themes for this first go around of areas and individuals and organizations who had a positive significant impact in the city of Lacey. All of the bios for this information was on the website for our considered applicants to look at, review, and learn a little more about Lacey.

We went through quite the process for this. We started back in July 2023 with a formal RFQ request for qualification process to the community soliciting professional artists to apply. This included doing an application, having a resume, and references. And what we learned throughout that process is it's really hard to tell artists what they can create art about and give them such a short period of time. We did get two submissions, but a lot of great feedback from the community.

So we turned around in February 2024 and did a youth calling as another way to get the youth engaged with the city as well. This was a less formal process, similar to kind of an art contest format, where we solicited for youth artists to look at the themes and submit art inspired by those themes. After that process, we got 13 unique submissions back, which is pretty, obviously, substantially bigger than the two we originally received, with six of those themes represented. I will note one of those themes did not go out because the city received a donated art piece representing Nat and Thelma Jackson. So we already had a piece of art for that.

During that review process, the commission on equity, the historical commission, and the Lacey Youth Council all reviewed the submissions and provided feedback and recommendations for the council to review. During that time, Donna Feliciano also spent countless hours mocking up what these wraps would look like because it's very challenging to envision what that looks like after you see an incredible piece of art, but you're like, how is this gonna be all the way around the box? So Donna spent a lot of time helping and preparing for that, and then the council saw those recommendations and reviewed information from the committee, saw the applications, and made some suggestions. We did also reach out to relatives, family members, and organizations related to those themes to solicit their feedback on the art submitted on behalf of their loved ones and organizations. Then in September 2024, this council approved the art that we're about to see for use, and we have been going through that installation process in getting all of that art.

Our artists went through and did an agreement with us. They all got an award, which went really well, and now we are here today to review the art. All of this is also available on the city website. So you can go to our public art web page, learn about the artist, learn about the themes, and all of the utility wrap boxes also have a QR code. So if you're out, city is doing our wellness step challenge right now.

So hopefully, everyone's out there walking around scanning those QR codes, getting their steps in, but you can look online and learn about our artists as well. So first, I would like to call up and recognize Lena Fife, who submitted this incredible work of art inspired by Cecilia Smith Carpenter titled tributes to the Nisqually tribe. I know some of our artists are here tonight, some are not. But the great thing that Lina shared was that she'd never drawn realism art before, and after this, she'd say she'd do it again. Mhmm.

And this is what the final art looks like. So this is out on Galaxy and Martin. You can see the original art was taken and edited and stretched to fit all the way around the box. Those side panels have information about Cecilia, and then another informative piece that goes over the website information about the artist. The next artist is Stella Morton.

Stella, are you here? Stella did an art piece inspired by Vivian Hicks and Galatas Broker titled The Pioneers. Stella has been a drawer since she was seven. I think that's pretty obvious when you look at this art piece that she's very talented and feels that art really gives you a spark. When looking at the final product, you can see here on the side panel, the designs for the airplanes were actually incorporated and repeated on the sides.

So you really get that artistic inspiration. Our next artist in this theme actually had two submissions that were used. The first was Shanika Lim, who titled this piece growing in faith. And it's really incredible to hear Shanika's story because she moved to Lacey and recognized somebody who's a Filipino on this project and felt very connected.

Jean Ladell being a former mayor.

Yes. And then the second artist for this wrap was Ting Ju, and she also created this piece, which is used on the side panel. As we can tell, Jean is a very inspiring woman. There was a lot of art submitted for this theme, and this was used, you can see here, all the way around the box. So our only box that we had the opportunity to feature two different artists, which is pretty incredible.

Our next utility rep artist was Ariana Seng, who did art inspired by Luther Wickoff. Luther helped cultivate lavender in Lacey. So here we have a field full of wildflowers inspired by Luther. And then this is how that turned out on the box. You can see really bright and vibrant.

I don't know if any of you have driven by this one. The communications team went out and said that you can see it way down the road. And then our last utility rap artist, Jennifer Kunz, who created this piece and actually donated it to the city of Lacey as part of her submission for a grant. So we were able to also use this art piece to recognize Nat and Thelma Jackson. Who are with us today?

Yes. Who are with us today. And you can see that art piece really transformed and wrapped around. This side panel up here, there is a similar panel on all of the boxes, again, highlighting the individuals, organizations who are recognized through this artwork today. And then Cassidy Turner submitted an art piece on behalf of the Lacey Women's Club.

This one's really great because the women's club did a lot of sewing, so she really went inspirational with the quilt patterns. And installed, you can see we get the whole quilt pattern all the way around the box. Also, very colorful going down the road. Are any of our artists here today?

Come on up.

Chai.

I can give it to you after. Thank you so much all of our artists. I know not all of them could be here

today. And Nat and Thelma Jackson are here, and Yes. Gina Dell's here too.

And oh, Jean, did you sneak in while I was gone?

Thank you.

Yeah.

No. Thank you. Thank you again artists and our honored guests for making the track. Like I said, this is a project we have been working on for quite some time. And I will turn it over to Chanel Pierce, our new special projects manager, who's going to talk to you about future and upcoming public art cycles.

Thanks, Sadie. I just have a couple quick slides to close us out. We plan to have the next call for art this fall. Tentatively, the period will run from October through December, with the artwork being submitted in the winter months, and then the wraps will be installed in the early spring or early spring or summer when the weather is warmer. The schedule is based on community feedback from the first application cycle.

We heard that a six week submission period was too short, So we plan to extend the application window to approximately ten weeks from October through December to allow more artists more time for creative development of their art. From the first cycle, we also learned that the wraps must be installed when the weather is above a certain temperature. The freezing weather this winter caused delays in installation, and it had to wait till the weather was warmer. So to address this, we plan to adjust the schedule so that installations are naturally timed for spring or early summer when the weather is warm enough. These are just a couple of things that we plan to do to improve the next cycle, and we look forward to the next round of utility wrap art. And just one last big thank you to everyone who did art for the first round.

So, in our next upcoming, it will be our sister city and Luther Wyckoff. Who who who are up next in the sorry. Who are up next for the

Thanks for helping me get my steps in, mayor.

Yeah.

So all of the themes that did not receive submissions or art was not used will be in round two. And then Chanel is working with feedback from council, other commissions to see if there are any other themes to add to the next cycle. But all the ones you saw tonight are up and out. So go around town, look for those, and then the other remaining themes who we didn't get art for will be in this next round with some potential other additions.

I I definitely have some information I can share with about our sister city for the next artist and maybe some pictures and some things like that if if need be for that to go out.

Happy to

do that.

Yeah, it's a great one. And it's on the map right next to City Hall, so looking forward to it.

Yeah, great. And I just want to again say a big shout out to artists. You did an amazing job. I I absolutely love art. I think art is a part of what makes your community special.

It brings people from all different walks of life together to take a look at it, to enjoy it, And and individual, you know, unique pieces of art is, I think, such an important part of our community. And to have two legends, you know, three legends in the room right now is is beyond an honor with Nat and Thelma Jackson and and Jean Liddell. We would not be the community we are today without these individuals who are in this room who helped shape our community. And so, number one, thank you for all of your years of service to back to our community. And it just it absolutely warms my heart to see your art and out here in Lacey and for you to receive the the due praise that, you know, you deserve for what you've done for our community.

So thank you to thank you for everything, and thank you for being here tonight. It it it really means a lot to me and for the, you know, the city council. So I was talking, I was like, is that Jean Laddell out in our audience? I can't believe that. Okay, next up under public recognitions and presentations, the Lacey Youth report.

Yeah. We'll do it after then.

Hello, counsel. I'm Joel, here for North Thurston. And what's going on in our school right now? Not a lot. We got senior assassin going on. I'm not losing.

That's all I get.

When the prize pool is at a high is at a thousand dollars, I'm not losing. At first, was like, I don't care that much, but

That's always hard to be the last one.

Hey. We got this is round three, and we got 11 people left. So Mhmm. I'm I'm winning for sure. I also have the most kills.

There you go.

Just gonna put that out there.

Six. It's whatever.

It's this thing that happens every year where the last senior standing, and you you you want you want to explain the rules?

Okay. So the rules of senior assassin are, so everybody has a water gun, basically, and you have some form of protection, whether it be a life vest, floaties, or as in my case, I chose goggles.

Mhmm.

And you're basically trying to eliminate your targets, and if you don't eliminate your targets, you don't move on, and you have to try not to get eliminated. But you also have to leave your house because if you stay home all day, you ain't getting nothing done. And so the only safe zone is school. School and work, unless you're at work, you're not safe. So second I step out those doors, I'm putting my goggles back down.

Nah, I

can't get caught. They they all let track right now.

So I'm not I can't

get I can't get caught lacking. Yep. We also just had our first, practice march for graduation, which they need to work on those names. I'm not gonna lie. They're struggling a little bit. Yeah.

Yeah. And then we have prom at the end of the at the end of the month and

and graduation on the ninth.

Wow. I can't believe it's already near the end of the school year. Yeah. Well, of luck. Hope you don't get taken out. I I remember those days, and I thought I was gonna make it to the end, yeah, looking over your shoulders. It's a paranoid time right now. So I I percent.

I stepped out of my car earlier. I was like, I can't I can't get caught. Yeah. I my teammate got caught, had to buy pay for him to get back in. Can't happen to me, though.

Well, good luck, man. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you.

Evening council, I'm Matthew and I'm with Timberline. So we have prompt coming up this week and our prompting is Princess and the Frog. We did copy Ridge last year because that was their theme, but that's besides the point. We have that in the kids hands on museum, and a lot of seniors, juniors, and sophomores are stressed right now because we got AP testing.

Mhmm.

So that's going on. And, for our clubs, we had two national qualifiers for DECA. They got free Bruno Mars tickets, so they went to the Bruno Mars concert. I'm jealous of that. And then for FPLA, we had six national qualifiers going down to Texas, which is happening soon. So yeah.

Well, thank you.

Good evening, counsel. I'm Luca. I'm representing the homeschool community. It's really busy, but nothing that interesting. AP tests this week and next week, and my class finals are coming up, and spring sports are ending soon. So

Good luck on your AP test. Thank you.

Good evening, counsel. My name is Hyun Kim, and I'm representing River Ridge High School. It's officially testing season. AP and SBA tests are taking place. And meanwhile, seniors are, participating in the senior assassin.

Mhmm.

And prom is just around the corner. Our theme is Japanese garden. A lot of other people wanted Promchella, but that's what we landed with. And River Ridge Theater is on the production of West Side Story, and today was the last seasonal track meet. And the athletes are heading to leagues leagues. Yeah. Yep. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, counsel. I'm Isabella, and I'll be giving our Lacey Youth Council update. We just had our DEIB summit with Olympia Youth Council and Esqually Youth Council. We had a morning panel with one representative from each youth council, one of them being me, along with an incarcerated youth advocate. We discussed issues such as environmental concerns, juvenile justice, youth mental health support, and tribal concerns.

Later in the day, we had another workshop panel where our youth councils and a few mental health specialists came together to discuss youth mental health resources. Overall, our summit was successful, and we were grateful for the opportunity to share our thoughts. Now I have a little bit of my own announcement. I wanted to share that I am now representing our city and the North Thurston School District as one of the newly crowned Capitol Lake Fair princesses of 2026. I'm very excited for this adventure, and I hope to see you all at a few parades. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Youth Council. Keep I know it's a stressful time of year. Keep it up, and we appreciate all you're doing in giving back to your community on this Lacey Youth Council, though. Keep up the good work.

Do we want someone to do this? Next up on our agenda is the our twenty twenty six state legislative briefing.

Brian and Shannon. Great, thank you Mr. Mayor. I'm Brian Enslow, I am your state government representative. I've represented the city of Lacey for about ten years now, and it's been an amazing privilege. I've got a few slides I'm going to run through, and I'm happy to answer any questions as appropriate. Let's just go ahead and jump right in. Okay, I'm going to jump right in. I'm in control apparently. So I'm going to start with just an overall summary of the budget that was passed.

It's my personal belief that it's the biggest policy bill out there. If you want to know what someone cares about, you look at what they fund. For a little bit of context, the state budgets on a two year cycle. This is the second year of the biennium. But they do have a statutory requirement to kind of like balance over four years.

So you're going hear me kind of talk a little bit about two year versus four year. So just quickly, the 80, it's an $80,000,000,000 budget over two years, and that's kind of what's written and what's programmed, and then they have some kind of estimates about revenue and expenditures for four years. Okay. So, it's perhaps you've seen some articles in the news lately about Moody's and a potential downgrade and some warnings from the treasurer. I refer you to those.

I don't like to characterize whether it's unsustainable or things like that, but there are some interesting kind of features of this budget. The two year budget is largely balanced based on one time measures and transfers. So, there's, they use accounts like the Climate Commitment Act that had been in the capital budget, and they move to the operating budget. They take certain accounts that we rely on, like the Public Works Assistance account, and transfer that into the operating budget as well. So there's like, out of the capital budget, there's about a billion that goes out of there.

They collapse the pension fund, they take some of that money, put it in the operating budget. They take some money out of the budget stabilization account, okay, you get it. So there's a lot of one time money that funds ongoing things for the next two years. Okay? And so the short term solvency of this budget is predicated on those one time monies.

The long term, so the four year balance is predicated on the adoption enactment and withstanding legal challenges of the millionaires tax that would start coming in year three, year four. Okay? So when we look at it, those are things that have to kind of been taken into account. And as I was talking to you, excuse me, I hit the microphone. I apologize for that.

When when we're talking to you in the in prior to session, kind of like this this creates a little tension as the state resources get tight, and the relationship to local resources, local responsibility. So, and also, I guess I just highlight, you know, the choices that the state is making does impact local fiscal policy making environment. So there was a fairly significant revenue package last year. There's now adoption of millionaires tax. That does change kind of the ability and opportunities for local government to put other things on the ballot and things like that or potentially impact it, right?

So those are just kind of things to think about as we kind of reflect on what was included in the budget in this last session. Okay. So as I mentioned, big picture takeaways. The millionaire tax. Okay. So again, I was looking through the newspapers. I saw that the court upheld the referendum provision that was in the millionaire's tax bill. And, if you were to subpoena my Google search records, you would see that Brian Enzo looked up the difference between referendum and initiative, and the key functions there. So, I'll just share what I learned. So, was like, well, what does it mean?

It doesn't mean it can't go on the ballot. Right? Does it mean that there won't be a ballot challenge to the millionaire's tax? The answer is no. The difference between a referendum and an initiative in Washington State is a referendum is something where you collect signatures and have a certain signature target prior to the bill being enacted, which in this case is going to be June 11.

Okay? And the court said the court said no, you can't run a referendum on this bill. We're going to uphold the legality of that. And but you can still do an initiative. The big difference is 300,000 signatures required on an initiative by July 2 versus they would have only needed 150,000 signatures by June 10 to run a referendum. Okay. So that's just when we read the news about that, what does it mean? Honestly, don't think it's going to mean a lot, but for kind of like that's what's going on there. So, millionaire's tax doesn't come into play for about three years, the budget's balanced on it, there's going to be a legal challenge for sure, there's going to be a ballot challenge more likely than not. Okay.

There wasn't a lot of great take homes this year, quite frankly. It was a little bit of a challenging year for local government. We traditionally have been held just broadly local governments as implementers, as partners. Some of that relationship as I alluded to is getting frayed just based on budget tension, right? When the state is having a hard time kind of funding what they're currently doing and responsibilities, sometimes they shift responsibilities down to locals, sometimes there isn't money for what we had traditionally required out of grant programs or infrastructure programs or things like that.

Sometimes the legislature will do things when they have no money that kind of impact our resources. And so for instance, whether it's expansion of collective bargaining, or other things that impact like our cost drivers. So, it was kind of challenging, and we'll go into it more on some of the housing conversations and stuff. But, it's getting harder to kind of like turn the crank. You know, it's like we've gone up a gear, and it's just getting that much harder right now in terms of our relationship with the legislature for those various kind of factors.

So, I did want to highlight one pretty significant piece of legislation that touches a lot of different areas. Was kind of an omnibus local government bill. It's House Bill 2,442. And there was a couple pieces in there that I thought were interesting just to put on the table so that everyone was aware of. One is there's some additional flexibility with local REIT dollars, particularly around rehabilitation of existing facilities that I thought was something that the council and staff should know.

Another is there is a newly authorized local sales tax, an additional one tenth of 1% that the city or the county could impose for the purpose of like providing child care services, family services. So that is a tool in your tool belt if you choose to use it. It is something that you, the legislative authority of the county could impose with a simple majority vote of the council, or if you chose to, you could put it to the vote of the people if that's something that in your wisdom decided you want to move forward with. Okay. And then lastly, the other element that I wanted to highlight is it extends the maximum length of a levy lift.

So from like six to ten years. So that provides a little bit more utility when you're going to go to all the effort to like do the groundwork to justify a service to the citizens that you get it for ten years instead of six. Okay. So just broadly, environmentally, with respect to kind of the housing conversation, I think it's particularly difficult representing a city like Lacey that's been so committed to providing services to unhoused individuals, being open for business from the development community. I think there's a lot of both leadership from the council and staff work that is, you know, on the leading edge of trying to help be a partner in the housing conversation.

Yet when we go just one community over and we're around that sundial in the Capital Building, there's this perception that cities are the problem. And that and that's become pretty pervasive. And so there were a lot of conversations this year where we were having some real difficulty getting traction on communicating with the legislature. Why we do some of the things we do? And you know, again, I'm super fortunate because I get to work with this amazing staff that keeps me educated on you know, every single subject.

And helps me understand kind of like the policies that we put in place in order to like actually incentivize low income housing and things like that. And so we had some really challenges with that where I hesitate to use the word micromanaging, but the legislature is looking at you know an extremely complex arena like land use policy and trying to do it top down, instead of actually at the community level, where we not only have the community input, not only do we have the relationship with developers, we also just understand the complexity. So that was a conversation particularly germane to 6026. I think we ultimately got into a place where we needed to, where basically we were able to kind of like preserve enough flexibility within the infrastructure what they were trying to accomplish. But largely, you know, we already have a code that is on the, you know, I don't want to say deep, like towards deregulation, but flexible to meet the kind of the needs of the community while also like preserving elements of what we think is meaningful in terms of having walkable, shoppable, retail, you know, those grocery shoppable kind of then also just highlighting 02/1966.

Again, the real friction point there was on kind of like operating agreements. So that's the relationship that we have within like an operator of a step housing facility. And I think a big part of that education was hey, when we're working with our citizens, when we're working with our neighborhoods, sometimes what gets the deal done and what gets that community yes, is having some of these operating agreements with clear standards articulated and understandings of like accountability and things like that moving forward. So that's what we worked hopefully to preserve. Oh, great. I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that I was

I didn't know when a

good time to ask a question was, but I didn't want to on the previous one, 2442, you said cities or counties. Could it be cities and counties, meaning could it be up to 0.2 if cities and counties did? Or other question, if a county enacted it, would it apply to the entire city, all the cities as well?

So that's a great question. So the the and interestingly enough, the public safety one that maybe you remember from last year actually could be a city and county. This one is is a maximum of of of point one. And if the county the county can take it county wide, The city could also do it and receive their share. And I and I I think I didn't quite explain that. Correct?

I'm trying to So

it's the first one there. If the if the county was planning on doing it, the city would need to do it before the county to implement it.

So, yeah, like, if the county doesn't move forward, the city could. The city could collect their or if the, you know or independent, you know, Lacey could, Olympia could, Tom Water could. And then if this county wanted to take their piece, they could as well. It's not like last year's public safety tax where it was actually the tax experience for a Lacey resident could be an additional two tenths if the county took it and the city. In this case, the county would be required to share the city's portion with the city.

So the city would automatically be included if the county did it?

That's my understanding. Great. I think we can go to the next And then quickly, on public safety, 6002 was around automated license plate readers, which are tools that are utilized in our like police cruisers. I think, you know, there was various iterations of this bill that I think from like a victim's community were perhaps potentially concerning. I think ultimately we were able to get some provisions put back into the bill specifically around in order to utilize them for gross misdemeanors, which often are violation of court orders or know, assaults, lower level assaults, but they often have a DV nexus.

So those are things that we think were pretty valuable to include. I know the city of Lacey does not use them for parking enforcement. If you were thinking about using them for parking enforcement for the future, this bill will make it challenging, just so you know. Just wanted to flag that for you. Okay, we'll go to the next slide. Alright, so yeah, this was the kind of session that did ask for kind of like some after action review and some real thoughtful conversations between Shannon and I and other members of the staff. And as I kind of signposted for you earlier, you know, we really need to change the narrative on housing.

Excuse me, Brian, just to clarify the record. We do not use license plate readers in our Cruisers. We do not use that feature.

Well, that's a very important clarification. Thank you. So, you know, we're in a situation where I think some of the of the other cities have maybe not been as good partners on housing as we have. And so I think we've kind of been like lumped into that. So again, just working on how we have a constructive conversation with the Governor's Office, Lieutenant Governor's Office and things of that nature.

And then I think also like narrowing our focus. I think we've been spread a little thin. And so how do we be a little bit more strategic given that it is a little harder with this current makeup to kind of advance city issues, so how do we move those forward? So those are some of the things we've thought about. Just quickly, we were not successful on getting our Regional Training Academy funded.

We made some really good inroads with some members of our delegation, but we also were given some information that we need to do some more work with some others. I think the other thing we need to do is we need to think more broadly about engaging some more of our other community partners outside of Thurston County that would benefit from this. Again, we introduced a bill on animal control and shelter district. It was a good conversation starter. We've identified some other communities that are interested in this as well.

And I think from a funding mechanism, we need to go back to the drawing board on that because we got some input from Department of Revenue. But it was a good first step On the extending of the annexation sales tax credit, there is a work session in the House Local Government Committee in June on this on annexation broadly. This will be one of the issues that comes up. I think in terms of timing, given that there was another session to deal with this, I don't think it was ripe for this last session. We do have funding through 2027.

It is still on our radar in order to have kind of long term funding. It feels a little tenuous when we're always kind of doing this year by year. Again, is an issue that continues to need a little bit more work. The Criminal Justice Training Commission has kind of updated their application process. There's more information kind of available on their website, but it's still work to be done on kind of getting some priority for accredited agencies and actually just streamlining the process.

Because it's still kind of frustrating in terms of how much money has not gone out on that program so far. And then we are continuing to look at aligning TBD statutes with other local sales tax statutes, and so this is something I think we want to talk about as we like build our agenda for next year as well. Interestingly enough, the public defense case less standard funding was included as part of the millionaire 's tax package for a better part of the session. So as the millionaire's tax bill was introduced, there was a significant amount of money carved out, perhaps not sufficient, but a significant amount. It kind of it was at like a fixed percentage, that percentage went up, then that percentage went down, then it went into a fixed number, and then it disappeared altogether in the house.

Interestingly enough, the county's association still has a lawsuit in place that calls into question whether the state is meeting their constitutional duty in terms of providing support for indigent defense. So a little bit of TBD based on that, but so there is still like a legal challenge that might result in some additional funding being required from the legislature on indigent defense. So as I mentioned, one of the things, you know, I'm trying to I've caught up with my notes here, because I can't read that with my glasses, but I guess I have it here, too. So I think from an agenda setting and engagement standpoint, our recommendation kind of moving forward is to have a narrower focus. The items that I'm putting forward in front of you are to focus on the Basic Law Enforcement Academy, the annexation sales tax credit extension, and then the animal control sheltering funding mechanism.

So as we work through at the staff level, these are the things that we identified and suggested to you as being kind of our priority focus next year. You're like, Brian, hey, the session just ended. Why are you like already talking about next year's agenda? Well, think as we mentioned, in order to be successful, we feel like we need to start earlier and be doing more work this interim, preparing the legislative delegation, building coalitions, and focusing on those issues moving forward. Also got then this other kind of list of item which are important, but perhaps that we have either more time to deal with them or perhaps there's a more appropriate partner to be the kind of lead on that versus the city.

If I could Brian, just really quickly jump in here if you don't mind. Council like Brian just mentioned, one of the things we're looking to continue to do between now and the start of next session is really to focus on our outreach and engagement and continue to work on some top priorities that were identified. And so I just want to take a second to see if there's any feedback from the council on these top three priorities as we continue to reach out with our legislators and work towards the 2027 agenda. That doesn't mean that we won't be coming back with an official 2027 agenda for you all to contemplate and deliberate on, but we're just looking for some direction to ensure that these are, you know, the priorities for us to focus on in the interim.

I think for 2027, for sure, the recommendation for the Regional Basic Lawforce Academy being here at our training facilities has to be the near the top. Of course, the taxation sales tax credit extension is going be really important going forward as we are just starting this process with working with the county on what that looks like. But we know that an extension is going be pretty important for the long term viability of that. And then, of course, we know the animal control sheltering funding mechanism is something we're all facing. It has to be an issue a lot of jurisdictions are facing.

And so hopefully we can build some coalitions around that. I think, you know, those three are pretty big. And so I think it's a from our from that standpoint, that sounds like a good start for us. Counsel? Yeah.

Yeah. And I I agree with you, And let us know where we can help. You know, I mean, a lot of us have relationships, with different people in the legislature and happy to jump in there and help and have conversations and that kind of thing. But I do have a question for you, Brian, going back to the beginning of your presentation. So you talked about them, the legislature basically balancing their budget on the tack on the millionaire's tax, which is going to face legal challenges for sure. If it's overturned, do they have a plan or is it you know punt?

There's not a plan articulated in a legal document, right? From that standpoint, the simple answer to your question is no. I suspect depending on the timing, they would have to address the overall budget insolvency either in the session or in a special session, like I said, depending on the timing. The budget is balanced for the remainder of the biennium. In year three of the four year outlook, you actually have a negative cash balance being showed in the budget documents and then you have a positive cash balance in year four at the final ending.

So I would think you would have this is really wonky, but like the states kind of just like cash on hand, there's like seasonality to it. Makes sense, right? Sales tax during Christmas, so money goes up, you get a big hit. April, many people pay their full property tax in April, so that's the state is between the Christmas sales tax bump and the property tax, that's when they have the most money. And then it just kinda goes down and down and down and down until right right right at that October collection.

Oh, yeah.

Mhmm. So that's gonna be a real pinch point already. And then if the millionaire's tax was either not upheld by the courts or put down by the voters. That's it's year three of the biennium that you I think have some year three of the four year outlook. So the first year of next biennium that you would have some really significant challenges that you would have to navigate from a budget perspective.

Thank you.

Yeah. Anyone else? Go ahead.

I met recently with state representative Lisa Parsley. And the bottom line and what Lisa said was get your make your ask very simple and get it in early.

Mhmm.

So I if if it's at all possible, we should move up the timing of our legislative meetings and agendas.

That's great.

I was just wondering if there was any further discussion of what because I know we

talked about maybe a quarter,

but just the previous right of way initiative with ERP funding long term might even look like or what direction it could be heading in. If there's any information on that, it would be great.

No, I think there's I don't have an additional update at this time. I know there's a lot of conversations this interim on creation of Department of Housing and kind of new leadership from you know, like kind of carrying that out from commerce as it is. So as things arise, we will keep you informed.

And also with the ERP funding and the dollars we already were appropriate for the conversion of Maple Court. We are in conversation with commerce too about getting more information on the status of the ERP dollars, how long the effect and long term sustainability.

I was just hoping he maybe had a secret he could slip to us.

Anyone else? Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

So next up on our agenda is public comment. First, I'll ask is there anyone wishing to give public comments? We do actually have one person who's going to come up and talk a little bit about the Nisqually art that we saw on our utility wrap recognition. It's from the director of Nisqually Archives. You'd like to come up and introduce yourself and talk a little bit about that? Yeah, up here to the

Can you hear me okay?

Yep. Go ahead.

Okay. My name is Betsy Boulchild. I'm a Nisqually tribal member, tribal elder, and I'm the director of Nisqually archives. And I was one of them that would that they'd reached out on this wrap, utility wrap, and had asked me who, you know, we would like on there. Well, I responded with Cecilia Carpenter because she's our was our tribal historian.

She did a lot of our research that has helped the Nisqually tribe get to mostly where they're at today, but, she taught school. She retired, and that's what she wanted to do was, you know, help her people with any of the research she did. So a lot of the stuff she did in her day was she did on her own, and that's why I wanted her honored because she's the part she she did she traveled all over getting information that has helped the tribe grow. She went back as far as she could get into any of the information. And like I was telling them outside, the yeah.

I met the young lady. I Sorry I was late. I had different things I was juggling at once. But, you know, like I told the young lady, you know, she came from an era where her collection was handwritten and typed. You know, that's just how far back When she started, she was just in her probably last couple years, she was doing the word processor. So everything before that. So she I helped negotiate the collection from her son. And so he it took a little while because he said, you know, this is hard when you're trying to give your mother's, you know, the collection and information. But we have that. We're, inventorying it.

We're in the plans of republishing her books because of all the information she had. So, you know, like I said, I was honored to do to, you know, nominate her for this because I feel it's important that when people do reach out to us, we do try to get them to look into her research, look into her books, and anything that they can't find then come back to us. A lot of times we don't get a response because they find out all the information they need. So I was really happy to meet the young lady, the artist. Like I said, I wish I could got here in time.

I just thank you guys for, you know, contacting me. It was kind of a fast thing and I was like, okay, let me I have two people, but you know, they said, well, we'll do this again sometime. And I do have other we do have other leaders, leadership that we would like to honor, you know, from around this area because, you know, there's just so much history there. And I was glad to hear that the youth councils were here because that's one of the things that's important to us is the future generations because they'll be our next leaders. With Cecilia's information, it will help move that forward.

She a lot of her stuff we have gotten access. We have the books. We have all of her reports, everything. So, you know, once they need to do research, they'll have that available to them.

And do we know that is it just coincidence that last name Carpenter and Carpenter Road? Or is Carpenter Road named after?

We we think that because there's a lot of that was a part of what she did. Like Hawks Prairie, she's done the family trees, and she's found the Hawkes family. Sure. Oh, that's where Hawkes Prairie came That's exactly right. Yeah. So there's all that information here, you know, that and she's also looked into how a lot of these names came, were translated because a lot of people couldn't say the tribal language. And so they were translated into a different name, but you can kind of go back and see where that name came from or how they thought it should have been or how they sounded. Because a lot of tribal in the tribal language, it's descriptive. So tribes always were describing a place. They weren't naming it after somebody.

But a lot of times they described, you know, and a lot of the tribal names were taken after the people they worked for. So if they worked on somebody's farm, that's how they ended up with those last names. Like you get the Frank, the John. So there's a lot of history that she really went back to find. And a lot of people will get a hold of us because they're like, well, I have this family history, but I don't know where how far back I can go.

So we try to help them as far back as we can go with all of that. And not just the Indian because of their intermarriages. We can also track like my grandfather's, both of them, the McLeod and the Klamath were from the Hudson Bay. They came over on the Hudson Bay ships. We have I'm Nisqually, Puyallup, Cowlitz, Hawaiian and Scottish, Wow. You know, on my family. I mean, the two are at the Hudson Bay. That's what we try to help other people do too is track those intermarriages and try to help them with their families. Well,

thank you. We just really want to get that on the record, and so thank you for I'm coming and letting us a big, you know, a big fan of our local history, for sure. So this is something I want to make sure that we got out and I was able to ask that question. So thank you for coming tonight, the artwork is is amazing, and we'll continue to, you know, collaborate with the with the tribe and and continue this, you know, getting your art out into our community. It means a lot to us as well.

So one of the things is I don't remember who would I work with so many people all the time. We did the kiosk over at the Rack,

the Yeah.

So I worked with Dana. Dana Bowers. That was one of them that I had tried to get across to people is to really put in the timelines because that really helps people to understand where tribes started, where they came from, how they got to where they are. And so that's why I was happy that she incorporated that into that kiosk was the timeline to show all the changes and things that happened.

Okay. You so much. Thank thank you for coming tonight. Appreciate it. Okay. Is there anyone else from the public who want to give comment? Okay. Then let's go on to ordinances. And first is ordinance 1,700, our 2026 budget amendments.

Great. Thank you, mister mayor. Good evening, council. You do have before you an ordinance that will amend our 2026 budget. You do have the full details in Exhibit A of the ordinance.

Your total proposed amendments is just under 9,600,000 I won't go through all the details, but I do want to highlight some of the significant amendments that are within the amendment. We do have revenue provisions in there for the new utility tax that went into effect shortly after the first of the year. There is one full time permanent position within there being proposed for parks maintenance. This will really help us with our labor deficit in our right of way program. You have the city's first employee e bike lease program within that budget amendment.

This is fully funded by a grant from the Washington State Department of Transportation. We do have some budget in there that will help staff implement the economic development strategic plan that the council approved here earlier this year. There are provisions in the amendment for that will allow us to obligate our community development block grant funding from both 2025 which we have in hand as well as 2026 anticipated funding. There's just a little over $300,000 in the amendment for the water meter replacement program. This is a program that we have hired three two year limited term employees to solely dedicated to that program.

And then finally, the most significant amendment within the proposal is $6,200,000 for a land purchase for a well rehab project in our water division. So that's a quick overview of what's in your amendment. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have, but the staff recommendation is to adopt the ordinance thus amending the 2026 budget.

I would

move to adopt ordinance 1,700 authorizing the 2026 budget amendment.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any yeah. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? I would go ahead.

I was just wondering, really glad to see that the Ventures Hub got the the vehicle because I know they really need that. And then, just second, I was just wondering, if Scott might be able to get just a brief update on how the meter replacement is going.

So, yeah, there have been about 1,000 meters that have been replaced since the start, but you know, Scott Devlin, the operations manager actually tasked a couple people from the water department to start replacing those before the two new people came on. Actually, you know, there's a total of three. Two of them will be, you know, in the field replacing meters, and then the third person will be more admin because you gotta interface those new meters with, you know, the program. So, it's obviously gaining on it. And I know that Ms. McAllen wrote Rick a detailed report. So if there's anything I missed, Rick, please add.

I'll just add a little bit. All in all, since the crews started working on it at the beginning of the year, store 1,400 meters have been replaced. We've now hired two AMI techs that are now focused solely on meter replacement. They themselves have replaced about three seventy meters. That's an average about 10 per day, which is great work in addition to our current staff.

And then just last week, I believe, we started our new department assistant personnel that's going to be focused on entering the data for these newly replaced meters till we get them all calibrated and reading correctly. So again, making a lot of progress right away. And right now, that amount of meters that are not communicating and are due for replacement have not yet failed yet. That number has significantly dropped from mid last year, about 10,000 to now around 1,400 meters not communicating and then 1,600 units to be replaced. So we're getting ahead of the game right now.

A lot of thanks to Scott and his team and Troy and Joey Billing staff working on getting this going. I don't know, also our human resource department getting those boys hired because they took a design the program and started initiating the work and getting this accomplished.

Anyone else? Okay. It's been moved and seconded to adopt Ordinance 1,700. All in favor of that motion signify by saying aye. Aye.

Is there anyone opposed? And that motion unanimously carries. So next up on our agenda is quick give a mayor's report. Something that happened last Wednesday was sort of first of its kind where we got all the advisory boards together at senior center, and I sort of gave a welcome to that group. We have all these advisory groups that are doing just amazing amount of work for our city, volunteering their time, whether it's our planning commission, our historic commission, the parks commission.

So all these, you know, people who are invested, you know, in our community, and it's how, you know, we are able to have such an amazing city. I sort of, you know, liken it to it where, you know, we're a I keep saying, you we're a not for profit service corporation, right, that every shareholder is someone who all you have to be is 18 years old and live in our community for a year and a voter, and you're a shareholder of our community. And that works when all our advisory committees and everyone volunteers to make this community the way it is today. And so we thought it was really important that it's not very often that we're ever I think this is one of the first times where all the advisory committees have gotten together to sort of hear the overall arc of, you know, where we're at and where we're going and get some recognition. And so I'll turn it over to our city manager, and he's the one that gave the big presentation that evening, and I'll let Phil send on that and the public, yes.

Well, you, Mayor Rider. And I don't have a lot more to add. It was a really nice event well attended. We got to give an opportunity to kind of talk about the council and advisory boards and their role in setting the vision and identifying community priorities. And through that presentation also identified all the great things that we've been working on in the community related to things like the economic development initiatives as well as parks programs and the like.

We also talked about the proactive work that the council and the staff are doing on our financial strategies that we're in a good place because of that financial stewardship by the council and the staff and that gives us time to plan for that future. And then also really honed in on I think was became the theme of the night as well as that this is not just the council, it's not just the staff, it's advisory boards that have a significant role in shaping and providing that lens from the community and being the voice of the community. Then also the importance of everybody being involved because while we're working on this, it's everybody's city and how we create that community that meets that vision, but also is in line with the mission statement that the council has adopted as part of your work with your strategic work plan. So overall, that was a fairly well received. And then we switched into bringing all the chairs of the various advisory boards and it was a very full stage.

At least nine and if not 10 or 11 advisory boards represented up there. And it was really nice to hear them in a moderated conversation, moderated by our very own Shana Kelly Fong, to hear what they're all working on, what their perceptions of what's going on in the community and the community values and how there's a lot of just support and also encouragement for people to get involved because that's what makes the community is everybody working together. So I thought that was a great theme for the end of night as presented by our advisory boards and we got to really acknowledge their work and what they do. Before I switch over, I know there's some of our council members were also intending might be able to add some insight, but I want to also recognize our communication team and public affairs that are organizing the event and getting it streamed and televised and they really set up a really nice event for the public to see and then also beat the recorded version as well.

Anyone from the want to chime in? Caroline, Caroline was there? Your takeaways?

Well, I thought it was really well done and to see the collective impact of all these groups and the various things that they've been working on. When you didn't mention was our commission on equity and that I mean, that group alone has not only come up with a strategic plan that we're now implementing in Lacey, it's being spreading to other cities as well.

It's like,

here's how we made this work. So it was just it was very powerful experience for me, and it was good to meet some of the people on commissions that I had not met yet either. So it was wonderful. I thought it was very thoughtfully put together, Rick.

Thank you. I thought it was well done as well. I think that's the first time I've seen all of the commissions, you know, in one place. And there's one or two that I I hadn't known as much about, and so it was a learning experience. But I I really hope that we'll do it every year and make it, you know, an even bigger deal because I I think it's worth the time. Yeah.

Glenn? Yeah. I was surprised at, first off, like, seeing the amount of advisory boards that we have all in one place, and then thinking that the people who were there was just one represent representative of, like, seven or eight other individuals. And just thinking, like, how many community members are working tirelessly to advise and to advance our city, and that was just it was wonderful to see and it was great to hear all of the reports and how they operate and view the city and how it's growing.

Great. You. I really appreciate that.

And just to add on, the company councilmember Turner is it is planned to have this replicated every year. A while back, we used to have an appreciation night for our advisory board, but also too there's always that question from the advisory board about what's going on in the city. So we combine the two into this type of event that we may be looking at having annually as a way to recognize the contributions of our advisory boards.

I would just add that I would hope at future ones that we get a little bit more of the other public who isn't engaged in there because I think people would be really impressed with what they heard.

Yeah. Yeah. Especially, you know, people who want to learn more about the community. You learn a lot in one night about all the work that's going on at Okay. Well, with that, we're gonna go straight into the city manager's report.

Thank you. Did we actually vote on?

Oh, yeah. There's right. There's motion and second. On the ordinance. On the ordinance? Yes. Ordinance?

Yeah. Yeah. Motion and second.

All voted?

We did. Yeah. No, we did.

I thought we said,

yeah. All

right. Right? We

did. I know it's a long night.

Right? Look for the clerk.

It's it's yeah. Okay.

Well, it's a yeah. I think we deviated a little bit because Nick raised questions.

We did.

And then we voted.

Yeah. And then we voted.

We did. It was

a seven zero.

Sorry.

That's alright. The clerk says we voted. Okay. Now we're

Well, going nobody's going to argue with the clerk.

Yeah. We're going go out to now at the same management report.

Yes. I got a few items on the report tonight. The first one up is a contract award for the restoration of the Jubilee Stormwater Ponds. And I would like to invite our utility engineer, David Knox, up to give an overview of the bid process and project.

All right. Thank you, Rick. Good evening, honorable mayor, deputy mayor, and council members. My name is David Knox. I'm one of the utility engineers here at the city, and I'm here to request a motion to award public works contract PW2025Dash19 to the low bidder Mike and Dirt Works.

This project was advertised for two weeks, and bids were opened on April 1. We did not have any joke bids, luckily. There were 11 bids total, and the apparent low bidder was Mike and Dirt Works at $437,717.26 with an engineer's estimate of $559,000 $404,170 dollars. The project is expected to begin in June 2026, and there are thirty working days allotted. The bulk of this project is to replace two failed liners in the two wet ponds that are labeled on the west and the east side of this map and then just slope restoring, regrading, and some infiltration kind of velocity arresters, if you will, at the infiltration pipe where the pipes come into the site.

Yeah. That is the bulk of the work. And at the conclusion of the project, we will be turning over ownership of these ponds to Jubilee HOA where they will maintain them in perpetuity. Yeah. So I request a motion to award public works contract PW2025Dash19 to Mike and Dirt Works.

Move to approve awarding contract number PW2025Dash19 to the qualified low bidder Mike and Dirt Works LLC in the amount of $473,717.26. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion?

This is a question. Why, in this case, doesn't Jubilee already own that? I know, like, in a lot of communities, like, you know, my community, we own we already are are responsible for this warm water ponds. Why are they not?

I'm not super familiar with the entire history of these ponds. I can turn it over to Scott to see if he knows more.

Scott definitely knows more. So

you are correct. I mean they already own and maintain the majority of them. Maybe the best word to use back in this when this process occurred way back when this was an anomaly. I don't know what conversations occurred, but, yeah, it's it's an anomaly. And Fine. Yeah. So we're in discussions with Jubilee to take these over as soon as they're So we'll get

them right and then turn them over to them? Correct. Yeah. You.

What's the normal lifespan of pond liner?

Well, that's a good question. But I can tell you that the type of pond liners are changing. It used to be that there was about a 12 inches or one foot thick clay liner, and that would degrade over time, maybe ten years, fifteen. And now it's going to go, you know, with a with a fabricated liner or so, which is expected to have a much longer lifespan. But I don't know if you've seen any more recent lifespan data in the documents or

I have not seen lifespan data.

Yeah. No.

So anyway, new and improved and longer lasting.

Okay. Any other questions? Well, it's been moved and seconded to award this contract to the low bidder. All in favor of that motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Is there anyone opposed? That motion carries unanimously. Up is contract award for Lift Station six replacement.

Yes. So as Emera said, we got the Lift Station 6 replacement. So Ryan Jewell, utility engineer, will be able to provide an overview of the project and the bids.

Thank you, Rick, and good evening, honorable mayor, deputy mayor, and city council members. As Rick mentioned, my name is Ryan Jewell. I'm a utility engineer here at the city, and I've come before you tonight to request a motion to award Lacey contract PW202208 for the Lift Station 6 replacement project. This project will replace an existing wet pit dry pit wastewater lift station that was originally built in the seventies and is reaching the end of its useful life, with a submersible lift station on a city owned parcel at the end of 32nd Court Southeast. The project will also install 510 linear feet of six inch water main replacing the aging AC main that currently serves community members on 32nd Court.

The low bidder was Barcot Construction LLC with a bid of $1,847,251.46. The engineers estimate was $2,296,501.26, and work is anticipated to begin in July 2026 in the last two hundred and fifty working days. On the left, you can see where the lift station is located, just East of Rettle Road, West of Hicks Lake. And on the right, you can see a site map showing where we'll be installing the water main, where the replacement lift station will go. And also shown are about 45 feet of storm drains we'll install to fix some nuisance flooding issues that a resident on 32nd Court is experiencing.

With that, I would like to request a motion to award, the Lift Station 6 replacement project, and would be happy to answer any questions at this time.

Can I get a motion?

I move to approve awarding contract number PW2022-eight to the qualified low bidder, Barkaw Construction LLC, in the amount of 1,847,251 and 46¢.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion?

I was just wondering, the working days, two fifty, is that because it's going get done in segments at different times? It seems like a really long time for a project.

So the duration of that project is partially tied to the other utility work that's going on, the replacement of that waterline. We also need to extend wastewater line down the road to the lift station, and the project does need to be phased so that the existing lift station remains in service during construction. Part of the project is replacing a generator, so our contractor is gonna have to bring in a temporary generator the existing lift station has backup power. So there are a lot of moving pieces to make sure we maintain that service throughout the construction process, which can extend that duration.

Until this had to been a complicated project since it's projects that started in 2022. Whenever you see that PW, that's 2022, that means we've been working on this for a bit. So it's I'm glad to finally see that we're at this point and we're finally going to get this project completed. I appreciate that. Is there any other discussion? And it's been

I have a question.

Go ahead.

It's more of a general question, but it just seems like the low bid is always so much lower than the engineer's estimate. Why is that?

When we are putting together our engineers' estimates, we shoot to be just barely slightly above what that low bidder is gonna be. The joke is if the engineer is the low bidder, we have to build it, which we don't want to do. But generally, if the engineer's estimate is just slightly above the low bidder, that was a very good engineer's estimate.

It is the engineer's estimate is really just an estimate based on the knowledge that we have, the time. Yeah, there's so many things that go into a project like this. We have to give an estimate of how much it will cost, basically that we use that estimate for budgetary purposes. But it can be over the estimate. It can be way under the estimate.

You don't really know until you advertise and see the unsealed bids to see where it actually is at. And so sometimes it's like right on, you're like, wow, we nailed that. But we're that is that number that we use, we're just sort of using it as a placeholder for budgetary purposes. And what the real number is, is we really don't know until the bids come in. So

Thank you.

Is there any other questions? Then it's a motion and a second to approve awarding contract PW2020 to the qualified low bidder. All in favor of that motion signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Is there anyone opposed? And that motion unanimously carries as well.

Before you go, I had one quick question. There's another one down the road from this one that might take up some space in a park and we were kind of looking at some siding issues. And we got a lot of comments on the siding of that. Are we getting any closer to citing that one?

So I believe you're referring to Lift Station 5. I'm not the project manager on that project, so I'm not familiar with it. Rick?

A public meeting scheduled for May 12 with the friends of Hicks Lake and Launchers Park. So yeah, there's been a lot of communication back and forth and they've asked questions and staffs done a lot of research to gather information. So yeah, public meeting coming up.

And then also too with that, in addition to what discussed said, we also looking at refine some of the other options as well. It's been a real nice process response from our public works team to respond to those questions and concerns raised by the area out there. So I want to, again, make sure that our public works everybody knows our public works team has responded and is doing a lot of good work on it.

Thank you.

Okay. And let's go on to next.

Next we have the Community and Cultural Events Grant. As the council is aware, this is our first year of providing grants for some events that are related around community culture. This is a recap of the work session the council had on April 14. So Veronica Hand, our Equity Inclusion Program Manager will give a briefing on the background of the program as well as a recommendation from the Commission on Equity. So Veronica?

Yes. Thank you, Rick. Well, last in our last session, when we touched this subject, we followed the recommendation on the commission on equity to award the grant to events and organizations who are both fulfilling a cultural event and a community event. So tonight, we're just requesting approval for that recommendation. I don't know if you have any other questions.

If if what we were doing is provide funding for eight events that are both community and cultural events. There's eight applicants who would receive 70 almost 75% of their requests for the total that we have budgeted of $25,000.

Can I get a motion?

Yeah, I would move that we provide funding for eight events that are both community and cultural events with the eight applicants who received nearly 75% of their request for a total allocation of $25,000

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion?

Well, so it looks like we're going to expand the entire pool, which is fantastic. That was our goal. I don't remember how many applicants we had. We had 12. We had 12 applicants, eight of them receiving awards. And so is this an indication to you of how we should be looking at next year's budget for this?

Well, this is definitely not enough. We originally had 16 applicants, but some of them didn't meet the the requirements as we ended up with 12. But, yeah, the organizations that applied, most of them are very small, and they also are gonna face a challenge because the the way our city works, we're doing it on a reimbursement basis, and some of them don't have the funds to pay upfront and be reimbursed. So if we could extend the amount, it will be better for the community, obviously, because we're leaving some applicants outside right now. And one way that we were discussing, Shannon and I, to approach the upfront cost is talk to a credit union or a bank.

So I'm already in conversations with Oliphed to see if they can somehow finance that cost.

Okay. Is it do we have to do it on a reimbursable basement for the state by law? Is that what's going on?

Yes. It's part of our controls and performance in our audits is that we reimburse for actual expenses. And so it's we've come across the past audits and found findings on other type of grant programs that's similar that we didn't do that. The business grants when COVID first hit was one example where we had to get money out quickly. And that was one of the things that we in terms of controls. And I'll invite Troy to add on to that some more background.

Yeah, don't have too much to add to what Rick just communicated. It's really about the city receiving the services before it pays for it. And, you know, the risk that maybe an event actually might occur and we don't ever receive that service. So those are really kind of the two concerns we're trying to address that.

So my recommendation is and I appreciate oldly fed, that conversations with OLDFED. We can obviously have conversations with the bank that we do a lot of business with, with the City of Lacey as well. You know, these are basically guaranteed funds. You know, we almost guarantee it back to the financial institution if they were to give the dollars out first. And so there's the risk involved here to the financial institution is none in the long term.

Yeah, they have to maybe front it. But I think this is obviously a big issue. On one hand, we've gone to our community and said we appreciate the diversity of our community, the culture of our community. We want to see that celebrated in our community. And then, you know, here's a grant program, but, oh, you're going to have to do it on a reverse spaced teeth, you know, we run into this circumstance where it makes it very hard for that to happen. And so number one, yeah,

it would

be great to get a you know, of course, a recap of this the events that have happened, and attendance, and so on and so forth, but when then it gets time for us to look at the budget again, without trying to figure out this part of it, it's really difficult, you know? And so we do have a little legwork we can do. Like I said, I do feel like the bank that we bank with locally here and do a lot of business with should be someone who we approach as well in this process and see what they say is, too. So my 2¢.

I was just going to say that when we first saw this on April 14, many of these, or at least a third of these, had already happened. So we have to be able to move up the approval this approval process. So that way, the banks could bank on getting that money as a reimbursement, for lack of a better term. But so I think it's great that we would be able to offer up that, but we do need to then shift this a little bit forward. So that way, there's more of a guarantee to the banks that they're going to get reimbursed at least for some of the money that

they're putting. And part of that conversation on the fourteenth too was those this is the first year. So now you start the cycle. So we had to have that starting point. So now as we go through the process now, we'll be able to capture in the next year's funding cycle those other events.

And then also too just around if there's events that weren't funded, I think when the commission on equity was weighing through the applications and scoring are also looking at those events that not only brought community together but also brought in cultural and diversity type components to their events. And so that was another factor they looked at why they didn't fund every one of them and they kind of looked into the recommended list and it's option A. And then two, again, is the first year of this program, so we're going to see some tweaks and changes going forward. And we can look at how we help promote from community partners or sponsorships, because again, it's all about creating that grassroots efforts of events. And I think this is a good step forward in doing that and highlighting some of these events to bring them back to our community.

We did notice is that several of the events would have happened in another city if we didn't have a grant. So it did meet that purpose. The other thing regarding the events that already happened, if they are awarded the funding because the event already happened, we won't be able to give them the money until next year when they have their next event.

But that will be on a different site. We need to figure out the cycle deal.

Yes. Yeah. Next year, have to start

And again, it's holding that up, and we'll get that sorted out for the next round. And then also, Because

if we know we're going to pass the budget, you know, and have this in line, that should be either we need to have this sort of ready to go based on when we're going to pass the budget for the following year. So like it's ready to go January 1 or

We will work on syncing that up.

Syncing that up better. So

like you said, Mr. City Manager, the first year tweaks and changes are always interesting. We grow from them, which is great. And I know that a lot of people apply for dollars because they don't have money to front load. So it makes it difficult to for a reimbursement basis. However, on the LTAC committee, there is a 30% upfront portion that they are able to draw on for marketing purposes and some to cover some costs. Is it possible that we could look down that road to see? Because those are state dollars, these are city dollars. I know there's a little bit different. There is.

But if there is something that we can look into to see if there is some way that maybe we can front load a portion to them that could help a lot of events. I

could just offer question. Yeah, you're correct, Deputy Mary, in terms of the LTAC processes, there's a 30% that we can utilize before the event occurs for marketing, but it's still based on actual marketing activity being completed and invoiced in. It's about timing of the event and the advanced marketing information. So it's not a front loading, it's still a reimbursable basis. It's just the type of activities being done prior to the event occurring.

Yes, but the same principle kind of still applies

It goes back to Finance Director of Choice comment about we have to be careful in terms of paying for services before services rendered. And that way we have those controls in place so that we don't have something done. But we'll work into some options.

But you're right, where in the fact where if they wanted to use events coming up and if they did certain amount of dollars to for marketing, soon as that marketing dollar amount came in, it could be used for

Correct. We can look at that type of They felt

they laid out, but it's still a reimbursement.

Yes. Could be a bill, but

But that'd be something we can tweak and add on to it if there is events in more market or something like Because they could look at that into the criteria or the program policies.

Yes.

Yes, that's correct.

Yes. And like I said, the first year, I'm you know, it's tough adding new things when we're always, you know, worried about our budget. But, you know, I've said this for a long time. We still have to sort of walk and chew gum at the same time. You know, these are part of what makes our community special.

And without a special community, it's hard to do, you know, what are we doing this all for? And so but there's I'm happy where we're at. I think it's something that let's learn from, and hopefully be able to expand a little bit. It's not law of dollars in the scheme of things, and but the return, I think it's going to be it's going have a big impact on our community. So, is there any other discussion?

Then it's been moved and seconded to follow option one, which is the recommendation of the prioritized funding for community and cultural events. All in favor of that motion, signify by saying aye. Aye. Is there anyone opposed? And that motion unanimously carries.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Just on a separate note, just wanted to thank the city manager's office, especially Rick and the council for the support for the to the the IV summit.

I just

want to say thank you. It was a great event.

Excellent. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Thank you for all your work.

And speaking of LTAC process, we'll next invite Sadie Siglin, our management analyst, up to provide a recap of the 2025 funding awards

for

the LTAC program and then a foreshadowing of the upcoming, updates to the 2026 process. I'll turn it over to Sadie.

Well, good evening again, counsel. I haven't got to do two reports in one night in a while, so thanks for having me. As Rick mentioned, I'm gonna give a brief update on lodging tax funding. We have some quick 2025 funding cycle outcomes recap from last year, and a few updates for the current cycle right now, and then our lodging tax advisory committee recently met. So a few cycle planning updates from that meeting.

As a reminder, lodging tax revenues are imposed and regulated by the state, so there are very limited use of revenues. Those are limited to the tourism marketing, hosting and marketing special events and festivals, and operations of capital expenditures for tourism related facilities. We have an application review process. Your lodging tax advisory committee reviews applications every year and makes recommendations to this council for funding. They have to make recommendations from applicants in the applicant pool, and then this council gets the opportunity to review and make recommendation and take action from that.

You're not required to fund the full list, but you may not fund recipients that weren't recommended by LTACH. Looking at the 2025 funding cycle, in 2025, a little over $607,000 in funds were authorized. At the end of the year, we did have some remaining funding left for the events category. $22,959 went unused. That rolls over into reserves for this year for future use.

Tourism related facilities, there was a little over $1,800 unused, which again rolls over and carries forward to this next cycle. All of the tourism funding promotion activities were used, so a 100,000 out of a 100,000. Overall, a pretty good outcome and use of funding. We're looking at attendance here. In blue, you have attendance related to activities, and then in excuse me.

Blue, facilities, green activities. What's not up here is tourism related marketing because those marketing entities have attendance numbers that support these events. So there would be some double counting. So this is strictly for events and facilities. What you can see here in our first category is overall attendance, everyone that was anticipated to attend activities and the actual number of individuals who anticipated and came.

So the events came in slightly under estimates, but you can see their tourism related facilities came in above estimates. In the middle, we're looking at those who traveled greater than 50 miles. Because Lacey is located pretty much 50 miles from any border, we have combined greater than 50 miles and out of state visitors in this category. So you can see, again, events came in slightly lower as well as facilities in this category, a little less tourism from 50 miles or greater. And then all the way to the right, we're looking at paid overnight stays, which also came in slightly lower than anticipated, but still a decent amount of overnight attendance.

It is helpful to note the paid overnight stays are reported by our recipients, but there's not information about where they stayed. So these stays aren't necessarily in Lacey. What we're looking at here are the top five attendance outcomes, again, just for events and tourism related facilities. So you can see overall attendance, the number one generator this year was the regional athletic complex, the RAC. Notable, the RAC also hosts many of the activities that receive lodging tax funding and host has their events at the RAC.

The number one reported paid overnight stays in 2025 also was the RAC at a reported 14125. What we're looking at this slide is a comparison of 2025 to 2024. It is notable 2024 was one of the first years that Experience Olympia and Beyond offered tourism marketing services and geo fencing to lazy lodging tax funding recipients. So this is the first year we start to see more consistency in attendance estimates versus outcomes. And then again in 2025, that's the first full year of heavy opting into that and using that geo fencing.

So in 2025, there were only $7,000 roughly more awarded, but you can see a significant increase in the number of awards given with 10 more awards. And then you can see over to the left, the paid overnight stays in 2025 dramatically increased from 2024, as well as 50 miles or more for travel. Again, this category includes out of state, And then overall attendance, there's a pretty significant jump as well. Also notable in 2024, the RAC did receive two awards. That's the year they got an award for the facility in the golf cart.

We didn't double count that. So as good as that would have looked for the rack, would have been a little skewed. Any questions before I move on to 2026? This year, looking at 2026, and you do have in your packet the full breakdown of the sheet. We are looking at some budget projections, and Chelsea did share with the lodging tax advisory committee that our January income was 19.2% higher than it was last year this time.

So we're already seeing some significant increases in estimated revenues. Also noting that the interest shown up here to the right of roughly 2,600 is understated as there were some unrealized gains and losses. So we're really closer to about a little over $9,000. So a pretty significant increase from up there. So financially, lodging tax revenues are looking pretty good.

However, it is dependent on overnight stays, which we can't predict. There is an update, as this council knows, last year during the lodging tax process, council elected to review the lodging tax recommendations outside of the budget cycle. So what that looks like is on the bottom here in the green or here tonight, you guys are getting your review. Historically, this council hasn't got a review of the last year this early in the year. So we've added that informational hearing for you guys.

And then instead of approving or taking action on the recommendations during the budget process, this council has elected to review outside and have a closer look. So it won't impact the applications or the review cycle. It will just give this council some more time to review recommendations from the committee because we all know how busy that budget cycle gets for you. Currently, we are in the middle of the 2026 process. Well, almost the middle.

We start in January. This year, there was just shy of $700,000 in funding authorized for recipients. So we had 11 recipients in the events category, seven in tourism related facilities, and one in tourism promotion activities. This year, Experience Olympiad Beyond has again offered free marketing and geofencing resources to Lacey funding recipients as part of their award. We had 15 of our recipients opt in.

So there were 19 recipients total this year. Those who didn't opt in were already working with them in some capacity. So that's a pretty significant increase, and hopefully will provide this council with some more accurate, consistent numbers for attendance as the year goes on. Also, as deputy mayor mentioned earlier tonight, this year is the first year that the city for lodging tax funds is allowing some use of funding prior to the activities. So recipients can use up 30% of their award for marketing related expenses before the activities happen.

Seven of the recipients who are eligible for this opted in this year. Citi funded and sourced activities were not eligible for this just because of the way we reimburse expenses. But that's a pretty substantial amount, and glad to see that that option has gone to good use for our recipients. Also, a brief update about mandated reporting. The city does report to the joint legislative audit review committee, also known as JLARC, once a year on attendance outcomes.

This was mandated after the expanded allowable expenses in 2007. 2013 came around, and JLARC said, we kinda wanna make sure that cities are using this funding appropriately since we've expanded it. So they initiated this reporting requirement. It was used to collect data, and it is not something that's verified or used as an audit tool. Then in September, the committee met and said, hey.

We're getting a lot of feedback from our municipalities about how much time and resource this is taking. Can we suspend this since it's not used as a compliance tool? This information is attendance only. We don't report on how our funds were reimbursed. So that was a big discussion for JLARC.

And then in December, they elected to suspend the reporting requirement for 2026, which would have been 2025 data. So the city did not have to report on that this year. However, no determination moving forward has been made. So we collect that information, business as usual until a permanent decision has been made. We also have a brief update on Lacey Hotels, which unfortunately, since your last LTAC related update, is not much.

There are currently three hotels in various stages with an estimated 362 rooms coming on board. So looking at that in the future for potential increased revenue for lodging tax and paid overnight stays. Moving forward to planning for 2027. Last time use this council saw this in 2025, they gave some feedback for the lodging tax advisory committee to increase funding for the rack with lodging tax dollars to prioritize applicants who have activities that occur in Lacey or the urban growth area, and to prioritize applications that have the potential for the highest paid overnight stays. And that's something that the committee took really quickly and at their next meeting added into that selection process.

Things that the committee reviewed at their meeting late last month were how to prioritize those applications, looking at prioritizing multi day and multi occurrence activities as they have a higher potential to bring people overnight, long term activities that have potential to generate overnight stays, and activities located in Lacey as recommended by this council. Also considering one time events that may have capacity for significant overnight stays, and are there activities outside of Lacey that could partner and have some indirect benefit on Lacey's tourism. The committee also reviewed some best practices for application review. This includes using an application scoring rubric. This rubric is really heavily point weighted to support activities which have in a location in Lacey aligned with this council's direction.

And then looking at that tourism promotion and community collaboration enhancing tourism in the city. They also are looking to attempt to allow awards with a minimum of $5,000. This came from feedback from recipients of needing awards of value that are worth some of the reporting requirements and administrative work for having this grant. So looking ahead for this year, we are here tonight, May 5, giving you all your application cycle reviews and updates. Early July 1, we will open the funding applications.

Those will go through August 21. The committee historically meets on Thursdays in September and goes through the various stages of the process, reviewing applications, bringing in applicants for supplemental reviews, and then making funding recommendations for this council. And you are all tentatively scheduled October 13 to review those initial recommendations from the committee, and then meet again to discuss on October 27. And that is all I have for you. I know deputy mayor did a great job at the last meeting on his board recap.

Any questions?

Just, you know, one question. I noticed you've got, like, a a seven week window there from the time applications open to closing. Did you find that that was necessary that the organizations that applied needed all that time?

Yeah. Historically, the application cycle had been three to four weeks. And what we were hearing is, hey. This is right in the middle of summer. The bulk of these activities occur in the summer. So we did, starting in 2025, expand the application timeline to allow more time. Also, the application itself has changed. So even we have some returning applicants, but each year requires them to really look and make sure they're providing the best information. And we've got some good feedback about that. The application's also now completely online.

Two years ago, we went to a hybrid model, and last year was the first all online. And that has been something we received good feedback to. I know deputy mayor really enjoys having seven binders of printed applications like we would have for each, but the online's been a nice change for our applicants as well.

And so is this still following a fiscal year? So the money becomes available as January 1?

Yes. They receive all of our recipients receive their contracts. We try to get by mid February, and then they have until December 31 to expense all of those funds. There are occasions where applicants have activities at the beginning of That's the

what I'm quite know I've heard that in the past where if they're having something done in January, you know, what what they do about that?

Yeah. And luckily, they're still eligible for all of that. And because lodging tax funding is given on a reimbursement basis only after the activities have occurred, that hasn't historically been an issue. Because by the time their activities are over and they get their contract, they're ready to do all of their reimbursement anyway. However, if somebody were to have a time sensitive issue, we could always do our best to get that one contract out as early as possible, and that is something that we work around to prioritize as fast as we can. But so far, have not had anyone have issues using their funding.

Perfect. Any questions? Well, good job. Thank you, deputy mayor.

Thank you, Citi. I have one other item that's not on the agenda, but it's kind of a point of privilege. It's to acknowledge those that like to work in more of the backgrounds of our public meetings and set up the records and documenting all the decisions. But I just wanted to acknowledge our clerk's team because this is municipal clerk's week, recognition week. And I just wanna recognize Alyssa, who's hiding behind the monitor right now, and Brandy and Paul because really the meetings and the schedules and the agendas and everything that goes into putting in the meetings and get important issues and policies and information before counsel for consideration decision can't happen with the support of an excellent clerk's team, which we have.

And I just want to recognize and acknowledge our city clerk Alyssa and her deputy clerk Paul and Brandy tonight. And if you see Paul and Brandy later on this week or next week, extend my appreciation and her appreciation. I know you appreciate them as well. So thank you, and thank you, Alyssa.

Hello, Alyssa.

So now we're on to council reports. I do not have report, although I do want to remind the deputy mayor next Tuesday, I will be out of town. Okay. So I'm for the council to know, I'm I'm leaving on Friday, and I won't get back next Thursday. So I leave in your good hands, deputy mayor. So, deputy mayor, do you

have a report? I do not have a report. However, I did go to the DEIB summit, this Saturday, and Veronica really did a great job. And I kind of gave a little bit of a speech and was able to communicate with the entire group, went off script, but I think it turned out okay. And all in all, summit was really fantastic.

Great. Councilmember Greenstein.

Just one very quick report. Thurston County Medic one EMS met on April 23. And just a couple of things I want to point out. For the first time in, I don't know how many years, we are fully staffed at EMS. Just made a job and they someone just accepted the offer for the final open position. So that was great news because it's been several years. Had an overview of our first quarter actuals on the budget. Everything looks great. We're at about 7% spent. So everything is on track for meeting budget this year without any problems.

And last, a lot of work has been going on in the background to try to break down some of the silos between what we call ALS and BLS, so advanced life support and basic life support. And in working on that, we're making some changes to the bylaws and that we had a pretty in-depth discussion about that to do away with some of the separate committees we have. Like for instance, we have a bylaws we have a negotiating committee for contracts with ALS and we have a separate one for BLS. We're combining all of that into one negotiating committee. We're making a lot of efforts to break down those silos and make it one EMS system for you know to serve the public. And that is my report.

Thank you. Councilmember Cox.

No meetings to report on, but I did want to say that early reports from the system overhaul for inner city transit, things seem to be going smoothly. I was adjacent to the Lacey Transit Center this morning and noticed they have a canopy with intercity transit on their display out there with staff ready and willing, you know, to help anybody who's confused by the changes. So I I know a lot of upfront work went into making this happen, and so I'm I'm hoping that it's gonna be smooth riding for everybody. Thanks.

Thank you. Council member Dunning.

Just my planned update from the tourism, conference. So, I won't go too in-depth because we're gonna have a stakeholder luncheon on May 29 that we already have scheduled, and we're gonna break that down into the four kind of takeaways that we have from that event. First one being perception, which is how people outside of our community view us, and how that impacts us and how to change, that narrative for the positive. The second one, which is along the same lines, the civic pride mean, like, we view ourselves not only as each individual cities but as a region, and how we utilize that to increase the perception from the outside as well too. Because if we don't love ourselves, no one else is gonna love us.

Third one, which was it's kind of a random one, but bookable experience is about how we can, you know, have a a boat charter, you know, industry that goes out and does stuff or how how we start incorporating those things, into the Thurston County region because we really feel like that's an area where we could shine that we're really, really lacking, that was a big really successful in other areas. And then the fourth one, which I'll be presenting on, is Unity. And the biggest takeaway from the entire event was the most successful organizations really tied everything together. And so that means economic development, both developing businesses and developing workers. So that's something that we're we're we're trying to do really well here.

And the tourism, having everything wrapped together. Now the challenge that we have that a lot of these cities don't is, you know, a lot of these are just big cities, but we're a region. Mhmm. You know? So we have, five decent sized cities plus a lot of small towns plus a county, and we all kind of have different needs once and then different organizations within those. We really tried to dive into how we can utilize the VCB instead of just being its own kind of out there entity of supporting the other organizations improving our worth. I remember when I first joined the VCB, it was kind of like this long list of the things that we cannot do. You know? We can't do that. We can't do events.

We can't do these things. But but in reality, we can help and support the people who are already doing those things. Absolutely. So I think that's a big culture or mindset shift that that we kind of all realize is, okay. Maybe we don't need to have all of this under one umbrella, but how can we work together and utilize?

And I think FIFA is a good example of that. It's like the the you know, everything was kind of disconjointed at the beginning. And if we just had someone, you know, organizing and helping and directing, which I think the VCB can really shine at, we can we can actually utilize it to do much bigger things. So if you're interested, that's going to be a luncheon on May 29, and we really kind of look forward to creating a new vision of what the VCB could look like in the future.

So he retires that day.

He's going to be hired by the VCB.

Where are we at on the new Executive Director for the VCB?

They are reviewing applications right now. I'm trying we didn't have the meeting this time, so they're probably a little bit farther along now in the process. But I know they were in the process of narrowing down. They had got all of

their

applicants. I think we had two local applicants and, like, 12 total. But it seems like the pool is a little bit bigger and a little bit better than it was. And so they are going through the first process of of narrowing those applicants down. So that's the the stage that we were at during our last meeting, but I will get an update. Hopefully, maybe I'll I'll ask and see if I can get update Great. At our work session.

Thank you. Councilmember Turner.

Yes. Briefly, I attended the TRPC meeting last Friday. And in summary, the council agreed to approve the modifications to the call for projects that I talked about last week. That was a good thing. Also, I attended two days of the DE both days of the DEIB summit.

And I have to say that the deputy mayor did a really good job of representing the city and explaining our commitment to making sure that none of the citizens in Lacey get left behind. So I think you did a really good job. And and the vibe in the room reminded me of one of my favorite proverbs, and that is that sticks in a bundle are unbreakable. And when I saw all of these jurisdictions coming together and talking about how we have this shared vision and commitment, it was really a good thing. And I'm looking forward to next year. Well, more than that, I'm looking forward to us doing some of the things that we talked about this year. So it's not just the conference that we do follow-up.

Council Merritt.

Yeah. So SWAC will be meeting, I believe, this week. So nothing to report out on that except for on the DEIB summit. I attended both days. It was so wonderful.

Veronica, Denise, Nicole, all the people who were involved with the planning of it, they did an amazing, amazing job. They were able to get all the tribes in the region there. So all day Friday, we were learning about tribal relations, and we were learning about the importance of having a tribal liaison when it comes to actually doing the intergovernmental outreach and treating the tribes as sovereign nations and being able to make sure that we are folding ourselves into the requests when we ask them to work with us in the on regional issues. And then the second day, having the youth council there, which we heard a little bit about today from the youth council member who was there, getting their input and seeing how they would like to see the city or the region grow is really important, and I found that to be really impactful on how, we can approach some of our planning. And, so that was really great.

And also, I commend, Deputy Mayor, Miller for his words. That was amazing. So thank you. And I think that is all.

Thank you. It's obviously something that I'm very proud of, you know, two of the things that I've sort of put my heart and soul into to make sure that we had here in the city of Lacey that's now become two advisory groups with Lacey Youth Council and our Commission on Equity. And, you know, all you try and do is get back to your community and put in a place where, you know, it can grow and be better and everyone has an opportunity to be successful. I've been so lucky in my life to have been born and raised here in this community and have a business here in this community. It's where my I was raised, where I raised my family.

And it's so heartwarming to hear, you know, the impact that we have had, this council has had when upon the creation of our youth council and our commission on equity and what it's spreading out and doing in other communities is just, it's so great to hear. So thank you for those reports. I really appreciate it. With that, we have reached the end of our agenda. So without objection, I'm going to call this meeting adjourned. And as always, you keep it classy, Lacey.