City Council - Regular Meeting

No, mayor. We're live. All right, it is 6 o'clock and we're going to kick off this uh Lake Stevens City Council meeting. It's March 24th. Uh and it we are down at the mill downtown Lake Stevens. We are going to go ahead and um record this uh council meeting as well and it will be later published on our YouTube channel. So with that, I will call the meeting to order and ask all to 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, with liberty and justice for all.

All right, great. Can we get a roll call, please? Council member Dorstad, present. Council member Donahghue, present. Council member Packard, here. Council member Edwards, present. Council member McManis, present. Council member Shipman, present. Council member Aria, here. Okay. And council president, could we get an approval of the agenda?

And still your microphone. Uh there's been a request to move consent agenda item 8G to action and a suggestion that we have action occur just after consent agenda and just before council business and would entertain any other changes or a motion to approve with that change. Move to approve as amended. Second motion a second. Any discussion? All those in favor please say I. Any opposed? Thank you. Mayor, you have an agenda.

All right. Thank you, President. All right. Looks like I'm up. I'm gonna take a stand kind of by the podium here, although I doubt I'll stay very long. Um, sound okay on the on this lapel mic. Cool.

All right, let's do a a state of the city presentation. We like to do this once a year. Um, I've uh um it's just a great opportunity for us to talk about the accolades of the city and everything that's gone well over the last year and as well as to talk about what we're going to be doing uh as we move forward. So, um let's hit it off with the slideshow. We're getting there. Okay, perfect.

So, this presentation was put together by Olivia and Kayn. They've done a they do a great job every year. Great pictures that are captured over the year. actually see the great.

All right, there we go. Good stuff. In the words of um Napoleon's brother, I love technology.

All right, so uh let's go and kick this off. Um you know, Lake Stevens, we are one community around the lake. Um uh which is a great um motto for us, I think, and and very um indicative of how we are running the city these days. A little bit about who we are, where we've been. Um, you know, Lake Stevens is the gateway into East County, into Snowish County, and into just the beautiful area that we live in with the mountains and lakes everywhere, hiking trails. Uh, we actually live in just a great fortunate uh location. We have a great history as a city, um, one of timber and mining and resorts and vacation town. And, um, it's just a a great opportunity for us to celebrate, um, where we've come from and where we're going, too. Next one. Um, as a city, these are some of the things that we do. We're roughly uh 41,000 42,000 people uh inside the city right now. These are the departments that we currently have under city um that we uh manage and uh provide services for within the city. I'm going to go through each one of these and uh a little later on the presentation talk about their um success stories and um next slide. This is our great and wonderful city council and uh they're all amongst you at this time. Uh good to see uh we have some we have some new faces, four new faces within uh the city council right now and uh we meet here second and fourth Tuesdays of every month and then uh we also fill in the inside Tuesdays if we need to do workshops to do some um work on pro projects or subjects. Um that's uh usually our our uptempo for city council. Next slide. Uh we wanted to start this off. Um

Marcus Tangent, as many of you knew him, uh passed away this last year. He was on our city council. Um I was very reflective last week. Last week I was at the National League of Cities conference in DC. That's the last place I saw Marcus was at the was at NLC. Um he bought me dessert like he always does and uh uh it was a reflective week last week. Um as some of you know we are going to be um moving city hall um into our complex that we have towards the south of the lake across from Tom Thump. Part of the remodel of th of those buildings and of that grounds to put city hall in. We're going to go ahead and put a uh an interpretive trail in commemor uh to commemorate Marcus Tadet for his many many years of service not only in on city council but within our community. Um and it'll be there's that little pond that's right in the corner um of the complex. Uh interestingly, he told me just before he passed away um that when he was a kid, he actually fished uh in that little pond. So it'll it will be a great um memorial for him uh to have that trail. Next slide. Uh as many of you know uh we we do a lot of work within our city um with Lean Six Sigma in mind. We have several we have almost 40ish% of our staff are either green belt or black belt trained within Lean Six Sigma. And if you don't know what ling six sigma is, it's it's the ability to find processes to be more efficient um in an organization and we do that in when as it pertains to government. Uh we actually have a lean six sigma kind of academy center of excellence excellence is what we call it and we host black belt and green belt training here. Um not only for our own folks but for anybody who wishes to come

to it. We have a lot of outside agencies, uh, private and, um, special districts, other cities who send their folks here. And it's a great little networking collaborative effort, um, to learn how other folks do processes. And it, it just builds um, it builds up our own um, cadray of uh, of citizens within our own staff. So, it's great. Next slide. Some of our success stories over this last year. Um we have an inventory control specialist now Gus. Um he took some of the skills that he learned from his uh course and um put that towards uh in we haven't had an inventory control specialist before in the city. And so he is really working on making sure that we have the right inventory at the right time for a lot of our projects that happen within the city so we don't have excess inventory and and overruns on costs. So he's doing a great job there. Um and then um uh Brandon uh did some work within our facility to um um create more efficiency of space. Um and then um Lauren who runs our training, she um that is a new position as well and she is um building that out to make sure that all those courses that we have to run and and certifications that we have to have as um employees are are are kept track of and and work through. Next slide. Uh this last year was the first time we did an internship program within the city and it was uh highly successful. Uh we had five interns um through uh and we had one in uh emergency resources, we had um human resources, we had one in emergency management um uh community

development and then a couple doing G our GIS layers. Um they did a lot of work for us and we'll talk a little bit more about um their projects. um working on um the comp plan annex uh for emergency management um wild they did a GIS if you go on our GIS dashboard you can see people can report seeing wildlife and it's kind of fun to go in there and see what's in there um and um talking about our critical areas as well and just building out uh HR policies and and our wellness events. So they did a great job. We're gonna we're looking to do that again this summer with uh in interns as well. Our work orders um if you've followed the couple last uh state of the uh cities um you know that um we did um American Public Works Association accreditation. Part of that was to really uh build out our asset management and asset maintenance. Part of that is a citizens view portal where each one of you can download onto your phone. Even if you have an iPhone, us Android users use a lot because just what we do. Um you can download the Citizen View app and report um um issues that you see in the city, a cracked sidewalk, pothole, whatever it might be, and then it goes straight to public works. They triage it and get to work on the on those work orders. So, um, our work orders this last year within public works is they've c created over, uh, 10,000, uh, work orders were completed for 2025. That's it's quite a lot. Next slide. Volunteer opportunities. I always like to talk about Just Serve. This last year, we actually received a Just Serve City Award. Um, Just Serve is where we would really like our community and our

citizens to go to to find service opportunities. I often see that question like, "Hey, I've got the weekend off. I want to go do something. What's going on?" And Just Serve needs to be that um that bank that people go to to not only put in opportunities, but also to look for opportunities and serve within our community. That's what Just Serve does as a tool. Uh we also have uh boards and commissions that citizens serve on. Um and we actually have uh vacancies on the civil service and the salary commissions right now. So if you are looking for opportunities, that's a great place to start. Next slide. So many years ago when I ran for mayor, one of the things I ran on was to create a trail underneath the power lines in West Lake Stevens. So, from 20th Street um uh north, uh I'm very very fortunate that this last year we were actually able to um fulfill a section of that uh and did a ribbon cutting for the what's called the Bay View Trail that goes from 20th Street just um kind of east of the Trestle Station. Um um and it goes north to 12th Street. Um, and I think you'll see later on that we will um, this spring kick off the next phase of that and go from 12th Street to 8th Street. We'll just slowly keep going north until we meet Mary'sville. If you hit the next slide, um, you can see it's a very difficult to see map. Um, but, um, so this is 204, right? And this is Soer Hill right here. So, the goal is to bring that trail all the way north and Mary'sville is bringing theirs to south and we'll meet those up and then you'll be able to um eventually get all the way to the Centennial Trail uh on that same trail.

Great project. Uh great coordination with Mary'sville. We're currently um we received um 500,000 last year that will do the design engineering for the um 8th section to 204 section. Then we got then we'll have to go out and find some money to actually do the construction. Great project. Next slide. A a uh a big plus for the city this last year was Cavalero Hill. If you don't know where Cavalar Hill, it's where the skate park is across the street from the trestle station. For the longest time, that was a county park inside the city. And um this last year, the county um uh gave us that park. So now the city runs that park and there's a vision for that park that it will hold a community center um in the very south end of the park. So, um, just sets up a great opportunity for us to, um, we have very, very little open space left in the city and we really need to kind of focus it on some recreational opportunities and so this is a great place to do so. Um, next slide. Um, we had a great project this year. Um, a girl named Allison Jones reached out to me, um, two years ago. um her daughter um has um araxia which is um I don't not sure exactly all of it but it's a kind of a communication um issue. So she asked to put some communication boards in our parks and I think this is a great um example of our parks doing great work to ensure that we're inclusive in our parks. And so now in each of our parks um we have these communication boards that kids can

communicate better with if they need to. cool project and that was a lot of Rotary money and I think Sherwood Community Services was involved as well. Um I'm I'm very um pro getting our staff involved not only at the city level but at county, state, and national levels and their organizations to make sure that we're looking at and learning best practices of other cities and bringing those back. So, you'll see that we we um attend several conferences um as a staff to ensure that they're getting up-to-date information. And what ends up happening quite often as well is we we find that we're experts on subjects and end up doing a lot of panels and discussions um where we're leading those those uh education events. Next slide, grant awards. So, um, this last year, uh, you can see that we received about $3.8 million total in grants, um, various grants, whether it might be storm water capital improvements, um, TIB money, um, whatever it might be. Um because I bec I think it's very indicative because we're such an active staff um um at several levels. When you're at those conferences and when you're doing those things, you're meeting the right people and finding out where the money's at and we're able to bring that back. Next slide. some of our city administration um accomplishments. Public requests um almost 2,000 public request records requests over this last year. It takes up a lot of our staff time to do public requests. Um some of them are as mundane as I need a traffic report and some of

them are huge as in who knows it could be you'd be amazed what people ask. So, uh, spends a lot of time and resources and money on that. Um, we, um, also do a a legislative event every year that our administration, our city administration works with in the in the fall and we bring in our legislators to talk about what's going on in the city. Next slide. Our finance um, finance runs very well. Um we have uh four four five folks in the finance section. Um they do a lot of work and you know one of the bullets down there is process $39 million in vendor payments including 588 vendors. Like that's a lot to keep track of and to to understand. If you're a business owner, small business owner, you know, like understanding your vendors and invoices, that's a lot of work to make sure that that's all figured out. um as well as uh we did 42 city projects last year with um $5 million worth of capital projects. So our finance stays very busy and you can see over here to the right how uh the city is funded um through different revenue sources. HR um HR uh they headed up the internship program I already talked about. Um we did some strategic planning this last year creating the new mission, guiding principles, strategic focus for the city. Um we um our emergency management um for the city has been um good in the past and um Max who runs that has uh did a lot of work this last year to increase our our emergency management plan. And next slide.

it. It we love it. Um, one of the things that we do within the city is, um, the city's known for taking, um, some risks and not I don't want to say risk, but some some taking some courage in the artificial intelligence world within within government technology. Um, one of the areas that we um are doing that we're a development partner with a company called Darwin AI. Um, if you think of you have macaffy for your internet, um, security, think of Darwin AI as your AI security. So, we want to we know that our staff is using AI and we want them to do so responsibly and we want to make sure that they're um not putting anyone's information out into the AI world. So that's what Darwin does for us is it allows us to see um what is being used and um codifies our policy to ensure that um um any violations of it are caught before it goes out. That makes sense. So great program, great development partner. Um uh and we have an AI subcommittee that works that. So every 6 months we we re relook at our charter to see if we're going in the right direction with AI and adding new tools. Next slide. Parks and Rex. We stood up at parks and wreck. Are we two years now, Sarah? Three years. Are we three and a half? All right. Um, parks has been doing great work. We did not have a parks department beforehand and uh, it's great to have Sarah on

board and her staff. Um, our citizens, um, expect great park services and she's been building that out from literally scratch and um, and it's there's been some learning along the way and some processes along the way. Um but that department's really getting um squared away and it's fun to watch. Um especially as our parks during the summer are um just full. Doesn't matter which one you go to at any one time. Um so great work with with Sarah and her crew. Next slide. Planning community development. Um that first bullet is is fairly significant. Um, we ranked third in the state in terms of permit efficiency for timelines. Um, which is which is an interesting thing because I know I get complaints every once in a while that we're not efficient and I'm like we're third best in the state. I don't know what that means for other cities, but I think we do a pretty dang good job. So, um, we uh did some automated code enforcement. um uh completed traffic impact uh analysis um within the planning community um planning community development. We're also looking at some AI um tools that would uh really make permitting very very efficient um both on the uh user side and on the planner side. So excited to see how that works out over this next year. Next slide. police department. Um uh you know, city of Lake Stevens over the last several years has ranked in the top 10, uh safest cities in the state. I think that's um a great accolade to uh our chief and our great uh officers who do work in our in our community. Um the

chief runs a Special Olympics event, the Polar Plunge, every year. Um, if you don't know what the Internet Crimes Against Children task force is, it's um it's a task force that deals with the most heinous of crimes against children. And um our uh very own Detective Parnell receives some um accolades for her work in that area. Um yeah, good stuff. Next slide. Public works accomplishments. We talked about the 10,000 plus work orders done. Uh we did a lot of sidewalks this last year as well as uh ADA ramps um ADA ramp fixes. Um we listened to citizens about um speeds and conject and issues on the south end of the lake and implemented a three-way stop on the South Lake Stevens Road and the Chiest Cutoff. Um we our public works has done uh several presentations at APWA and TLG talking about our um accreditation process and what that's done for our city and and and uh how that's changed our city. Um, and uh, I think one of the best things is um, I complained long enough about the ratty little trees that were on 20th Street around um, uh, the Trussell station and they went out and replaced them all so they can actually like grow and be healthy. So, we'll keep an eye on those. It's a gateway to our city and it should look they did a great job on that. Next slide. our TIB. So, several years ago, the great citizens of the city, I think there's something we can all admit that we don't have enough sidewalks inside the city, right? So, um several years ago, we went to the voters with a list of prioritized sidewalks, mainly looking at, uh sidewalks to schools, uh safety

issues, and since then, we've been building out um a lot of sidewalks and uh with the money that comes in from that sales tax increase. We also did some pavement preservation with it. Um, this last year, um, this last year we did the main street improvement, finished that up all the way down to to the Boys and Girls Club. I think Main Street looks wonderful now with the new lighting and the new uh um sidewalks downtown has cleaned it up quite a bit. Um, this next year um is that on this slide? This next year we're going to do Here we go. Thank you. So, this next year we'll be doing a multi-use path on 17th Avenue and then um and then 91st Street. So, from Lake Stevens Middle School South uh to 20th along 91st that will uh get a multi-use path as well. So, um so from you could get your Costco hot dog and walk to Taco Bell and get your Chalupa all on sidewalks if you wanted to. You probably need to do that walk anyway. Next slide. Um, some of the capital projects we did in 25, the main street improvement, Bay View Trail, um, the non-motorized road dock at North Cove, we did a lot of thermoplastic um, side um, crosswalks. Uh, we did some pavement preservation and ADA improvements. Um, and then our goals for this next year, um, we're going to put, um, sewer infrastructure, go back to that one, sewer infrastructure down 131st, um, to get sewer into our industrial area. And then, uh, we'll do another phase of Bay View Trail. We're currently working on phase two of Frontier Heights Park, um, putting some astro, uh, synthetic turf up there, some pickle ball fields. Um we

will do some more pavement preservation on the east side of the lake and um just some more sidewalks and ADA where we need to. Um the council uh we are also looking at implementing a traffic safety camera program within our school zones. Um so you might see that kick off sometime this year. We'll have to see um how that um plans out. Next slide. Um long time coming. Uh we broke ground on January 27th uh for uh a new building called Mil uh what are we calling it? The Mills Mill landing. What? Milsboro yard. And uh that will in uh have incorporated in it um um the museum u from our historical society as well as some retail space in there. And it'll be literally about 100 yards that way. It'll be a beautiful building downtown. Looking forward to that uh going up getting the museum back into their home and uh and having some space down here for our citizens to uh eat dinner or have a cup of coffee. Next slide. Um I mentioned it earlier. We are going to move city hall this year. Um, if you don't know where it's at, if you know where the police station is, uh, down by Tom Thumb and the subway building, we own that, all four buildings of that now. And we're going to move city hall into the front building. Um, and that will allow us to vacate down here. Um, we'll probably get rid of the the main city hall building, move it out, and create some more parking downtown because we need parking downtown. So, um, that will be a plus for us. And then it will also help us just to consolidate a lot of our work into uh one complex. Uh next slide.

These are some of the great events that are within our city throughout the year. We have the egg hunt coming up and I think that we're filling close to 4 billion eggs this weekend or when is that? 16,000.

16. Oh, I was close. Okay. uh 16,000 eggs. So, if you have the feel like wanting to do this a lot, come on down. You can help us out. Um uh we've got the Old Fashioned Fourth and Aqua Fest, which is always a great event for the city, obviously. Um and then, uh we'll be having the farmers market as well this summer. Next slide. If you um want more information on a lot of our projects, we use a company called Zen City that you can go in and you can see where what the status is say on the 91st sidewalks. We have a page on that. Uh our project manager um depending upon where the project is. That's where they'll do their updates there and you can get a lot of information. We have some great great partners. I do a once a month leaders roundt. um do it right here. And these are many of the organizations that come to that um leaders roundt and we share ideas and share what's going on within the city and it helps us to network and kind of see what everyone's doing. Great partners there. Next slide. And that's the end of the state of the city. I'll open up to questions. If you have a question, raise your hand. We'll bring your mic so

anybody remote can hear.

Go ahead. Yeah. So, um several cities have implemented already. They would be a traffic um speed camera that would issue a ticket in school zones and we're looking at about four different school zones to put those in. It's not flock. That's different than flock. Yeah. Yeah. But

are we going to finish paving North Lake Lakeshore Drive? It looks like it half of it got paved and then the other half just kind of got left behind from say Mitchell North from um Yes. from from town just leaving town here. Yeah.

North. Um uh so so we went as far as we could with the money we had and then I know we did the sewer district did half of it last year from some of the the test holes they were doing but to do the rest at this point that's not on it's not on our schedule. Yeah. Any others? Great. Hey. Well, I will tell you this. Um, I enjoy being the mayor. I enjoy being the mayor of a city that is an active city, that is a community oriented city, that is a family city. There's just so many kids and families. Um, I've enjoyed my time being the mayor. And um and it makes it easy for me when I have great citizens who um are volunteering, who are committing their time, who are um doing um doing all that they do as citizens because um it just makes my time easy. And even more so, I'm super super blessed to have just incredible staff uh who um will sometimes raise an eyebrow wondering what I'm talking about and then um do some clarification and then run with that that idea and um just uh would like to thank all of them. And I'd like to thank the council as well. Um uh you guys are doing a great job. A lot of new faces, a lot of new education. And I've uh I will say this about um uh the council right now, especially the new members. I've been very impressed um with um the learning, the questions, and and really the humility that you guys have been showing to to jump into a new area that you may not be comfortable with. So, thank you. And that's all I have. Thank you. All right. So,

could we do just a four minute recess to reset the room? I'm going to turn this off. You want me to What? Just do a quick recess so we can reset. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to do a You want five? Five minutes. Let's take five. Let's take 10. Let's get crazy. Okay. Yeah. Let's take 10.

totally. All right, let's go and uh kick this meeting back off and uh can I get uh we're going to go into some Oh, we got a department report. So, let's do our department report with Sarah and in kind donation update.

Thank you. Good evening, council. Sarah Garco, parks and recreation director. I'm here to give a department report for the special event in kind donation program and specifically an update for our largest city event upcoming Aqua Fest. Um when I last came to council with the specially even inind donation um program or contribution program, I apologize. It was one month ago, February 24th. And as you remember, um, what we did was with the program, um, go ahead and decide that what staff could approve internally is up to a 50% mil donation rate and straight time for staff. But we specifically excluded the overtime for staff. And that was to help encompass the majority of events that happened throughout the year with the understanding that Aqua Fest would come back as well as any other larger events that had specific requests so that council could review um overtime as well as any cash donations or other items that are requested from the event. Um, so what we'll have on next week's agenda, March 31st, is the actual detail of what Aqua Fest um is requesting in support from the city. Um, we did have a meeting just yesterday, Monday, met for about an hour and a half with the parks department who also represented public works and representative from two representatives from the police department as well as a handful of board members from Aqua Fest. and we looked through the updated Excel sheet that we also mailed out to council um showing the most accurate details that we have available for all costs that the city has incurred for Aqua Fest and has supported in the past. So that includes items such as consumables, which is garbage bags. Um it includes

the um rental of dumpsters and um waiver of fees as well as the value of rented items and we show that um because if the city didn't provide them it would need to be rented from a company and so that is why we list all of those items out. We then added a column for what now falls under the staff approval of end as well as the items that would need to come over to council. Um, so you'll see that the items coming to council are consumable items, um, dumpster rentals as well as overtime for staff. Now, this is the first spreadsheet and time that we have as a city, as the parks department split out all of the straight time separate from overtime staffing support. We we simply don't have those records for prior years. We could create it, but it would take uh quite a bit of staff time to go back and do that. Um, so when we met with Aqua Fest, we went through all of these items um to help understand how the city makes decisions, why we provided certain things in the past, and also talk to the Aqua Fest uh board members about different options available and really understand what they need versus what we've just been doing. Um, so with police specifically, uh, we discussed um, the level of support um, intersections that police are provided at. So for instance, volunteers can be ran can be used on run routes on low volume intersections, but police are used in the high volume in risk intersections to ensure that cars don't drive around. So we've opened a discussion about what are those intersections and is there any movement that could happen. We're not suggesting or trying to say reroute your areas, but an understanding that hey, maybe there would be options if there was a reroute of the children's parade, for instance, or the Aqua Run. So they are looking at that information. Um the Kuana's beer garden is separate. That does occur

during Aqua Fest Thursday, Friday, Saturday, but it happens over behind Jay's. That separate event has a contract police service because it's a beer garden and that portion is reimburseable. We misspoke a month ago and um staff on the park side was a little confused about what was reimbursed, what was not. All of the public police support for Aquafest itself is not reimbursed. That has been provided. And so I wanted to make sure that was understood. Um although the beer garden is built separately for the Kuanas. Of course, there's just more traffic in general. People are here for Aquafest. They were um also visiting the beer garden. There may have been lingering folks out past when the carnival ended. And so staffing on the police side was scheduled to end at 2:00 in the past years. They're going to re-evaluate that to uh without the Kuanas having a beer garden this year as they announced that they won't as there may be an opportunity to schedule police to be off the clock earlier than 2 a.m. Um of course in our spreadsheets we're planning for worst case scenario instead of being limited and then having to hold people over their shifts. Um, so Aquafest is one of the things they are going to look at is modifying and shortening the children's parade route. Um, they have a lot of logistics they'll have to look at with that, but that is one of the things that we discussed as it would reduce one additional street closure and the police staffing for that parade. Uh, we also discussed the parks and public works staffing. Um, Aquafest is working to secure a green team. Um, what a green team is is they do the trash management throughout the event. Um, last year the uh there was no solid green team, although um efforts were made. So, I'm I'm saying this strongly. If anybody knows people that want to help volunteer or contribute to that, please reach out to Aqua Fest. I know they're working on that and have a really solid lead this year, but it's never too much to have

more offers coming through. Um, with the green team being secured, the afterhour needs for parks or public works overtime to manage the garbage through the event could be eliminated. Um, last year we had two staff provided on the heaviest of nights. Um, with this, we feel comfortable in talking to Aquafest that one staff could be provided to do that. So, that'll be a reduction coming forward from the spreadsheet already sent out to what is coming into this next week. Um, we did also talk about the flushing restrooms. Flushing restrooms are very hard when you have a high volume. Too much toilet paper is used. It's flushing too much. Things get stuck and it's difficult to manage flushing restrooms. There is an option to close flushing restrooms and during large events funnel the public to portable toilets. This could be an option for eliminating one more overtime staff from the public works parks. The preference would be to keep those open. Um, however, that is an option that will come forward to council to decide. Um, other costs we discussed uh were cones. Public works and parks do not own enough cones to set up all of the run routes enclosures at max capacity. And so for the past few years, 100 additional cones have been rented. Um, Aquafest um realized that they could add this to their rental beer rental bill and with the company they're ordering from and the quantity that they're renting, they could also get it at a fraction of the price as to what we have been paying. And so they've already removed that from the list and said that they will order that order that with their equipment. Um, that already was a cost savings of $900 that the city um has wrote the bill for. So, so that was a great um collaborative uh discussion and offer from Aquaest. Um Parks is also working with waste management to clarify

which of the trash bins and dumpsters are donated versus paid for. It's been a little inconsistent in prior years. Um last year we had the bins donated but the dumpsters build and there's other years where the dumpsters were not built and the bins cost money. So we're getting that clarified in advance right now and hope to have an answer by next council meeting uh so that we can discuss that item as well. I believe that is the highlevel items that we discussed. Um we are speaking with Aqua Fest working directly with them. Um staff has continually attended their once a month meeting so we have a a good idea of how Aquaest runs in the back end. Um, we are not pressuring Aqua Fest to tell us to reduce staff, but simply opening the door to say, "Hey, let's have this discussion." And I also let them know in the last meeting, I'm not speak on your behalf because you'll be able to speak here in a minute. Um, but the city's desire is not to stop Aqua Fest or to hand them a $40,000 bill. Um, but we do have to look at our expenses as a whole throughout the city and and just half the discussions to say what can move and then specifically overtime and consumables will now need to be approved by council.

Great. Any questions for sure? I just want to thank everyone involved for working together to reduce costs overall. Um, reducing, you know, we think of it sometimes as waste, right? if we're able to cut some things or change how they're handled and save, you know, money on both sides, I think that's commendable. So, I want to thank all those involved working on this. Nathan, um, you gave us a lot of good information. Sorry, can you clarify what's different next week? What are you bringing next week versus what you just shared today?

Um, we will have a another spreadsheet in Excel. Okay. Clearly listing the items still being requested. So for instance, the cones would be removed. Um we are also uh working with uh police department right now to identify any adjustments and anticipated schedule. Um and then uh with the decisions just happening last night about the reducing to one instead of two staff on overtime for pulling trash, that'll be incorporated as well. Okay. And so then next week you're going to ask essentially for a line by line which things does the council approve, which things do they not, etc. Is that is that your objective?

The objective is to ask council if they want to approve the whole thing. Okay. um or if you're looking for any kind of additional work to reduce numbers um any very large changes I would highly recommend that we do push off to 2027 to ensure it doesn't have a major impact this year. Um but really just make sure there's an undering. Um another option we haven't discussed out loud. Um, but if it was the council's desire to completely cut out all overtime for the public works and parks, there could be an opportunity for the council to discuss a financial contribution and then Aquafest would be able to hire um out labor at a reduced rate. City staff are very expensive. Once you add in all of the insurance and benefits and recognize it is at the overtime rate, you're looking at $108 an hour on average. And so those are just decisions that the council has and so it could be support Aquafest at the same level go and proceed. Um or if council wants to look at any line items we could do that way also.

Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. I have a couple of things.

Yes. Um first a kind of a note on process because the the the only time we talked about this subject was a discussion item. So I don't feel we had the opport we we did not make any decisions as a council and it feels like we started a conversation and then there was a process implemented that kind of took some of that direction and put forward an administrative decision based on council but not council action. So, I would appreciate if we do if we make any decisions on policies that are pertaining to council to to have it be an action item so that the public can be made aware of, can be here, can comment, we can be prepared. Um but it's it was kind of um so I guess that's my note on process and a question on is this so we we supported Alqua Fest um last year but it it was not incorporated in the 2026 budget and this next meeting will be a budget amendment for the overtime. Is that my understanding? No, I would not say that that's an entirely accurate

okay statement. Um, the parks budget was not reduced between 2025 in 2026. Okay.

The only budget that I know of that was drastically reduced was the streets department and streets department does have some overtime coding that would come to this. U when we work with our union for overtime between parks and public works um it's based on seniority and who volunteers and so it could be any one of those budget items that it touches and then I do not believe that the police department saw a reduction for their overtime budget item also. So, this is more council approval for allowing us to spend the the money on this event specifically, and it's already in the 2026 budget for a an amount. Okay.

Overtime is its own line item. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. It's not a line item that you'll see that specifically says Aqua Fest. Just Right. I didn't see it, but I I my question was more if it's if we've done it last year and incorporated it in the 26 budget in the various departments,

then I think the conversation is it for is an amendment for this year's budget or is it are we talking about the 27 budget? It seems like the the um some of some of the conversations I've heard were it's impacting this budget. It's very fast. you know, how do we So, I was curious about whether it's going to be an amendment to add to the budget or if it's already been Okay, I would say it's not in a ask to approve a supplemental budget in the future. Okay. Thank you. You're you're welcome.

Thank you. Thanks for the information. Appreciate it. Um, a couple of questions, but I don't need answers tonight. I think the answers would be helpful when we have this action item next week. Um, if we were to consider a financial donation, my assumption would be that it wouldn't be that $40,000 because that's paying for city staff, that's paying for city equipment. It's likely that that those services could be purchased cheaper. So, I would like to know what the recommended financial contribution option might be. Um, and then I thank you for asking that question. Um, council member Aria. I I have the same question. Are we looking at costs when we look at the dollar amounts that council needs to approve? Are those over and above what's already been budgeted? It sounds like the answer is no.

If you did a cash, then yes. And what you may consider doing is is looking at if you want to balance it is what overtime line items does it reduce. Okay. In order to shift the money.

Okay. And then my last question, which you may have an answer for now. I'm just I just want to make sure I understand. For the items that council needs to review and approve, the consumables, the dumpsters, overtime. Are those items that Aquafest is asking to have or are those items that the city is stating these need to be in place in order for you to have this activity occur? Um, some are optional and some are not. And so Aquafest to be clear has not requested any of these items. This is where over the last 3 years, this city parks department mainly has actually started creating lists of all city support across all events um because we didn't have numbers before or anything to analyze. And so this list was created based on the city support that has been provided over the past few years and we've added to it to try to make it a very clear picture.

Okay. And so um what would be optional is the public works parks overtime simply because trash services could be provided in a different way and flush restrooms could be shut down with portaotties coming in or people hired in order to clean those restrooms in lie of full-time staff. I think maybe next week when we when we look at the full picture if if there was a way to indicate which items are required um that would be helpful. Great. I will do that and then work also with police to see what is required versus what might be supplemented by other services. Great. Thank you so much. Any other questions?

I just have a quick one really quick. Um so with the inind donation adjustment that we made to that policy that's just strictly for the rental of the facilities. Is that correct? You made two adjustments. So now the mill is at 50%. So that will be coming forward to say do you approve the other 50% and then also the overtime staff. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Brian Brian Ryan. Uh Sarah, do you know what the e economic benefit is to the city during Aqua Fest? How much influx of cash comes into the city to businesses?

The city has not performed that and I am unaware if Aqua Fest has run that. There are metrics in the special event world to quantify and create that data. Um, but I don't believe that any real surveys have been done on site and I don't know that the standard metric for that has been applied. Um, that would be a lift for staff. I do not believe we could get it by 3:31, but we can certainly work with Aqua Fest to create that for the future. Okay. Yeah, I'd love to have that number. Not necessarily by the 31st, but if we can get some kind of a swag on that, that would be helpful. How much more beer do you sell?

All the stuff we donate to the beer garden branch. So, it's not really selling it. We can start with that. We'll do an inkind donation of 10,000 gallons of beer. That'll that'll float us to the day one. Anyway,

yeah. So, um I'm going to try and thread the needle on this because I know you are actively working with Aqua Fest and and more concrete details will be forthcoming, but um sort of kind of start with council member Aria's point about process. For me, our last meeting when we spoke about this, I think one of the places where my understanding was less than perfect was how prepared some of these events, Aqua Fest in particular, were to absorb these policy changes. Um, it sounds now having, you know, talked about as a council, given you direction that that was not as expected as maybe I thought it was after that meeting. And if I understood what you said, you're you're kind of recommending that maybe we don't make any big changes this year until because we don't know what kind of effect that would have. Um to that I I have reached out to some people, talked about it. My understanding is that the Aquafest leadership is rapidly coming up on certain deadlines where they need to make decisions about, you know, can they commit to certain things to put on the event and if they can't then quite frankly the event won't happen. So, I guess the first question I have is, is it fair to say based on your discussion so far, the number we expect to see next week is less than the 47,000 as far as um, you know, financial support from the city?

Yes, there has already been some movement to reduce that. Okay. And then with the understanding that we don't have actual numbers, there's probably more discussion to happen. I guess I would just kind of float this to the rest of the council to make sure Aqua Fest can happen this year. I mean, is is there a hard line for anybody that would have a problem supporting the event at a number less than the 47,000 that we supported at last year? Just again, keeping in mind there's some wiggle room there, but to kind of give Aquafest leadership that ability, that confidence to do what they need to do to make sure the event happens. So, if anyone wants to answer that,

I would be reluctant to answer that because we're not able to take action tonight. And I would, as much as I would love to give any sort of assurance, I would also really not want to give somebody any sort of false hope that we're saying, yeah, maybe without the right numbers in front of us. Okay.

I just had one question. Um, kind of goes back to council member McManis. Uh, so the Quan is not doing the beer garden anymore, correct? Is has anyone else shown interest or is it just not going to happen this year? I have not asked that direct question. My understanding is the separate beer garden will not happen. Um, last year Aqua Fest did start a small beer garden inside of its event and I trying to get eye contact. I believe that that is continuing. Yes, we have a confirmation. So inside there will be a small one where the VIP section used to be which was the observation deck. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions for Sarah? Great job, sir.

Yeah, great work, Sarah, and we appreciate your collaboration with the Aquafest folks to make sure it happens again this year. All right, let's go to um uh can I get a motion to uh pass the consent agenda? And remember that we're moving uh 8G to an action item. I'll make a motion to pass the consent agenda. Second. Oh, that's me. Um, so I have a motion to pass the consent agenda and a second. Is there any discussion?

Yes. Um, have our new park board commissioners may jump through all the different things they have to do to assume or because this kind of within our packet says that it may be they may all the be all the way through. It may not be all the way through. So, do we have two new park board commissioners? Yes, we do. Everything's been cleared. I just wanted to and just in case there was a delay, but they've been cleared and they are very excited if this happens. Okay. I would like to congratulate them. Um, Kelly Alexander and Amelia Dixon, congratulations and thank you for stepping forward to serve your city. Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Okay. With that, all those in favor?

I And any opposed? All right, let's um go to 8G and the Feldman Lee public defense contract amendment. I think we have Gan on. Mayor, we need to do citizen comments. What? Citizen comments. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I forgot the lucky number seven. Yep. Um, let's go back to lucky number seven and u do citizens comments. Is I don't have any green sheets. Is there anybody online who wishes for citizens comments? Anyone online that would like to address the council for citizens comments? Please raise your digital hand. I don't see any hands up.

Okay. And I I know I don't have any green sheets, but is there anybody wishes to provide comments tonight? Seeing none, hearing none, we'll move forward then to 8G Beldman and Lee public defense contract. Jean, do you want to take the floor?

Absolutely. Good evening, council and mayor and uh members of the public. We have a agreement with Feldman and Lee to do our public defense for the city of Lake Stevens. And we've had this for numerous years. And we had an update that uh we put into place a couple years ago where their monthly fee would be 14,000 a year and that was for 2024. In 2025 it went up to 15,000 a year and for 26 it was planned to be at 16,000 a year. There was new legislation that came out saying that the case load per public defender need to be reduced. And I understand Greg's on the horn or on the phone as well. So, I'll let him talk about those um case reduction numbers, but we did go into a negotiation with Feldman and Lee to renegotiate that contract uh because we're supposed to be reducing the case load around 10% is my understanding every year. And to do that, that means they have to hire more public defenders. And it's around $120,000, my understanding, per public defender. Uh, and so to cover that cost, we negotiated a new agreement. And we came to agreement that 28,500 per month would be the new amount that we would be paying them to uh provide this public defense service. I will at this point in time turn it over to Greg to talk about case load and answer any questions about the new legislation.

Sorry, J. How much did you per public defender? 28,500 per month. No, how that was for the month, right? How much did you say per I thought I heard 120,000? Is that what I heard? That's what I was

Okay, thank you. I thought I heard 12K. Okay, there we go. That raised my eyebrows a bit. Okay. Yeah, just to follow up a bit on what Jean commented about. Sorry for the siren in the background. There we go. Um, it's not legislation. Our our state supreme court uh over the past few years has been uh establishing rules uh for public defense. And this last year they passed uh some additional rules uh that mandated a significant reduction in the number of uh of cases that an individual public defender would take. I'm sorry I don't have those numbers in front of me tonight. I can get them to you if you would like like to see those. Uh there was quite a bit of discussion uh because uh most public entities just didn't have the available funds to finance the reduction uh that the Supreme Court was mandating. And so later on last year, the uh the court issued a new order. Uh this is while negotiations were going on between the city and Feldom and Lee. U that allowed cities to implement a 10-year schedule uh a maximum 10 years to achieve the reductions that the Supreme Court is mandating. and we need to implement that at 10% reduction in case load every year. Um our uh uh our firm looked at uh looked looked at the rule. There was quite a bit of consternation in the legal community is exactly what the Supreme Court was demanding.

uh but our opinion was that no reduction in case load was required uh for uh 2026 and the first reduction would have to uh occur in 2027. Um so there was no required case load reduction uh in 2026. um the public defenders uh defense community and probably Jen I I did not participate in the uh in the negotiations but I'm sure Jean faced this in his discussions with Filman in Lee and that uh because up to the last minute they were concerned that they did have to make a uh reduction and uh a lot of their some of their demand was based on the fact that they thought they were probably going to have to hire somebody new in 2026. Um but uh uh uh that's not going to have to happen at least as far as we know. uh part of the additional funds that they wanted uh were to enable them in the event that they received pressure from the state supreme court or we receive pressure from the Supreme Court that they do have to uh uh reduce their case load that we won't have to renegotiate our contract. Um but they're under pressure right now. uh uh defense public defense services have been scrutinized uh by both the state legislature and the supreme court as well as the state bar association. So they're having to provide a quality of service probably greater than they've

had to provide in the past. Um but uh anyway uh this particular contract has a significant uh increase but uh it does cover our base in the event that there are additional rule changes or clarification uh by the Supreme Court during this contract year. we're not going to have to go back and uh renegotiate that contract and probably puts us in a position where we're going to have to be uh next year uh where in fact they are going to have to uh have a 10% reduction in the case load of the individual attorneys at Filman and Lead who uh service the city of Lake Stevens. So that's all I have right now. Jean is you have anything to add on top of that?

No, just that uh we did in uh anticipate this adjustment for 2026. Uh we didn't know what the actual number was going to be, but we do have budget to cover this. Thank you. I have a quick question. Um, if they do not need to make any adjustments in 2026 and the adjustments don't start in 2027, do we anticipate an additional increase in 2027 or no? This cost increase will cover those anticipated increase costs.

I think that they will probably push for another increase in 2027 is what I'm anticipating. uh to continue that trend of 10% a year reduction. Would would we have leverage in that conversation to not increase the budget if they don't uh achieve a 10% reduction this year if they don't hire additional staff?

Uh our leverage would be to go back out and put this out to bid. Uh unfortunately, there's not a lot of organizations out there that do this work. So, uh, the chance of coming back with a different public defender, uh, wouldn't be high and they do provide a really good service, uh, and they have for years for the city. But that is that is one thing that the city could do is go back out to bid for services. Thank you. I have a question. Um, how many cases were handled in 2025 total? Uh, I don't know that I have that off the top of my head. Uh,

per attorney, but I'm just trying to get an idea of the the how many total do we handle a year? Is it 400? Is it 800? Is it, you know, do we have one attorney, two attorneys? You know, I'm just trying to gauge. So, you don't have you don't have to answer, I guess, today, but I would appreciate that number. Yeah, like I said, I don't have those numbers in front of me. uh tonight, but we can get we can assemble those numbers for you as we uh have further discussion on this, which we're probably going to have to have. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Yeah. So, just quick numbers really quick. Um 12,000 increase per month. That's 136,000 increase per year. Um that seems like that would have to be a pretty substantial uh decrease in their their case load. So, I just kind of wanted to mention those numbers so that we can come back to that because I think it would have to be a huge decrease for us to justify $120,000 a year increase. I mean, maybe I'm just not used to seeing that large of a number, but just seems like a big increase to me. We're it we're basically paying for an additional public defender. Yeah, I would hope it's two at that rate

salary. I mean, the public defenders I know are public, not in private. So, maybe it's a little different, but one of the one of the areas that um I think that uh we need to continue to pound on is the legislature. Um you know, this is we need to have some funding from the legislature to cover this this these sorts of decisions out of Supreme Court that um directly impact city government. Um, so, uh, I know there was a slight conversation, uh, quickly pushed to the side in this legislative session, but it needs to be one that we need to work on in the next session as well.

And so, really quick, sorry if I missed it here. So, have they have they already staffed up? Is that what's happened here? Or they're anticipating the need to staff up for this? They're anticipating the need and they've been trying to find another public defender, but they have not hired anybody as of a couple weeks ago when we negotiated this deal.

So, so I guess why is it retroactive then? They haven't hired anybody new. What what what are we paying for from January to now? Uh that was part of the deal point of uh getting the contract updated and they will have to hire somebody obviously to do the work but that was part of the deal point. Um the other option was to in the agreement and go out to bid for this year. So basically they held our feet to the fire is what I'm hearing. Correct. Okay. Nathan, do you have something?

Yeah. So, I mean, is there any reason to believe that this trend isn't going to continue for the next 10 years? I mean, what's the numbers on that? That's an extra million dollar a year, 10 years out from now. It ask the Supreme Court. Okay. But we're assuming that every year we're going to see that kind of an increase. Not 80% increase, but 12 and a halfk per month increase.

No, I don't think so. um uh because it's not going to be because we do have 10 years to implement on the current schedule. I I think the the the biggest impact is the initial is in the initial year. U but uh should we have concern that this is going to be a trend and that there will be further orders from the court uh with respect to uh public defense? Yes, I think that's a very valid uh assumption and it's a u it's it's a problem that did not get resolved uh this year. U it's but it's it's still holding out and um uh yeah, I think it's one of those things that's probably going to have to require some legislation uh in the next few years. Can I

do we have any idea how many other cities Speldman and Lee contracts with for this service? I don't know. Uh Jean, do you know? It's it's quite a few. Most most of the cities in Snowomish County.

Correct. So the table on page 42 of the packet, is that actual numbers of the current case load and then what it would take to get down to 120 or is that just a representative table to help us understand the types of change that we're looking at? because you said Greg Greg or Jean we shouldn't expect to see or Jean we shouldn't expect to see this this kind of change every year, but the kind of change every year, but the table table here is suggesting they currently here is suggesting they currently have a have a 400 cases uh case load and 400 cases uh case load and they've got they've got to get it down to 120. So to get it down to 120. So there's no there's no reason why they wouldn't need reason why they wouldn't need to hire to hire those kind of additional uh those kind of additional uh resources resources year in and year out for the year in and year out for the next 10 next 10 years to get to where they need years to get to where they need to go, to go, especially if we're paying ahead of especially if we're paying ahead of hirings. hirings. That's what I'm saying. because you said

That's what I'm saying. it's it's ahead per uh well maybe not at that same rate but at least every two or three years based on those reductions. So this is why it helpful to have 24 25 numbers so that we can gauge because my understanding this is the law applied in the 10-year increment and I may be wrong but right now the maximum allowed of cases per attorney is 400. They want to get it 120 in 10 years. And this is just representative of what the expected minimum or maximum case loads would be, but it would be good to know 24, 25, how many were actually handled from us?

And do we typically do just an annual contract? Do we look at multi-year contracts and potential savings by doing something multi-year? We've had a multi-year in the past um with an escalator which is what I read at the beginning um and it escalated from 2014 up from 14,000 to 16,000 and now because of this new rule that came out they are jumping to the 285. Anything else for Jean? Thanks Jean. All right, with that, can I entertain a motion to pass this contract?

I have one more comment question. All right, let's do it. What are the implications if this contract is not uh passed approved? Do you want me to answer that, Craig? You got you go ahead.

Okay, I'll take a stab at it. So right now, just so everybody's clear, we're out of contract with Feldmanly. It expired at the end of last year, and we're still doing they're still doing the work for us. So we we'd have to pay them for those services. Uh but if we went back out, you're talking having to put the advertisement together, go out to bid a couple months later, we'd get somebody on board, and there's a good chance that it might be Feldman and Lee. And they came in at a higher number, and we negotiated it down to 285. So the risk we run is going through the process and still getting the same firm at a higher dollar amount than we have in front of us today. Yeah.

Jean,

the big problem I as Jean mentioned is there isn't a lot of attorneys in this particular market. And uh so to a certain extent degree, yes, Feldman Lee has some leverage uh in negotiation based on that because who else you going to get? The the worst case scenario is if if we did not approve the contract is that Phil and Lee would say, "Okay, we're done." and uh and we would have to find someone to at least on a temporary basis pick up the uh uh the case load. Um which may be very difficult because and and cost us more money to be able to do that because those that might be willing to do it are probably going to want to charge more money than Feldman Lee is. So it's we're we're not in a very to be honest and upfront we're not in a very good situation with respect to uh u finding someone else and that although this is quite a significant jump in the contract price the reality is it's it's something that we're we're just going to have to bear if it's not with Phil and Lee it's going to be with somebody else.

Yeah. So, um, Jean, you said that the contract expired, um, on this staff report, it says that the current existing contract expires December 31st of 2026. So, what's correct? Is it over or are we still in contract till December? And then also um if we are still in contract, what's keeping us from saying let's finish our contract and come back with next year's information for an increase?

That there was a provision in the existing contract that said that if the Supreme Court because it was anticipated that the Supreme Court was going to come out with a additional rules and we didn't know what they were going to be. So there was a provision in the existing agreement that said just like there is in this amendment that if the Supreme Court further mucks with this then the defender has the right to request renegotiation of the agreement. Yeah.

The right to Yes. And I see that that clause, you know, is listed here that they have the right to be um to renegotiate the contract. But what I mean, I guess if we say we don't really see a need to renegotiate right now, we appreciate your request. That I mean, yeah. Well, that that that clause gives them the right if we can't Yeah. If we can't if we can't come to a deal, they have the right to terminate.

Would they do that though? I guess is the ultimate question. You know, are they a contract long-standing that we've worked with for so long? It's I I feel like we oftentimes play it really really safe um in the sense that, you know, we don't want to don't fix anything that isn't broken. Um, and I I guess I think that we need to, in my opinion, we need to be a little bit more um financially aware of what we're jumping into without seeing, you know, the the fine print because this is just one of many, many, many things that is, you know, likely to increase um over the next 10 years. and and if just because you know one attorney uh or legal defender company is been working with us forever um doesn't necessarily mean that we have to stay with them now if they if there are other options out there I mean exploring them will not hurt I don't think um at least so we know where we are with you know what's being what's being proposed to us um versus what some of the other options are easy for us to say well we're probably going to get a higher rate than it is to just actually see what those options are. I would like to propose Well, first I'm going to I'm going to to open it up for discussion. I'm going to move to authorize the mayor to sign the Felbin and Lee contract for public defense services amendment five.

Second.

Second discussion. I would like to propose that we given that this dollar amount is budgeted. There's no there's no negative I mean there's a negative impact to the budget. It's already been approved. Um and that we're sort of up against it. Like we don't have an option today to go with another firm. We don't have an option. The RFP process would take months. And I think knowing what I know about public defense throughout the state of Washington, um it's an it's a crisis right now. And so the likelihood of another public defense like agreeing to take on more work and at a lower price um I think that's low but I think that we should use this year to explore what the other options are. Let's let's let's explore what who what are the other firms in Snowomish County? Are there other firms that we could have a conversation with? Are is is there leverage? Is are there negotiating options? Um, but I think we should pass this tonight so that we continue to provide um folks in our community that need public defense services so there isn't an interruption in those services and that we explore what 2027 options we might have. As a former prosecutor, my sympathy for public defenders is limited. But um I will say they they do fill an important constitutional role and it sounds like for the time being this is really the only game in town and it's not a service we can afford to go without if we want an effective police department. So, um, I agree with Council Member Dorstad that I think this is something we have to pass and, you know, if we want to look at other options, if there are any down the road, then you should absolutely do that. But, for the time being, it sounds kind of like this is it.

And I guess I'm I'm still kind of hung up on the part that we're still in contract. So, they can they can void the contract if we don't renegotiate with them. Yep. Okay. Got it. Jean memory their initial their initial number was over 30k right you catch me no their initial offer on this was over 30k

that's correct and and we've been working with them for almost six months on this so we have been negotiating back and forth and they did tell me that they were going to walk away from the contract if we didn't come to an agreement and they hated to lose us but they also need to be able to hire hired new employees. So, um I appreciate the council member comments and I'm happy to go back out uh and try and see what else is out there for options, but they were ready to walk and I kept them in play. Otherwise, we wouldn't even have a public defender currently. Any other discussion on this motion?

Yeah, I would agree with council member George that we should we should pass it this year and look at options. We may find out when we do some research that this is the best option, right? So, uh, to avoid interruption and an impact on our citizens, I think we should pass it. Agreement.

I I think I agree. I think there's an and because I like where you're going, council member Edwards, right? I I'm not eager to just take it even though it's in the budget, right? It still bothers me. Um, so part of what I would like to see then is also the multi-year, right? I'm not saying we need to go pursue a multi-year agreement, but can they give us indication of, yeah, we expect we're going to need to hire X number over the next 10 years. This is how we project that's going to look. Obviously, they're not going to lock anything in, but I want to I want to know, right, what does the next 10 years look like realistically so that we can at least have an idea of what the impact is on our budget and we can go talk. I I would also be interested in exploring uh creative solutions. Is there a countywide consortium that we can pull together and say, "Hey, we can do a countywide contract or I don't know, right?" But why why are each of us individual cities negotiating with them? Can we do something at a broader scale and find cost savings by doing it that way? I mean, I think we need to start looking at things that can be done in addition to putting pressure on our state legislature.

Any discussion? All right. All those in favor? I I And any opposed? What was that? Blip. A blip. All right. Motion passes. Um All right. Let's go to council business. Council President, thank you. Um, I'll start and we'll just go this way. I don't have anything for this evening. Thank you. Um, Council Member Aria, no report from you this week. Thank you, Council Me Mcmanis. That's a lot of M's.

That is a lot of M, isn't it? Yeah. Um, had a great meeting with Chamber of Commerce this week. Um, they're going through a reorg. Um, trying to make them a more powerful voice for the city. They are the economic impact, if you will, right? So, working with them on some of the ideas that they have and to try and help them with that. also met with Sherwood Services. Kind of got a better scope of what they do. Um, personally, we've always been involved with them from a philanthropy standpoint from the brewery. They're a big benefactor of ours. So, we've got some promotions that are going to come up with them. Um, it's a good organization. If you guys don't know it, they're in town here. There's a lot of things that they need that they need help with. So, I'm going to keep an eye on that and stay more in tune with that. But, a great organization. Great. That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Donghue. Yes. Uh I attended the planning commission meeting last week. It was a great meeting. Lots of good discussion focused on the sub areas within the city and um updating the sub areas uh the policies so that they better align with the comprehensive plan and expect at some point that will work its way back to us. That's all I have. Thanks, Councilwoman Shipman.

Um yes, I attended the school board meeting on the 11th. It like always their first meeting of the month. They honor both students from all of our secondary schools as well as staff. Um it's a packed house standing room only which is just awesome to see the support of the community for these um award winners. Uh the common theme a lot of times I try and pick out a quote that cracked me up. The common theme without a doubt was just thankfulness. They were all so grateful to go to our school district. They all had varying um goals. Some had no idea what they wanted to do after school. others had very definitive things they wanted to do. Um but just every single one of them was so grateful to go to Lake Stevens. Um so I thought that really stood out. Um the other thing I just wanted to touch base on was um I was on the park board um committee and I wanted to thank everyone who came out and applied to be part of our parks board. Um it's a big responsibility. this is a volunteer position and we had enough people um apply for it that we actually had to interview and choose who to appoint. So I just wanted to give a shout out to everyone who applied and thank them and ask them to consider something else in the future. Um also just on a little side note um I've been meaning to bring this up off Highway 92 on grade road we have our new city of Lake Stevens sign. I'm assuming that public works put that in. But it looks great coming off Highway 92 now. You know, you're in Lake Stevens where I take that route a lot where before that sign wasn't there. Kind of where the new storage units are going in. Um but whatever department put that in. Thank you. Good job. It's a nice welcoming sign to our city. That's it.

Thank you, Councilwoman Edwards. Can you turn your microphone on, please? Thank

Sorry. I have a couple of um things to comment on. Um, on the note of the planning commission, I was able to watch that meeting. Um, and the one thing that stood out to me is the um, SB6026, which is likely going to impact us here in Lake Stevens. Um, that's the residential housing in commercial zones. Um, so it does look like that is going to pass. So, it was interesting hearing that conversation about how that may or may not impact us here in Lake Stevens. Um I know that part of the con concern that people have is that um the residential areas will fill up and the retail or commercial will not. And um so I did a little bit of digging around just to kind of compare. I know what they were comparing to Arlington which um Arlington doesn't seem to have the demand of commercial like we do here or the need that we have here. Um, and it sounds like there it's only a three point three to four percent um um open storefronts in the whole county of Stoomeish. So, it just kind of eased my mind a little bit that maybe the problem that some other cities are running into with not being able to f to fill those retail spots in the mixeduse buildings may not be as much of an issue for us. So, um I wanted to just share that. Um, and then, uh, I also got to, um, log into the Economic Alliance coffee chat last week. Um, I did hear Rep. Low talk about the US2, which I appreciate the representation for that. We all know that we need some work on on US2. So, thank you, Rep. Low, since you're here. Um, and then, uh, one other thing I wanted to share, um, HB1903. So, um it's on the governor's desk to be signed and it would provide low-income energy assistance um to um households in Washington state um that meet financial guidelines to get assistance on their

energy bills. Um this is funding directly from the Department of Commerce. And so that sounds really promising to give some relief to some of our our struggling um community members that might be able to take advantage of that um that new program. Uh, and then lastly, um, I just want to say on the Aqua Fest note, um, you know, one thing that I committed to coming in here as a council member is to bring together more community organizations and to get, uh, more people involved in things here in the city. We have an amazing city and we are so fortunate that we have so many different charitable organizations. Um, and I'm pleased to say that this last weekend I was able to go with Lake Stevens Pride to the Aqua Fest fundraising event on Friday and Lake Stevens Pride donated $500 to Lake Stevens Aqua Fest. So, um, that's just a small example of what can happen when organizations and community work together. So, I just I wanted to thank Lake Stevens Pride. Um, and I wanted to thank Aqua Fest for, you know, um, working with the city to find a way to make sure that we still get to put on this really important event. So, thank you.

That's great news. Thank you, Councilwoman Edwards. Councilman Packard.

Yeah, I attended the uh, Snomish County Committee for Improved Transportation the this morning. So, uh, we talked extensively about US2 and the different options that they're exploring there. Um, I'll just say I'm not sure I'm fully happy about some of the solutions that they're providing. Uh, so I intend to make a phone call in the next week and dive into some more things. Ultimately, I'm just not uh convinced that what they're proposing will give the capacity that we need in the long term. I feel like whatever they build is in 3 years we're going to say we need a new one, right? So, um, it I'm curious if it makes sense to bring somebody into this forum. I know they can't come into every city council, but we are as intimately connected to the trestle as anybody, right? As we're we're as invested as anybody. Um, so yeah, I think there's just some discussion that needs to happen and I know that they've solicited feedback from the broader area, right? But what can we as a community provide more more direct feedback in terms of the impact on our city and our constituents, etc. So there's a lot of discussion going on there. Uh and I intend to follow up and we'll see what we can bring back to this community either through them or I can bring something back and we can talk through it as a as a council. Uh connected to that also there was discussion this morning of a county uh county initiated I'll say transportation benefit district which would be for unincorporated areas in 2026. So, uh, right, we have our own transportation benefit district. The county is looking at doing something for unincorporated areas. So, vehicles that are registered within any city limit would not be affected. But, we have plenty of people in our community who are in unincorporated. And so, if we as

constit uh as a council start to hear complaints from people of, hey, why is why are we doing this? Why are we doing this? Right? that is for the unincorporated people. It's going to be different than our transportation benefit, etc., etc. So, there's some things going on there in that space as well. Thank you.

All right. Um, I had a really cool opportunity last week to um go to the National League of Cities. Um, and uh uh two two takeaways from that. Actually, I want I wanted to talk about um Council Member Edwards, you're right about the commercial. So the commercial space, the 30,000 square ft that went in uh behind Tom Thumb, it was filled overnight and they had to turn people away. So there was a need very much so in our community to fill a comm commercial space. Um anyway, so uh back to NLC. So um I had a great opportunity to sit on a uh a panel uh talking about the AI initiatives that we're doing within the city. Uh there's about 200 people in the room and um was on a panel with the scientists which made me feel very

scientific

scientific minuscule um so it was a great panel uh it was great really good discussion um a a win that we're getting um so last year's NLC I was on a sub so I am on the transportation and infrastructure services um board or whatever it's called And um so we look at transportation across the the country and infrastructure. I was put on a subcommittee last NLC uh with some folks um Gail from Colorado Springs and some other folks and we uh we wrote a piece of legislation um with the idea that we wanted formula funding to come back straight to the locals. So, think like ARPA money. We received $9 million because it was on a per capita basis, right? So, we wrote this piece of legislation that said uh formula funding straight to the locals, bypass the the thieven hands of the state and the county and go straight to the locals and uh you can do these projects. Um that uh legislation was introduced on February 9th. It's called the basics act and um we uh the congress needs to uh re um do a new transportation bill this fall because the current one um goes away in the fall. So uh we are crossing our fingers doing the right uh lobbying to make sure that that basics act uh passes. Uh very exciting. All right. Um, so I have a little bomb to throw on the council. Um, uh, my wife and I, uh, over the last year have, um, spent many nights talking, uh, lots of deliberation and prayers and, uh, we have made it a

family decision, um, that we are going to relocate out of the state. Um, so, uh, my I will be, uh, tendering a resignation from being the mayor of Lake Stevens, and it will be effective April 13th. Let that soak in for a second. Um I um it has been such a privilege for me to be the mayor and to help uh build this community that I absolutely love and the citizens of this community and um and all their help. So it was not a light decision whatsoever. Um uh but our current family circumstances just uh dictate a need for change and so we are going to make that bold decision and do so.

Congratulations. It's exciting. Congrats. Yeah. Thank you very much. Keeping that millionaire's tax home on Well, it's all that developer money.

Can you can you talk through the joke by the implica the implications? What's the process? Yeah. So, let's talk about um the next the next steps, right? Um so, I will vacate the seat April 13th. Um that would then start a process of much like um um filling a council member spot. Uh the uh council will open up um staff will open up to the community those who would be interested in being the mayor. Um if you do want to be the mayor and want to talk about what that means, I would love to sit down with you. Um and um and then after a call for applications and applications, interviews, and then uh the council decides uh who would be the next mayor. That mayor, because this is a nonpartisan position, will fulfill my term uh which will be uh December of 27.

So is it in the mean while that whole process is happening? Um, so who is is it Mayor Prom? Is it Jean? So I will continue to uh work as hard as I always do up until midnight of April 12th. Um, and then uh you will have Mayor Pro Tim Andy Georgestad and we've already done quite a bit of discussions and talking and we even talked about this position. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So, she will run the ship until uh the council decides who the new mayor is. Congratulations. Good luck.

Oh, and and she she found out last night. It didn't even begin to keep it straight. Any other questions on process or No, just thank you, mayor, for all your work. Appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate it. And I want to echo the congratulations and I've said this to you rightly like we get this one life to live and it's important that we do what we can to, you know, to make it the life we need it to be and so I admire your courage and making this decision.

I appreciate that, Angie. I just also I think we all want to offer your our congratulations to you and to your wife and to your kids and um I think the vast majority of people in our city know your mayor, but they have no idea just how much you've sacrificed being our mayor. You travel more than anyone I know advocating for our city and bring back millions of dollars to pay for our projects. And um you know if if you don't attend council meetings or you don't follow along on the various boards and commissions, you have no idea really what's going on in our city. And um Mayor Gaye, you have done a tremendous job. I'm so grateful for all the work that you've done. Um one of the things that always stood out for me and one of the reasons I ran for city council is because I watched you. I have a business across the street and I watched you lead our city through a pandemic when the entire world was shutting down and leak Stevens forged forward and built the mill and improved Cove Park and um met all of these goals that you had set and the city had set and you you were at the helm and I for one am very very grateful for everything you've done. I'm grateful to your wife for the sacrifices she made allowing you to do this which I know are great and as well as your your little uh little go-getter little sons. Um uh it's definitely affects the whole family and and I'm grateful to you all.

Thank you, Kim. Appreciate your words. Yeah. All right. With that, can I get a motion to adjurnn? Move to adjurnn. All right. All those in favor? I. And any opposed? All right. We are journ. I'll second it. Thank you. Go out and do great work.