City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order the Lakewood City Council meeting of Monday, August 17th, 2026. Ms. Schumacher, could you please call the roll?

Council Member Branstetter?

Here.

Council Member Lauricella?

Here.

Council Member Lindholm?

Here.

Council Member Pearson?

Here.

Council Member Talbot has been excused. Deputy Mayor Bell? Here. And Mayor Boeke?

Here.

We have a quorum.

So please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you very much for being here tonight. We are going to start first with the police commendation ceremony and then the police commissioning ceremony. So I don't know who's going to hand out. Okay. Welcome. And we're going to ask the council to come down in front.

So first of all, I want to thank everybody for being here tonight. This is a great showing those who aren't part of the Lakewood Police Department, all the men and women in the back and their family and friends that are all here. So thank you all for being here and showing support of the police department. I'm Assistant Chief Dave Claridge, and I have the privilege to hand out several awards. and commendations tonight and we'll start with the first one so if investigator chris alexander and crime analyst elizabeth donald would come forward as they're coming forward i'm going to explain why they're getting this award they're both being recognized we're going to have you guys come out over here in front of everybody Believe it or not, that's not the cops favorite thing and to be in front of everybody and being recognized. Both of these guys are being recognized for their exceptional teamwork, dedication and professionalism during two major narcotics investigations conducted throughout 2025 and early 2026. Working together, Alexander and Donovan investigated two sophisticated drug trafficking organizations involved in the illegal cultivation and distribution of marijuana, as well as money laundering activities spanning multiple jurisdictions. Elizabeth's work required extensive intelligence gathering and analysis, while Chris Alexander conducted surveillance, the preparation and execution of numerous warrants, and coordination with multiple law enforcement agencies. Combined, the two investigations resulted in the seizure of nearly 1,200 marijuana plants, more than 110 pounds of marijuana, over $430,000 in cash, four residents, multiple vehicles, jewelry, high-end merchandise, and other assets connected to the criminal organizations. The investigations also resulted in multiple arrests for serious felony offenses including leading organized crime and unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance. Throughout both investigations, Chris and Elizabeth demonstrated exceptional teamwork, attention to detail, initiative, and persistence. Their combined investigative and intelligence efforts were instrumental in successfully disrupting two significant criminal organizations and exemplify the dedication and professionalism deserving the police chief's commendation.

And.

Okay, so next up, if you didn't notice, this is like my first gig as an assistant chief here at Lakewood PD, so we're still getting used to a little bit of the logistics. Detective Noah Deer and Andy Hall, who wasn't able to be with us tonight. So, Detective Deer, it's you, all by yourself in front of everybody. I know that you're excited about that. So both of our detectives are being recognized for their exceptional investigative work and dedication during a complex human trafficking and promoting prostitution investigation involving two illicit massage businesses. Over the course of four months, Detective Hall and Detective Deer worked together conducting extensive surveillance, intelligence gathering, financial investigations, and investigative follow-up. Their coordinated resources across multiple units and partner agencies worked closely with the prosecutor's office and prepared and executed numerous search warrants to build a successful case. Their investigation resulted in one suspect being charged with leading organized crime and two counts of promoting prostitution, with an additional suspect facing a charge of promoting prostitution Significant cash, bank accounts, jewelry, and other assets connected to the criminal enterprise were also seized. Most importantly, two victims were safely recovered from their exploitive environments and provided with support services and resources. Throughout the investigation, Andy Hall and Noah Deere kept victim safety and advocacy at the forefront of their efforts. Their persistence, compassion, teamwork, and commitment to seeking justice for vulnerable victims exemplify the professionalism and dedication deserving of the police chief's commendation. On a complete side note, I never thought that I was a short person until I started working at the Lakewood Police Department. I think at one point, everybody is like 6'4 and taller, and so I feel really short when I stand next to all these guys. So our next award, crime analyst Elizabeth Donovan, you'll come forward. So Liz is being recognized for her exceptional intelligence work and invaluable support of special operation narcotic investigations. Over the past year, Liz has played a critical role in several major investigations, often providing real-time intelligence while investigators were actively conducting surveillance. By connecting suspects, addresses, vehicles, and other members of criminal organizations, her work significantly expanded the scope of investigations and contributed to additional arrests and hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional seizures. Her efforts were especially instrumental in two significant cases, one resulting in the largest single operation narcotic seizure of the Lakewood Police Department in more than a decade, including over 100 pounds of narcotics, 350,000 fentanyl pills, and another resulting in the department's largest asset seizure in more than a decade, totaling several million dollars in real estate or excuse me, in real estate vehicles and currency. Whether supporting major investigations or providing immediate intelligence during day to day operations, Liz consistently goes above and beyond to provide investigators with detailed, timely information while helping keep officers safe. Her initiative, expertise and dedication have made her an indispensable member of the Special Operations Team and a tremendous asset to the Lakewood Police Department. and investigator Steven Moffitt. And again, Detective Andy Hall wasn't able to make it tonight. Both investigator Steven Moffitt and Detective Hall are being recognized for their extraordinary work in a major narcotics investigation targeting a large-scale drug trafficking organization operating throughout Western Washington. Beginning in the spring of 2025, Moffitt and Hall spent months conducting extensive surveillance, intelligence analysis, and investigative follow-up across multiple jurisdictions while coordinating closely with the DEA Task Force and other law enforcement agencies. Their investigation resulted in multiple search warrants and a seizure of nearly 200 pounds of narcotics with an estimated street value of over $5 million, including more than 330,000 fentanyl pills, 83 pounds of powder fentanyl and significant quantities of cocaine and heroin. Investigators also seized firearms, vehicles, and currency and made multiple arrests. The combined seizures represent one of the most significant narcotics investigations in the 15-year history of the Leakwood Special Operations Unit, removing an extraordinary amount of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs from communities throughout the region. Their persistence, investigative skill, and commitment to public safety have gone well beyond the expectations of their roles and exemplify the outstanding service deserving of the police chief's commendation. So in my short tenure here at the Lakewood Police Department, it's amazing that as we gave out a couple of these words tonight, some of these narcotics investigations that have netted over close to a million pills of fentanyl, which as most of you know, is one of our biggest killers right now in our community. So that should go without being said that those are super important investigations. So again, thank you both for the crime analysis and the detective work that has been taking place. uh so officer jonathan harper on on april 26th officer harper responded to a desperate call for help a two-month-old baby was not breathing and cpr was in progress uh officer harper ARRIVED FIRST AND IMMEDIATELY RUSHED TO THE BABY WHO WAS LIMP, UNRESPONSIVE AND SHOWING NO SIGNS OF LIFE. HER LIPS WERE BLUE AND SHE WAS NOT BREATHING. WITHOUT HESITATION OFFICER HARPER BEGAN CPR. TO MAKE THE SITUATION MORE STRESSFUL, The grandfather, who was a demitted methamphetamine user and under the effects of just smoking, was yelling at Officer Harper that he was not doing CPR correctly. Through the chaos and stressful scene, Officer Harper remained calm, focused, and despite distractions and mounting pressure around him, Officer Harper continued CPR on the tiny baby until medics arrived. They took over her care and transported her to the Mary Bridge Hospital. The baby was rushed to Mary Bridge, where officers later received the news that she had hoped for. Her heartbeat and breathing had been restored. Medical professionals confirmed that Officer Harper's immediate response and effective CPR were instrumental in saving her life. WHEN EVERY SECOND MATTERED, OFFICER HARPER DID NOT HESITATE. HIS COMPOSURE UNDER TREMENDOUS PRESSURE, DECISIVE ACTIONS, AND UNWAVERING COMMITMENT TO PRESERVING LIFE GAVE TWO-MONTH-OLD BABY A SECOND CHANCE. FOR HIS COURAGEOUS AND LIFE-SAVING ACTIONS, OFFICER HARPER IS BEING HONORED WITH THE LIFE-SAVING AWARD. And they think it was my, my mouth is like super dry all of a sudden, but I'm also one that has a little bit more emotions maybe than the other, so. Sergeant John Frazier, Officer Jared Pingel, Cabry Cooper, and then Dylan Warburton, who is not able to make it with us, and Anthony Trujillo, you'll come forward. So I don't have the date, but all of these Lakewood officers respond to a residential fire where two victims were trapped inside a burning home. Arriving alongside West Pierce Fire, the officers immediately took action in an extremely dangerous and rapidly evolving environment. As firefighters battled the flames and heavy smoke, the officers worked without hesitation, some rushing to stage critical medical equipment and gurneys, while others assisted in the difficult extraction of the two trapped victims. Once the victims were removed from the house, the officers immediately transitioned to lifesaving efforts, assisting with CPR and doing everything within their ability to give both victims a chance at survival. Tragically, despite their efforts, one victim passed away at the scene and the second later passed away at the hospital. While the outcome was heartbreaking, it does not diminish the courage Selflessness, determination demonstrated by these officers. Faced with fire, smoke, chaos, and tremendous personal risk, they did not hesitate to act. Their willingness to place themselves in harm's way and to work alongside firefighters in a desperate effort to save two lives exemplifies courage, teamwork, and an unwavering commitment to the preservation of human life. And therefore, they're being awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service.

Thank you.

Officer Cole Cranor. There we go. So in January of 2026, Officer Cole Cranor attempted to stop a reckless driver. After a small pursuit, the suspect ditched the car and started running. Officer Cranor began foot pursuit, but recognized that the suspect kept holding his waistband in a manner that indicated he had been armed. officer craner caught up with the suspect and took him to the ground where a dangerous struggle immediately followed during the confrontation the suspect repeatedly attempted to reach for a gun concealed in his waistband despite the significant threat officer craner remained calm and controlled repeatedly ordering the suspect to stop reaching for the gun Even as the suspect continued aggressively to resist, Officer Cranor maintained control until a backup officer arrived to assist and the suspect could be taken into custody. Faced with a situation that could have quickly escalated into a deadly force encounter, Officer Cranor demonstrated tremendous courage, restraint, and composure. His skill and ability to remain focused under an immediate threat allowed him to safely control an armed and actively resisted suspect without resorting to deadly force. Officer Cranor's actions not only protected himself and the responding officers, but quite possibly saved the suspect's life. His courage, sound judgment, and exceptional restraint exemplify the highest standards of law enforcement professionalism and are deserving of the Medal of Distinguished Service. Officers Mike Johnson, Mike Johnson couldn't be with us tonight, Daniel Pion, Dan Tinney, and Jeremy James. You guys will come forward. In April of 2026, all of these officers responded to a highly volatile incident involving a suicidal subject who had poured gasoline over himself and attempted to set himself on fire. The situation quickly escalated as the subject moved through the area and carrying a glass jar with a rag protruding from it. He eventually shattered the jar, armed himself with a piece of broken glass, and repeatedly challenged officers to shoot him as he moved toward the freeway overpass. Despite the immediate danger to themselves and the public, the officers demonstrated exceptional restraint, courage, and sound judgment. Officers Johnson and Tenney deployed OC spray, allowing Officer James to move in and physically take the armed subject to the ground. Working together, the officers were able to safely take him into custody and prevent him from harming himself or others. During the struggle, Officer James suffered a laceration from the broken glass, along with blood exposure requiring medical treatment and stitches. Faced with an armed individual whose actions could easily result in a deadly force encounter, these officers placed themselves at significant personal risk to bring the situation to a safe conclusion. Their courage, restraint, and decisive actions ultimately save the life of a person in crisis and exemplify the highest standards of service and professionalism. This is why they're receiving the Medal of Distinguished Service. I almost I almost didn't have to stand on my tippy toes for that one. Now we have an opportunity to welcome several of our newest officers, so Mitchell Napier. Seth Capes. Novaya Gori and Josh Cavalieri. You guys will come forward. Each of these officers are some of our newest members of the Lakewood Police Department. And tonight they will be sworn in by our city judge. He was doing a quick change. Sorry, Your Honor. I was like, I just saw you sitting right here. Oh, sorry. We have a phone booth right up here. Yeah, sorry.

Bye.

The.

Mayor, we do have additional oaths of office to conduct.

We still have like six or eight more oaths of office. And spoiler alert, Mayor, we did get refreshments for everybody so they could just go out to the foyer and do photos if that's okay with you. Perfect. We'll do that too. However, before we're going to take one small pause, Your Honor, We do have one more award that I forgot to present. So if our chaplain, Victor Burgess, will come forward. So the award tonight for Victor is that Victor has been a volunteer chaplain for the City of Lakewood Police Department for the past 20 years. and has tirelessly provided his services to both the men and women in this department, but also so many people in the community. So for that, Victor, we appreciate your service of 20 years and hope this isn't a retirement thing where you're saying, I'm done, because I just got to know you, right? Okay, back to the swearing-ins. Detective John Anderson, Detective Joel Pettit, and Detective Cody White, three of our newest promoted detectives. You guys will come forward. And Sergeant Sean Noble, our newest promoted sergeant.

be.

One more. One more. I swear to announce my own. So Assistant Chief Dave Claridge.

Yes.

So that concludes the awards and promotions for the police department. If folks sounds like the mayor's allowed folks to take photos with friends and family here in in the council chambers. But we really don't want the party to stop. So I did set up some stuff near the foyer, especially for the kids with like cupcakes and drinks and whatnot. So come get some photos. We'll take it sounds like a small recess here in the in council chambers. And again, thank you to everybody to come and support the police department and all these awards and and recognitions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

We are back in session and next is the business showcase for Bandido Solutions. Still here? I think that's them with the cute baby. Oh, there he is. Where do you want me to talk? Okay, we're going to play the video first.

Hi, my name is Jimmy Davidson and I own Bandido Solutions. We're a family-owned construction company. We're a design, build, construction, remodel. We do roofing. We also do custom fabrication. We also have Bad Data Woodworks. It does our millwork, architectural. We've been here since 2013. 2014, we decided to actually come out here and do a lot more work in the community. We really like this city in reference to it's easy to do business with the city. The community is very supportive, a small business. So the city of Lakewood has really rewarded us with trust and an ongoing relationship with customers. A lot of referrals. In most cases, we've been at same homes for years and years. Much of our work comes from previous clients. The best thing about us is that we're very transparent. So we always like to share what projects we're doing and always letting people know, hey, we did this year. You want to talk to them? Great. People are very confident. and sharing the work that we do and our interactions. I've always believed that being a business owner is also having a responsibility to the community. I have a community mindset in reference to I always lead with what the community needs. I participate in a lot of nonprofit leadership. So whether in a board capacity or as a volunteer capacity, whether it's coaching kids and in football or doing nonprofit for minority owned businesses or small business advocacy, just continuously being there for the community. One of the biggest things that we've built with Bandido Solutions is transparency and trust. We've had the opportunity to have a lot of interactions with different community members. And the biggest thing that always comes back is that we're always honest, we're truthful. We always bring things up that need to be brought up.

and that's what really separates us from other construction companies well thank you very much for being part of the lakewood community and doing so much and employing people here and um this is the business showcase august 2026 bandito solutions is recognized as the august 2026 city of lakewood business showcase for its reputation for quality transparency and building strong partnerships in the lakewood community so thank you very much and if you want to say a few words yeah just uh thank you to the committee that's all

Good.

I always appreciate people who invest in our community. Next up is public comments. Public comments are accepted by mail, email, or by live virtual or in-person comment. Send comments in advance by mail or email to Brianna Schumacher, City Clerk at 6000 Main Street, Southwest Lakewood, Washington 98499. or bschumacher at cityoflakewood.us. Comments received up to one hour before the meeting have been provided to the city council electronically. The clerk will read in the names of those who have submitted comments in advance. Ms. Schumacher.

Mayor, we received no comments in advance of this evening's meeting.

Thank you very much. I also want to note that we do have a separate public hearing tonight on the 2026 comp plan amendments. If you want to be on the record for the comp plan amendments, you need to talk during that public hearing. Okay, so any comments here will not make it into the record for the 2026 comp plan amendments. That's a little later in our agenda. And members of the audience may comment on items relating to any man or related to city business under the public comments period. Comments are limited to three minutes per person. virtual comments if you'd like to provide live virtual public comments you'll need to join the zoom meeting as an attendee by calling telephone dial 1232158782 and enter meeting ID 86872632373 or visit zoom.us and enter meeting ID 86872632373. Upon entering the meeting, please enter your name, use the raise hand feature to be called upon. And for those participating by calling in by telephone to use the raise hand feature, press star nine on your phone. When you're unmuted, please provide your name and city of residence. Each speaker will be allowed three minutes to speak. Outside of public comments, All attendees on zoom will continue to have the ability to virtually raise your hand for the duration of the meeting, you will not be acknowledged and your microphone will remain muted. Except for when you are called upon so tonight we're going to call on the zoom or phone folks who have raised their hand virtually to speak Schumacher. mayor there are no virtual hands raised at this time thank you ms schumacher we'll come inside then here into chambers and uh we do have a a sign up list i'll start with that under public comments mr paul bryce mr bryce you have three minutes Okay.

Thank you, Mayor, City Council members. My name is Paul Bryce. I'll just hand it to you guys. It's one of the most prestigious reports given out when compared to the Whitney Economics. This is more for public health and everything else. It pretty much shows you what everyone understands is pretty much 50% of of the population here in washington uses cannabis and then you know a bunch of graphs like i said that's a 61 page that shows a bunch of graphs and uh on the very last one uh it tells you what's like kind of what everyone considers very high danger you know 52 for smoking cigarettes drinking alcohol 39 whereas cannabis smoking right around 20 uh i just want to get into what i witnessed last planning city planning meeting you know it was just hatred for cannabis is just it's just so noticeable in that city in that council uh without a doubt a couple of conversations it's not going to change any of their minds that already just convinced it's just the the devil's lettuce and it's just absolutely just god's worst thing on the planet where clearly there's if anyone wants to take the time to read look at the facts it's way less harmful than most other things again cannabis financially makes sense number one more than anything what's unbelievable is cannabis is what's undeniable is cannabis is less harmful than alcohol, opioids, cigarettes, sugar, processed foods, and a lot of other things that are way more addictive. You know, again, that planning council, you know, to say it was a joke is I think to put it nicely, we saw every speaker pretty much say they voted for it, but just not in our backyard. know and then let's just wait for corporations you know cannabis the hatred i don't know if like for racism or whatever it is you know often associated with black people and just that bad stigma for it i'm one of four original black minorities that first opened up in washington state before they had the social working licenses to actually come out and again to hear them sit there and say not in our backyard but let's wait for the corporation so they can put it where the kids are going to be so the kids can be in the safe ways and everything else and cj well just just doesn't seem to make any common sense And I mean, I don't know if any of you ever seen what a cannabis store looks like. You know, there's no pot leaves on the stores because it's not allowed in our state. It looks like any other retail liquor store, like a liquor store. You see people come in, people go out. It's pretty much what happens over there. And again, that planning council, it was six people in there. they said six to one it's more like six to two six four or six against two four which is still 33 percent again i don't know if it's like a small little maybe this round says no but if it has to be like media or whatever to bring seven people in to say oh look over dominantly people report when again reports like this show clearly a lot of people are using it uh again you know you're talking about danger i own run two pot shops in small towns and You know, they all love having me there and not one single robberies happened in over 10 years. Law. Everyone's so scared of what possibly might possibly happen.

Thank you, Mr. Bryce. Next step is, um, Mr. Marsha Lele.

Hello, good evening to all of you. My name is Abraham. I'm a resident of City of Lakewood. I would like to once again bring it to the attention of the Council that we strongly oppose rezoning of our parcel which at 9132 Asian Water Drive for the so-called boat launch. We believe that was racially motivated if not also meant to serve some city residents then as some city officials friends which we came to learn about it after we were cleansed me and my family were cleansed from our home And of course that fell apart due to the opposition from some city residents and bringing it to the attention of the individual who were, some of them were expected to vote on this issue. we this has never ended for us it will never end and also so long as we feel that we are treated like any other city residents including those who brought a petition before the city council to wake it the 100th street end to own it and remove their encroachments on the city right away because their structures are on the city right away contrary to two recorded survey map of our property that shows no part of our home was built on the city right away. Of course, city argument has been based on an unrecorded map, unsigned, and which we don't know how the court has accepted it. Of course, it's under appeal and we believe that the council has been really a step ahead of his work. I understand that Mayor Bochy was not the mayor then and I'm really appreciative of him for being patient and really listening unlike his predecessors. I have seen sometimes some city residents for some reasons they get angry and say things that we do not like but I truly appreciate his patience and understanding rather than shutting him up like his predecessor used to do. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Marjolele. Okay, so that's everybody who has signed up to speak and you can go ahead and line up and anyone else here in chambers who would like to speak in public comment tonight.

Hello. My name is James Dunlop, and I'm a resident of Lakewood. I see that the subject of marijuana has cropped up recently. I think the city council did vote on it some years back, and it voted narrowly against having it. I think it was a very close vote, and so it's coming up again. And I wonder what is the right approach. I mean, I was surprised that it was a SEPA issue. And I mean, I don't know a great deal about it, but allowing cannabis businesses, including process and so forth in Lakewood, there apparently is a SEPA issue. So that does suggest that it might have an impact on the environment. I'm not quite sure how. For example, in the areas where cannabis businesses are proposed to be set up, there are a lot of oak trees, so I do wonder whether that's going to have a negative impact. So certainly one doesn't want the environment to suffer from a more liberal marijuana policy in Lakewood. You know, there is the moral issue. I mean, it's a kind of a complex issue, isn't it? I mean, on one hand, from an environmental point of view, you don't really want people have to go to Tacoma to buy their marijuana. You know, you think of the gas costs and besides, you might as well get the tax revenue. You know, on the other hand, there is a sort of personal responsibility angle, isn't there? I mean, I have no doubt. I mean, I do have a degree in psychology, and I have read about it over my entire adult life as a layperson. But there's no doubt that marijuana is bad for you. There's no doubt that it is linked with schizophrenia. In certain people, not everyone, there may be a genetic... a genetic component to it. And so you could say that if you allow or you support or you vote for a marijuana business in Lakewood and someone's mental health is adversely impacted by that, well, there is a certain sense of responsibility there. And I know that there is a huge view that there's nothing wrong with it. Well, there is a huge mental health problem in the United States, and not just the United States, across the Western world. And it's getting worse. And I think perhaps one should be concerned about what the signal it gives if you allow marijuana businesses in your city to operate. because yeah there is kind of a moral responsibility but then on the other hand you know just may go back to concepts of tax revenue and i'm not saying that you should or shouldn't have marijuana businesses in the city of lakewood just because it's bad for you doesn't necessarily mean you should prohibit it its businesses in your city thank you mr dunlop anyone else

Thank you, you've got three minutes.

Hello, I'm Hayley Ivey, resident of Lakewood for the past six months. Was here last summer, fell in love with Edgewater Park and I'm going to bring Edgewater Park up again today. I visited this morning, really nice weather. I noticed my favorite things about it are things that are few and far between. There's some water plants. on part of the shoreline where it's the only place i've seen uh dragonflies around here and little butterflies and the ducks do like to hang out there too um there is um a very tall old tree hanging out over the water um you can kind of go under its brush and i it's like 20 degrees cooler in there it's like moist it's it is so nice to be in there i think there's a wasp nest living in there so i don't really want to go in there at this point and i only bring this up because the rest of the park and there are some changes that have been made that have improved such as you know getting that grouse cut down and I don't see nearly as much garbage around but I bring it up because there's so few green there are very large old growth trees still on that property that are covered in ivy. So as I watch, like over the last year, trees getting cut down, leaving more room for the sun to make the grass even drier than it already is, I want to speak up for these trees that are completely covered in that ivy because that is killing them very quickly. I think there's a lot of ivy all over trees in the city. that I would love to see taken care of. But I think starting with the parks would be really good to get some forward momentum and caring for our green spaces. On top of that, the one notable thing is when it gets very, very busy, it's people that don't live in the neighborhood that come and they have fun, which is fine. It's just the traffic. will not be solved by the amending of that parcel to turn some of that into a parking boat ramp or more parking. It's inviting really loud crowds that are driving really fast and hold no like real care for the people that are already there. So it feels like when I walk around in my neighborhood on any given day, people are watching out for me, otherwise on our busy summer days gets completely taken over and then the next day there's trash everywhere. and I'm bringing all of this up because it's just like a smaller or rather it's just one example of like a lot of the city I just really want to see like severe attention to not sprinkling the sidewalks and instead enhancing the natural vegetation with native plants because again that one cubic foot of water plant is the only place I'm seeing dragonflies and I would love Lakewood to come back as the Prairie Lakewood. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Ivey.

Hello everybody, Christina Manetti, Lakewood resident since 1972. Lakewood likes to describe itself as a healthy and vibrant community and we see that on the banners all over the place. But that's not just, you know, you got to do more than just like have a gigantic event once a year. I think more needs to be done in terms of modeling some kind of consideration, responsibility and respect for the people and environment around us. Summerfest raises some serious questions about what kinds of things the city actually thinks is a good idea. The noise level was extraordinarily loud. I could hear it at my house, 1.5 miles away. Actually, it was 1.47899, whatever, almost 1.5 miles away. What was the decibel level? I was looking into it, and the estimates are like 100 to 110, like the limit of what is actually... even humanly sustainable for 15 minutes, much less a few hours? Was the noise monitored? Who made the decision about how loud the event could be and why did it need to be so loud? There are guidelines about noise levels from the World Health Organization where they followed. It's also advertised as an event suitable for children. Children are particularly vulnerable to excessive noise. You know, they had all those things there for kids. And then the music. I mean, the kids were still there, right? I mean, what steps did the city take to protect their hearing? Were earplugs or other hearing protection offered? If the noise was that loud 1.5 miles away, imagine what it was like for people living just a half mile away, or even less, or even obviously at the event itself, right? I mean, you were hurting people's hearing with that thing. This is particularly troubling because Lakewood already has a serious noise problem with the racing and deliberately modifying vehicles, and nobody does anything about that apparently. The city asks residents to be considerate of one another, yet the city itself is creating unnecessary levels of noise. The authority figure should be modeling the behavior it expects from everyone else. There's also a striking contradiction between the city's stated goals of reducing emissions, encouraging bicycling and walking, and investing in pedestrian infrastructure, like all those sidewalks, and promoting a car show that glorifies fossil fuel-powered vehicles. Some of those vehicles were undoubtedly dripping their toxic fluids into the grass, of course. Nice! Why is Lakewood encouraging more car culture? That may have seemed glamorous in the 1950s. Aren't we wiser now? Can't we just move beyond cars and parking lots everywhere and fossil fuel consumption? Then we have just the excess. I don't even have to tell you there were excess. It was like a festival, a celebration of gluttony. So language should ask itself what kind of example it wants to set. And now I have a comment from the Gary Oak Coalition. More environmental. So Christina Minetti, Gary Okolish, and Lakewood, recently you were all given copies of Professor Tommy's book. I think that everybody got it. Not everybody mentioned that they got it or said anything about it, but I think everybody must have gotten it. Even before that, people have been reminding you about the importance of habitat for years in these chambers, but the message still seems to be falling on some pretty deaf ears. Not totally deaf. Recently, I pointed out to a Lakewood resident that you know that several non-native trees downtown were the etymological basis of this person's surname. After some discussion, they told me that they were interested in planting one in their yard. And I'm using they here as a singular pronoun deliberately to avoid revealing this person's gender. So they said, but it's only one person, they had heard these non-native trees were good for bees. And yes, well, that's true. But then I pointed out that honeybees are actually themselves non-native, having been brought here from Europe. I reminded the person that the non-native trees offer very little to the complex community of native birds, plants, insects, butterflies, moths, and other organisms that depend on the native plants with which our ecosystem evolved. What makes this conversation especially remarkable is that this person had recently been given Ptolemy's book as well. Ptolemy has spent years explaining that native trees are the foundation of food webs and habitats. And yet, apparently, having received that information, this person proceeded to set their sights on this particular tree anyway. There is something almost comically stubborn about this spectacle. I have been given a book by a nationally recognized expert explaining why native trees matter, but I have decided that this particular non-native tree is going in my yard because I want it. It becomes a kind of horticultural executive power, a living monument to the individual and their petty preferences, even to their surname, instead of returning a bit of something back to nature that enables life itself to continue. Yes, by indulging our non-native plant whims, we are actually depriving creatures of habitat and thus contributing, yes, to death. and the extirpation of species. That means when they die out. It's not just this one myopic person. You might think, oh, that's just some crazy person and their yard. It's a very big issue. Ptolemy estimates that the United States has roughly 40 to 44 million acres of lawn. Lawn is no good for anything, especially because people put all the pesticides and the herbicides and stuff. Replacing half with native vegetation could return about 20 million acres to habitat. That's about 31,000 square miles or about the size of South Carolina. It's not often we can really do something concrete, but when we have this real opportunity to make our yards part of the solution, we should probably do it. But we have to recognize that our yards are not like personal private stages where we should indulge every aesthetic, sentimental, or egotistical preference. They're part of an ecosystem. And in this time of the sixth extinction, choosing plants that contribute little to nothing to native wildlife simply because we happen to like them is really the height of egocentricity. Thank you.

City Council Chambers, Thank you, Miss manetti Sir anyone else who would like to speak at public comment this evening. City Council Chambers, anyone else. City Council Chambers, Okay i'm going to close public comments. City Council Chambers, Thank you very much for your participation and miss schumacher Could you please read in the consent agenda.

Consent Agenda A, approval of the minutes of the City Council meeting of August 3rd, 2026. B, approval of the minutes of the City Council meeting of August 10th, 2026. C, motion number 2026-60, authorizing the execution of the Pierce County tourism promotion Area TPA interlocal agreement. D, items filed in the office of the city clerk. One, public safety advisory committee meeting minutes of December 3rd, 2025. Two, public safety advisory committee meeting minutes of February 4th, 2026. Three, public safety advisory committee meeting minutes of April 1st, 2026. Four, arts commission meeting minutes of May 4th, 2026. Five, arts commission meeting minutes of July 6th, 2026.

six planning commission meeting minutes of july 15 2026 and seven planning commission meeting minutes of july 29 2026. thank you ms schumacher is there are there any items that a council member wishes to remove from the consent agenda no second is required to remove an item any items any member wishes to okay I'm looking for emotion in the second on the consent agenda.

Mayor, I moved to adopt the consent agenda.

A second has been moved in seconded to approve the consent agenda. Any comments? Take any comments on this? All those in favor of approving the consent agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed nay. David. Consent agenda is approved next is public hearings and appeals, this is the date set for public hearing on the 2026 comprehensive plan amendments and i'd like to call on miss tiffany spear our planning manager to go through the amendments, thank you, Miss spear.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Madam Deputy Mayor, members of the council. This document begins on page 144 of the packet. The actual memo with the information on each of those amendments that are proposed is provided in detail starting at page 52. But beginning with the PowerPoint that you see on the screen. As you just mentioned, this is the public hearing evening for the 2026 Comprehensive Plan Zoning Map and Development Regulation Amendments. This was discussed in more detail last week at your study session, but in summary, there are three types of amendments within the package. The first 12 relate specifically to changes in state law that required the city to at least review, if not actually suggest changes based on the state law changes. There are several private or city-initiated amendments, and then there were several that were regulatory or policy changes, voluntary, and up to the city council whether to pursue. Uh, in the planning commission's recommendation, which was provided to you last week. And again, this evening, uh, they did, uh, recommend approval for 11 amendments, a do not approve recommendation for one, no action for six of the amendments because the city had already taken the required action to comply with the state law they related to. And then for the last six amendments, it was continued them to a future amendment cycle for a variety of reasons. So in summary, these are the ones that were recommended for approval. 2026-01, 02, 05, 06, 08, 13, 14, 18, 23, 24, and 25. Those that were either do not approve or take no action, 03, 09, 10, 12, 15, and 16. And then the remaining were to continue 04, 07, 17, 19, 21, and 20. So again, I just mentioned the reason for the no action recommendation on six of the amendments. The others were continued either to 2027 or in the case of one to 2029. And then there was a reason behind the do not approve recommendation on 2026-03 that was discussed last week. Just a reminder again that the amendments themselves in tonight's packet have been reorganized. So rather than looking at amended changes by amendment number, it is by section of code. So there may be a single code section that's been amended by more than one or is proposed to be. And you're only looking at that once. Just a reminder as well that the rezones that are included in the packet relate to Edgewater Park. One is to redesignate the large existing parcel for Edgewater Park to open space and recreation. And the second is to rezone the southern adjacent parcel for expansion of that park for the master plan. There was a request by the planning commission to make sure that the council provided direction back to staff to work with those that have property surrounding the park to make sure that it was clear how private and public properties would be separated in terms of public access to the park. The legislative schedule is tonight, the public hearing, and then this will be back before you on September 21st for action. So other than that, Mr. Chair, happy to answer any questions or turn it back to you.

thank you ms spear so tonight this is a public hearing to discuss um to hear from the public on each of these or any of these items correct yes sorry yes so that's and that's what this is about yes this is the public hearing comments to support oppose suggest edits whatever the public may wish to voice okay good PB, Harmon Zuckerman, So I do have one person signed up and then after that I'll call on him. And then after that, we can have that. And then I'll ask about if anybody calls in virtually PB, Harmon Zuckerman, But I want to make sure that this is about the amendments that are in front of us that have come from the planning commission. And that will be voting on next month, so the those 16 amendments and as to what your opinions are on that so just just to make sure that we stay in that in that box okay so Mr marjorie Lee your first step. At three minutes.

Hello again, my name is Abraham you're generally i'm a resident of city of liquid. regarding the rezoning of parcel 91 32 edgewater drive as i mentioned in the past we as the the owner who have been kicked out of it strongly oppose that also it makes no sense that to reason it or not still are using it the same way not only that It makes no sense to have an open space yet make it a parking lot and go and pave it. It really contradicts one another. But that's not my only concern. My main concern is that has this council done a biological study of that area? The water in that area is stagnant. During summertime, I have seen toxic algae there. there are sediment coming from the street that dumps into the lake in that area with the water not circulating and now you want to put a boat lunch there and having um person from and and oils into the lake in that area where you want to have children and families swim This is disastrous. It's not also that deep in that area. You better go look at it. You may have, there are a lot of tree stumps there. i have said in the past and i said again that you should consider moving that to the 100th street end where friends of the some city officials structures are built on the city right away and it is 86 linear feet supposedly wide more than enough to have a boat lunch there It is already paved and the water circulates a lot better than in this area. So please do not do something that is not right. Also, do you want to have all of this traffic here? you want to redirect the traffic to one part of the lake and maybe the family, they could come over here with their kids and they feel safe coming here and not having boats making noises and all of those, so they could at least enjoy it. to my understanding really this is not a park it's a right-of-way donated to the county in on march 1916 and it remains the same it's not a park so i don't know how somebody calls it a park the state doesn't call it a park the county doesn't call the park this city sometimes calls it a park when it likes it sometimes it doesn't thank you very much

Thank you very much, Mr. Marjolele. Are there any other speakers who wish to speak to any of the comprehensive plan amendments here in chambers? And after that, we'll go see if anybody's online.

Oh, hello, my name is James Dunlop and I'm a resident of Lakewood and I would just like to echo what Dr. Mijalili was saying as far as the rezoning of his property and clearly the city's motives in terms of that property and Edgewater Park in general need to be really considered. I think the whole project should be put on hold. Something is seriously wrong. I think that just looking, I mean, I know this isn't perhaps relevant to the inquiry itself, but just looking at what is left of Dr. Mujaleela's property and the plan to turn it into a parking lot. And one just asks, not a parking lot, a parking lot for trailers. I mean, I just wonder sort of why, and I asked why several years back, and I never actually got a reason why. And I think the reason why, I don't know, it seems to be about the grants. I mean, the money is available, so you might as well use the money. If someone offers you half a million dollars to build a concrete giraffe in your roof, you might as well build a concrete giraffe. And it's just all about money, and that's what it's about. the fact that Dr. Minjidulli has lost his house, they're planning on, you've got a tiny park, I mean, it really is tiny, and you want to have a boat, I mean, a parking lot for boats, for boating trailers, when it's a tiny minority of people that need to use it for that reason. And yeah, it's just, it seems to me, But in terms of motive, it's not about equity. I mean, access. I mean, that was just a reason. You've got to put something down on a piece of paper to get your grant access. So that's why you can ask for several million dollars to build your build your parking lot but the reason is you know you you have the money you you put concrete down i mean the city of lakewood likes putting concrete down it gives people jobs it makes people feel good it increases salary but you know the city of lakewood should work for the interests of the residents of lakewood not for its own bureaucratic reasons and i think that as far as i can see you know that is what is what is happening and very often when lakewood acts it uh degrade things and certainly in terms of Edgewater Park that is definitely what seems to be happening thank you Mr Dunlop are there any other speakers who wish to speak to the comp plan amendments

Yes, hello, I'm Haley Ivey. I live very close to Edgewater Park and I just, for the amendment that's proposing to change that parcel as it has been called from residential to what is allowing the destruction of an undeveloped green space. I oppose it completely from the very beginning. People have opposed this amendment Insane plan for ever since it was starting to be talked about and I'm still very confused about how we got here because I feel as if we were doing a hearing on the Shoreline Master Program and it didn't meet any of the requirements for that. If we're talking about sustainability and increasing tree canopy or restoring our habitats, this is not the way to go. um it's a lot more damage than you think to take yet another um plot of land where our water seeps into um and now to turn it into pavement it is a blight it will be a blight on what is already a sliver of a noodle of a park i don't know if the people who are making changes have ever been here it is super tiny if if there are two boaters coming there like it's already like It's too much. There's not, it's not American Lake. Yes, it is the only public access to Lake Steilacoom, but like, we could work a way around it instead of making it even more inaccessible. And inaccessibility would be including removing this tree canopy. So now we're standing on dry, hot grass. I mean, it's half less green than last year. And now you've got pavement covering, making it hotter. There were trees cut down for a swimming beach. Nothing has been done to that area. It's just filled with trash and the water. It feels as if every part of this plan or anything that has been done for the improvement of Edgewater Park, which has been none at all, to be in complete disinterest of anybody that does not want to get on a boat, lower it, and stare at private homes on a lake the entire time. I don't get it. I don't get it. This feels like a crime to a person who lives right next to this sacred place. I barely see the dragonflies over that, like I spoke of earlier. Anyway, I'm going to end it there. This is heartbreaking if this were to go through and destroy one of the very few green spaces we have left and continue to pollute the city of Lakewood. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Ivey.

Hello, I'm Christina Vanetti. I have been living in Lakewood for 54 years and I live near Edgewater Park. I want to let you know that I oppose the proposed comprehensive plan amendments related to re-designating the Edgewater parcels on Lake Steilacoom from residential to park open space. Numbers 2026-24 and 2026-25, 25 especially related to Dr. Mirjalili's property. I support preserving the land as open space now, but I can't support this amendment as currently presented because the proposed use of property does not appear consistent with the environmental purpose of a park and open space designation, especially when the site is a fragile critical area in the form of fish habitat and shoreline. Historically, Lake Steilacoom and Clover Creek system have supported runs of coho, chinook, and sockeye salmon, and coho salmon have returned to the watershed after restoration efforts. Having already demolished the home of the Mirjalilis on the property that's being rezoned, the city's next step needs to be restoration of the site's natural functions, not replacing one developed use with another. The proposed boat launch and boat trailer parking would introduce additional pavement, impervious surfaces, vehicle traffic, and intensive recreational use directly adjacent to Lake Steilacoom. This would further degrade habitat rather than restore it and I'm sure that's perfectly obvious to all of you. This is particularly troubling because the Cities on Shoreline Restoration Plan component of the Shoreline Master Program, page 30, identifies Lake Steilacoom as the highest priority fish habitat. A comprehensive plan amendment should not facilitate a use that would intensify human activity and increase impacts to habitat that the city has already identified as deserving the highest level of protection. The environmental question is not simply whether the property is being changed from a residential designation to park open space. What matters is what will actually happen to the land. If the park open space becomes a designation that allows a boat trailer parking lot, a boat ramp, additional pavement, associated shoreline disturbance, then the amendment could effectively enable further habitat destruction while appearing to create a pleasant expanded park natural area for the public to enjoy. You think you're expanding the park. Well, no, you're expanding the park to make a big parking lot and a boat launch. I mean, that's just crazy. The city should instead use this opportunity to make the property a genuine expansion of park and open space since the house is already gone, retain and restore native vegetation, reduce impervious surfaces, protect shoreline and fish habitat, and restore ecological functions wherever possible. The fact that the site has already been cleared obviously creates an opportunity for restoration there that should not be squandered. I ask the city council to reject this rezoning as currently proposed and do not approve it until enforceable conditions are established that ensure the parcel will actually be used for open space and true park expansion. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Minetti.

And now a second comment from the Gary Oak Coalition. I'm commenting on behalf of the Gary Oak Coalition, an environmental non-profit based in Lakewood. We are concerned about the potential environmental impact of Amendment 202601 to the Comprehensive Plan, particularly to Gary Oaks, also known as Oregon White Oaks, and their habitat. While we understand that the underlying lot splitting requirement is mandated by state law, The city has made an affirmative environmental finding that's much broader than simply saying state law requires us to do this. The staff finding for Amendment 202601 actually says, would the proposed amendment cause little to no adverse environmental impacts? And the answer was yes. And the staff's conclusion is non-project action SEPA exempt. While state law may require that Lakewood establish an administrative lot splitting process, State law does not make the environmental consequences of that process disappear, right? I mean, that's not logical. This concerns us because administrative lot splitting makes subdivision easier and faster, presumably, with no public hearing and no discretionary city design review. The city's own description says the process is to be non-discretionary and handled administratively. That's on page 5 of 75 of the PC agenda packet, 2026, June 17th. Lakewood's priority white oak woodland definition specifically includes forested pure oak or oak conifer areas of one acre or larger with at least 25% oak canopy, and the city recognizes these as critical areas. Therefore, facilitating the division of residential parcels can have consequences for one acre plus carry oak groves, including the potential for development to fragment a grove or make subsequent development of portions of it easier. The city's own early environmental planning recognizes the cumulative impacts to Gary Oaks matter. There have been responses to our previous comments in 2024. And so we ask exactly how did the city determine that administrative lot splitting will cause little or no adverse environmental impacts? when the amendment will make it easier to divide residential properties including properties containing priority white oak woodlands and gary oak groves of one acre or more what analysis did the city perform specifically regarding the potential cumulative effects of lot splitting on gary oak habitat including habitat fragmentation increased development footprints, driveways, impervious surfaces, root zone disturbances, and loss of associated oak habitat. The city has not demonstrated that its administrative lot splitting process will preserve the protections for priority white oak woodlands when parcels containing one acre or larger oak groves are divided. Lakewood is currently developing an urban forestry program and says its tree assessment will be used as the basis for the creation of an urban forestry program as directed by city council priorities and comprehensive planning goals. It's therefore reasonable to ask why the city is simultaneously adopting a new process that can facilitate parcel division. And the rest of it I will send to you.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else who'd like to make public comment on the proposed 2026 comprehensive plan amendments? Hey, Ms. Schumacher, do we have anybody who would like to speak virtually? There you go.

Mr. Dunlop. Hello, can you hear me?

Got three minutes. Got it. So again, regarding the rezoning of Dr. Mirchalili's former property by Edgewater Park that everybody else is talking about, I'd just like to just like on the topic of Edgewater Park being small, if you've ever gone there, it's like a strip essentially between the road and the lake. And in terms of the usage of it as a park, if somebody sets up a picnic or whatever at the park and you're walking through the park, you essentially have to step over all of their stuff to get past. That's how thin it is. You know, considering the lot next to it that is now empty that used to have his house on it, you know, the question is, okay, at this point, you know, taking away his house was a mistake, but we're past that. And in terms of what should be done with that lot, you know, as it is currently, people are already using it as a park. It's a much more broad area than the main strip of the park itself. You know, it's not a narrow strip. It's a larger area. You know, there's grass there now. And people are making use of it. And if you just pave it over and turn it into a parking lot and a boat launch, all of the many, many, many issues with that aside, both environmental, in terms of the noise, increased congestion, everybody else has already talked about that. But that aside, you're kind of missing the point of trying to fix the issue with Edgewater Park that's already there, which is that the park is so thin that if you added a little lot next to it to expand the park and just left it as it is, you'd actually be expanding the park services a lot better than paving it over. If you pave it over, you're throwing away the opportunity to actually expand it into a park that is sizable enough to actually serve people. And it seems really, really weird to prioritize boats, which is like a small fraction of the population of people who are interested in using that park, I would say probably maybe a couple percent. Why are you prioritizing boat people who might not even live near the park? They might be driving there. They might not even be local to the park. Why are you prioritizing them over just normal people who might want to use the park? So just like leave it as it is and it will be fine. Like you don't have to touch it. It's a good opportunity to make the park better and just leave it. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Dunlop. Is there anyone else calling in virtually, Ms. Schumacher?

Mayor, there are no other virtual hands raised. Okay.

So we are going to close public comment on the comprehensive plan amendments. Thank you very much. Next up is motion number 202661. Ms. Schumacher, could you read it in?

motion number 2026 dash 61 authorizing the execution of a land lease and facility use agreement with partners for parks for Fort still look on H barn restorations and operations.

Thank you, Miss schumacher I will call on miss roxanne miles parks and recreation and Community services director to provide an overview.

Thank you, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council Members. So happy to follow up with you today and answer any questions you have about the lease and facility use agreement. We had a study session last week and we recognize that this is just one of our past forwards. We know that the H-BARN project is one that has been important to you all for a while so part of that presentation in the lease i'm just going to hit some of those highlights and then open it for questions for you the project itself is moving towards that 60 design phase we expect those design elements to come back to the end of the year and that's also another opportunity or the time for us to touch base on the funding uh opportunity and what the status is for the 12 million So there's basically $8.2 million currently identified between us and Partners for Parks in the state silo money that we've identified. There's another funding request that we're waiting on. And so this is about the opportunity to help us fill that final $2.8 million gap with that goal to try to have funding identified when the project is back before you at the 60% design. So as we were researching all of our opportunities, it looked at the opportunity for a different partnership relationship with Partners for Parks might be possible and open up some avenues for other funding possibilities for us. One of those possibilities is what is basically in that lease and in the facility use agreement. So the nature of it is that we lease the land to Partners for Parks for the express purpose of building the community center of which there would be a city benefit to. Through this, we would be able to develop the improved facility on the lease property with both city resources and the Partner for Parks resources that have already come through their fundraising efforts, plus the additional grants that they would be eligible for through this relationship. the partners then would operate the facility so of course we have to get it built to be at the point of operations but because we would be the majority contributor back to the property and it is to the facility and is on property that we own we would have priority and majority use for scheduling the facility there would be a joint operating board that includes the partners as well as the city to fully establish what the schedule what the operating protocols would be of course any budget and schedule when it takes city resources would be coming forward in our budgeting cycle and process in terms of what resources the city is bringing to the table Within the lease and the agreement itself has the opportunity for future amendments. It also has the opportunity to terminate the lease should we not be able to get the project to a place of actual delivery. Or if there's a point in the future where the partners aren't able to do their part of it, the only thing that can happen with the termination of the lease is reversion back to the city. so there were a couple small changes to the agreement after it was brought to you last week one of that was reducing it to a 15-year term versus the 20-year term there is also a suggested amendment to article 8 to clarify that language and make sure it's clear that both the land and the physical improvements are owned by the city but the community facility will be leased to and operated by the partners with joint use by the city so i think there's some suggested language if you want to make that potential amendment tonight also again recognizing that there's amendment opportunities before we get to a point of actually operating the facility to clarify some of the questions

of concern or consideration thank you ms miles are there any questions for ms miles director miles oh phillip council member lindholm has a question council member lindholm you got the floor

Thank you so much. I want to start by saying that I really support the H Barn restoration. I think this is an important historic asset for Lakewood. I want to see it restored and I want to put to productive community use and I want Partners for Parks to be able to pursue every available source of outside funding. I understand that putting this lease in place helps make partners eligible for additional funding and I don't want us to unnecessarily jeopardize those opportunities. So I'd like to support this lease. i have two questions the first one is if i'm reading this correctly i have a concern about the fairness of the operating cost framework uh under the agreement as i read it partners could utilize as much as 49 and lakewood would still pay 100 the utility and janitorial costs so only when partners exceeds 49 utilization does the agreement provide for those expenses to be prorated. I'm not sure that's the fairest way to structure a 15 year operating relationship. So if the city uses 60% of the facility and partners uses 40, I think the city should generally bear 60% of the usage related operating costs and partners should bear 40%. Roxanne, would you mind speaking to that?

I think I picked up all the question and what I was listening to. So that is a piece again when it comes to the operating profile that would be coming back to you in the future. It does state that it is a minimum of the 51% and as stated by the partners, they don't have a lot of bandwidth or capacity or interest to definitely not the majority in what those pieces are. So when we commit to some maintenance and operations, it says to cover all of our city activities that are operating in the facility. So the language in the agreement can be amended in the future if we find that it's insufficient in governing those elements. But it also right now really clearly pulls out that we have majority rights. And with that, then we have responsibilities for the maintenance and operations for the rights we take advantage of.

that makes sense so if i may just to let the council know when the time comes i would be inclined to suggest an amendment that makes uh utility and janitorial expenses allocated in proportion to use um so that we're actually paying for what we use and partners the same the other piece may be a scrivener's error that i want to raise for our city attorney it seems to me that section 8 uh intended to achieve reciprocal indemnity but i'm not sure that it does when you read it it seems that it started out and again this is something i can talk to heidi later but my impression or miss walker later my impression would be the section 8.8 is supposed to reflect section 8.1 where if the city if there's a mistake made then partners for parks holds the city uh harmless but section 8.8 doesn't actually identify that it says the city would potentially pay in the event of a judgment so um miss walker would you mind speaking to that council member lindholm are you referencing section 8.1 where it talks about the city indemnifying and holding harmless the partners Section 8.1 and Section 8.8. 8.8 seems to not actually achieve reciprocal indemnity. I wasn't sure if that was our intent.

Well, I do think that that's the effort that's being made. I can take a second look at the language, but if you look at it, 8.1 is us holding them harmless and 8.8 is the partners indemnifying and holding the city harmless. So I do think it's an attempt at reciprocal indemnification. okay so if that's the case it would be my impression the city would not pay in the event of a judgment um i i think you and i have had this go around before i never bet on what the outcome might ultimately be if we were to be named in a lawsuit but yes the intent is that we would not be able to be held liable because of the indemnification language the strength of that language can be very situational depending on what the lawsuit is that comes our way

yeah we can discuss this another time it's just 8.8 um passes it straight to the city rather than suggesting that we might be named which i certainly appreciate that's all i have mr mayor thank you councilmember lindholm are there any other questions for director miles councilmember laura sella

uh thank you mayor bokeh uh this is a question for the city attorney uh just are there any other concerns that you have with us proceeding forward with this in terms of risk to the city

Councilmember Larcella and members of the council, I'm not concerned from a risk perspective any more than I would be concerned about other typical city things. Cities have facilities, cities hold events at facilities. This is not substantially different than those things. The one thing that I would call your attention to, and I believe that your parks director raised it, is under Article 8, and this was a miss, in legal review, we wanted to ensure that the ownership was clearly stated so that we understood exactly who owns what. And it currently reads as if the partners would own the building. And that is not the intent from the city's perspective. And so you have before you a printed courtesy of your city manager a recommended amendment that I completely concur with them and worked on with the manager. And that would say that the land and physical improvements are owned by the city. The community facility will be leased and operated by the partners with joint use rights by the city. And so if that is something that the council is interested in entertaining, I I think that if we're leasing something to someone, we ought to be clear that we own the thing that we're leasing. I'd be happy to answer any questions about that recommendation. Thank you.

Mayor Mrakas, Councilmember brown Center are you okay. Mayor Mrakas, All right, no other questions for director miles. Mayor Mrakas, We need a motion in a second to get this on the table, so we can start Council member discussion and talk about that amendment.

So moved mayor second.

Has been moved and seconded to approve motion number 2026 61 so I think we should take up the amendment first so that Miss Walker just spoke to. Could I get someone to move that in so we could discuss and councilmember brand stutter.

Mr. Mayor, I move to amend in Article 8 of the lease under liability and insurance. In the preamble, the first two sentences to change them to read the land and physical improvements are owned by the city. The community facility will be leased to and operated by the partners with joint use rights by the city.

So that's on page six of the agreement page 162 it's the first paragraph, the preamble of Article eight that's under liability and insurance. So it's in physical. So the words and physical improvements after land are being added and then at owned is being struck and the words least two are being inserted. I have a second.

Second, Mayor.

Moved and seconded to approve this amendment. Any comments on this? Okay. All those in favor of the amendment as proposed to Article 8, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, nay. The ayes have it. So Article, the amendment is approved. Okay. Any other amendments? Anybody has no amendments. Okay. So we'll go to council. Yeah.

I have one more amendment if I may.

Okay.

I would move to amend motion 2026-61 to require the section 4.3 be revised before execution so that utility and janitorial expenses are allocated between the city and partners in proportion to each party's actual utilization of the facility, rather than requiring the city to pay 100% of those expenses whenever it is a majority user.

OK, so it's 4.3 on page 161 of our packet.

I will second that.

Okay, so it's 4.3 under utilities. So, okay, do we have a second? Oh, you seconded. We have a, okay, it's been moved and seconded to approve that amendment. So, Councilmember Lindholm, how does, How does that paragraph 4.3 utilities read after your amendment? Do you have that in front of you?

Um, one second.

Okay.

I would move. Yeah. So it would be utility and janitorial costs are allocated between the city and partners in proportion to actual facility usage. Okay. And to be clear, the intent here is if we're signing a 15 year lease, the ongoing expenses are going to be something of importance here and we want to get it right.

Okay. Any council member discussion?

Council member Pearson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. i this kind of touches on some of my concerns on the lease in general about adding ongoing costs to what we do here with this facility so um i'm supportive of the amendment and um i'll have kind of save some of my other comments i guess for after the amendment right any other comments to the amendment

All those in favor of the amendment is proposed by council member Lindholm signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed nay. You guys have it. So, uh, the amendment is approved. So any other amendments to the agreement? Okay. So council member comments who would like to go first council member Branstetter.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Let me preface my comments to say that I'm planning to vote against the resolution and I'm doing that for, and I'll enumerate my three reasons for doing that. Um, first the purpose of this resolution is to prove a lease that would allow partners for parks to apply for a building communities fund grant. to complete the destruction and construction of the H Barn project. i'm very supportive of the h barn project it has been going we've been working on this for a number of years and they the premise of it was always based on there is a void in venue space of a certain size that this could fulfill that would serve to promote tourism and to provide a venue space for organizations and individuals in the city at a cost that would be more reasonable than what is currently available, but that is in a size venue that is needed to be able to go and do that. and in the course of discussions and we've always decided that there was always the element of the reservation preservation or restoration of the h barn as a historical element in in the city to be able to go and do that and it would serve as also providing some recreational uh passive recreational elements by its presence and being there and a public being able to interact to it. Now at the 11th hour, we're being asked to provide, approve a lease that would allow for an application for a building communities fund grant. Building Communities Fund grants are specifically designed for nonprofits or tribal entities to get funds for the construction or purchase or remodeling of facilities, capital costs that are designed to provide community services to disadvantaged populations And that is a change of focus from providing venues and dealing with tourism. So I see that inconsistent with the funding that we as a council have approved for this project because we approved $4 million in change, the majority of which is coming from the LTAC facility to promote tourism and not to provide community and social services to serve disadvantaged populations, even though it's a park, so anybody's welcome, but it's not services to do that. The second thing about the Building Communities Fund application is it's supposed to be based on a study of needs in the community for social and community services which isn't really what we've done as we've gone through and we've been working now for over a year on revising the legacy plan of the things that we want to do in parks that providing social services in our parks has not been an element of the previous existing legacy plan. And in the surveys that we did of the community, we didn't even ask people about social services in the parks. We asked them about parks and recreation type things to be able to go and do that. But this grant of which the first part is due to be submitted tomorrow requires anything of analysis and about needs of that nature that are in the community. Specifically in that we're doing this so that Partners for Parks can be the eligible nonprofit to supply this. But one of the things that they are required to submit is to list at least three distinct and specific services you will provide. we have this this lease doesn't address and we haven't been discussed what social services we would provide or partners for parks would arrange to provide at the h barn site to be able to go and do that and and i'm uncomfortable not being able to see that even though i'm also uncomfortable with the idea of making a location in the middle of Fort Steilacoom Park not serviced by public transportation as being a place of where as yet unspecified social services would be made available to low income and disadvantaged people in the community. I'm just not seeing that. And I really don't know, since we haven't had any discussions with it, how we will come up with being able to provide tomorrow the data about how many unduplicated disadvantaged and low income people would be served by whatever services are deemed to be appropriate for there. And I think that changing it over to a function to have services there to be able to go and do that. And part of the problem was is that, as I heard in the introduction today, we're now considering this to be a community center, okay, having moved from a venue. okay and and but this is not the right location as we have discussed before in lakewood for the envisioned community center that that we have i think the last uh The last reason why I don't like the lease, it's we, this idea of leasing it to a nonprofit and then having an operating and joint organizing committee to be able to run it, to be able to go and do that, is the antithesis of what we have always discussed of trying to move city forward in terms of doing things efficiently and getting off and we have a parks department that very effectively services the public maintains parks allows people who want to use parks to obtain permits and be able to go through and do that and moving through and changing to what is certainly perhaps not undoable, but certainly a more complicated way of going about of managing this facility to be able to go and do that. I don't think that's consistent with all of our conversations about being able to be efficient. And I think that the last thing that I would say is that, yeah, maybe we need more funding if we can finally decide on after we get to a 60 design of what what what it's really going to cost but to change it over and to and to to redefine the purpose of this as a as a as a facility that provides services to low income and disadvantaged populations is uh not consistent nor is it consistent with the city funding that we're going to be providing for it and i so i'll be voting against the the motion thank you councilmember brandstetter anyone else have any comments

Councilmember Pearson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I too have those very same concerns about kind of how this is being pushed out there about being a, you know, is this a community center and what kind of services are we going to provide? And are we setting ourselves up for some sort of long-term, you know, ongoing programming costs that are associated with kind of complying with this grant that we're applying for? And are we chasing our tail with, you know, Matt Pinyan, reimagining what this is to chase this grant those are real concerns that I have you know when I. um think about what this facility it you know should be very very similar to mr brandsetter about it should be a place that's you know open to the public on half of the side that we've talked about and then the other the other space would would function very similarly to the pavilion that we have across across the the road there You know it's not something that requires a ton of ongoing programming and and that seems to be more and more what what this is looking like um. You know, I think a grant is is only. beneficial if the requirements attached to it really align with what we're trying to do here. That said, I I still am supportive of of restoring the H barn the H barn project as a whole, they can see me, you know, an awesome asset for the park and the Community, but I just don't know if this. you know, agreement and applying for this grant and kind of, you know, is the right route to go. So.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor Bell.

Thank you, Mayor. I think we all have similarly the same concerns that we're bringing up. And there's a lot of uncertainties with this. The way I am looking at this is that this is another mechanism that we can use to move things forward. I think we do have some room and some leeway to make some the specifics that we're talking about as we move forward. And this will just help us apply for the grant to see if there's a next step that we could do. I would say i'm all together supportive of the H barn and where it's moving, but I look at it more of like Council member Pearson said. As a recreational space and event Center not a Community Center so I prefer not to refer to it as a Community Center because that is not my intent when i'm thinking Community Center for. the entirety of Lakewood. I do think I like the passive space that's open. So when people are there, can use it and then again, special event. So I am supportive of moving forward with this. I look at it, like I said, as a mechanism to move to the next step with we do have some room and some space to make edits further on. Okay, thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor Bell.

Councilmember Laura Sella. Thank you, Mayor Boki, and I really appreciate the comments from Councilmember Branstetter and Councilmember Pearson as they were part of the subcommittee for the HBAR, and so they've got intimate knowledge of the details of this. I like to take the perspective of Does this benefit the city of Lakewood? Does it harm the city of Lakewood going forward? And to me, I don't see any harm from this. I only see benefit partially because this is our opportunity as a council again to message our support to partners for parks or not, but especially understanding how important it is that we are unified in our support when it comes to getting additional support from our state and federal partners and i think to me this is a way to show that support and i i agree this is not the community center for lakewood that we envisioned and that isn't to say that it doesn't provide a gathering space for people that is desperately needed City Council Chambers, And I think we can't have enough gathering spaces, we have the pavilion to me, this is the next step. City Council Chambers, For the services that are offered at the pavilion and provides more opportunity for that, whether it's you know the yoga in the park, which can occur in this space or in the meeting rooms there. City Council Chambers, And for that reason I am supportive of this going forward, thank you.

City Council Chambers, Thank you, Council member Laura sella any other comments from Members. I'll just say that Councilmember Branstad.

I would just say that, in my view, that not approving this resolution, thus not approving this lease, doesn't stop the project moving forward as originally visioned being able to go. Partners for Parks has done their committed fundraising work nearly entirely, and there is some other fundraising work that can still be done to be able to go and do that. But I am concerned that tomorrow we have to submit a document that specifically lists The community social services, at least three that will be provided in that facility. If this grant gives us funding. And I don't think that's an acceptable place to put us in where someone between tonight and four o'clock tomorrow is going to decide what those three services that we're going to commit ourselves to to the Department of Commerce.

City Council Chambers, You councilman brand Center so i'll just i'll just close by saying, I think this is a step in the right direction, we need to continue to search to build this out. City Council Chambers, The way we'd all I think like to see it built out. City Council Chambers, It. I think an additional, and to our partners, as Council Member Lauricella mentioned, it's very important to signify that we are still looking for dollars to make this work the way we have been telling people it'll work. A community center can be a lot of things. I mean, and I think we get locked into words. When we built the stage, I still call it the stage, we didn't anticipate that we would have coffee with the mayor um every other month or every quarter on the stage we didn't anticipate now we anticipated what we had this weekend which is um an international uh stage and singers and dancers and whatnot that we anticipated it's hard to anticipate in the future what you're going to be using these facilities for So getting locked into words, it's going, you know, do we call it a community center? Do we call it an event center? Well, it's not built like the McGavock Center. I would call it, see, in my thinking, an event center is more like McGavock, or it would be a, a large auditorium it would be a performing arts center so we get locked into words i just want to be very careful this this is a community center this is an event center this can be used for any number of things my guess is it'll be used mainly rented out to various groups who want to use that what we'll have is for um social services i i don't know but I think we'll be amazed at once it gets built in the fashion that I think will make it usable, but that takes dollars to do. So I think Partners for Parks was innovative in coming up with this idea. And I think we should move forward with it and build the facility that we really wanna build. So with that, um, I can do this with a voice vote, all the, you know, but we've got Lynn Phillip Lindholm out there too. So I'm going to ask that we do a roll call.

Council member Lindholm.

Aye.

Council member Pearson. Nay. Deputy Mayor Bell. Aye. Council member Branstetter. Aye. Council member Lauricella.

Aye.

Mayor pokey I. motion passes motion passes for two Thank you very much. All right, as amended past as amended twice. So with that items for discussion review of the pierce county conservation futures program is roxanne miles parks and recreation and Community services director, and that is on page 172 of our packet.

Hey, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council. It's good to be with you tonight to share a little bit about the Conservation Futures Program. There's been a lot of interest questions about properties, the opportunity to use this program. So just wanted to share a little bit of the research on it, the background and our opportunity to move forward, especially because the legacy plan is now out and will be part of our opportunity to evaluate where we might want to take advantage of the program, at least in terms of parks itself. So one thing in addition to this presentation, there were two other documents that are part that I just wanted to let you know those are directly from Pierce County Conservation Futures. They give you a lot more detail than what I'm going to cover here tonight. But I also want to let you know that Beth Pearson is in the room with us and Beth is the City of Lakewood's representative to the pierce county conservation futures board so she's got some background she's seen in what has been successful in terms of applications that have gone forward so i appreciate her joining us here tonight so first just really want to talk about what is conservation futures and it is a county-wide program it is managed by pierce county counties can initiate the program and it is a share of property tax which is then collected for this grant program And then presented all applicants are able to present in order to take advantage, and so the size of the grant program is all subject to those collections and how much is allocated from year to year, or in this case biennium to biennium. Probably some of the most important elements that I want to hit on for you is that it is ultimately about conservation. And so it's what is it about these lands that are important, why we need to keep them because they are significant. to not just our city, but significant to Pierce County. There's a timeline that goes with this as well. And I think sometimes this can be the more challenging if there's property that is out on the market. And this program opens every odd year. So it'll be open in January of next year. And then it has to go through a competitive process to be able to fund the following year. And then you have basically the funding year plus one to close the project out. There are requirements for what qualifies as land that competes well. There has to be good ecological value for why we would bring this in and want to conserve it publicly. And there's certain things that make us ready to be able to submit. So that application, when it opens, you have to have a lot of things lined up. So we're going to look at those requirements and then a little bit just about where some of the opportunities might be if we want to prioritize where we start looking for trying to fill those gaps. So as I mentioned with the timeline, January is when the applications are now open. There is, I'll need to review, but generally it's a three to four week period. Most of these grants don't give you a long time, and so it really is looking forward. and knowing that it's coming up so that we're prepared when the window opens up. There is within Conservation Futures a technical advisory committee, and they are the ones that are the experts on what the ecology is of the site and how well a site shows those values that we want to conserve in Pierce County. So they review the application, but they actually go out and do site visits as well. That committee will make recommendations in June based on the ranking that they give each of the applications. So it is a competitive process. So it's not just how applications stand alone. Based on those scorings, a ranking list will come out. And then in August, that list is presented to council to resolve. And at that point, they will have some of the projected dollar amounts for the following biennium, and they'll know how much is remaining in the fund. So based on that ranking, they normally pass a resolution. that prioritizes the list and basically directs staff to work down the list until the money is gone. There are some applications that may be ranked high that don't end up closing in that period, so then they move down the list, but they do have to know the status of each one that is higher than the next before they move forward. so that ranking is really important again it lets you know in august where things stand but ultimately that and you can start moving forward with some activities but that list in the funding for the conservation futures program is in that next year's biennial budget that is passed by pierce county so we need to be ready when the window opens Part of that readiness is that is the application requirements of the values. One of the things I'll refer to that attachment is some of the size of the properties are meant to be pretty big. If we're gonna conserve something, there's some minimum size, even up to 20 acres in some categories. Smaller acreage is possible, especially in urban environments, more so if we're adding on, like we did with Ward's Lake. We added some property onto existing park. But I just kind of listed for you that those are the different categories that they have there, and each of them are going to have certain traits to them and certain size to them. And that's what one of the other attachments directly from Conservation Futures shows. Future purpose. There's a little caveat there. If we do want to use some of these for a park, we have to really know that going forward and be able to talk about in the application what active uses we want to have there. So the most successful ones have at least a schematic design or a master plan for the park because you're able to show what elements you're going to conserve in that site and then what is going to be developed on the site. And trying to keep those conservation values in place means that we can't just take a piece of property that has wetlands and then create a very active location. So that's one of the things that they evaluate is making sure that the conservation values are preserved, even though having a site open for public access is important across all of these categories as well. The other requirement that is important and part of the early pre-work is having a willing seller, a willing receiver and potentially a willing sponsor. The willing sellers, whoever owns that property. And so there's two kind of important pieces. They have to be able to go through this process with us, which might mean right up to at least a year before once we know ranking. to know when they're likely to be funded. And so they're looking at a two to three year process from the time they really express interest to go through. The other thing is there's a limitation to appraised value of the property, not market value. So in some areas where we know people are paying over market, having a willing seller who's going to forego that. And that's not impossible. There are people who really want their land to go into conservation and so that's what's key in this process is finding those individuals The city generally will be that willing receiver, but it is possible sometimes if it's a open space, a land trust might be the receiver that's taking things through the process. A willing sponsor is helpful. The city can be its own sponsor. And the sponsor really is the one that walks people through the process, turns in the application. Somebody else can do that and list us as the receiver and they can take it all the way through and we'll say, yeah, we'll take that into the city inventory in the end. One of the advantages of that is they get to explain this process and make sure that people understand the limits, how much money they're gonna get, if there are restrictions, because some people are subdividing their land in the agricultural in particular, right? Some people still want to farm it while giving up development rights. So people who understand the ecological value doing the application score a little bit better. The other thing is sometimes it's better to not have the city knocking at your door you know asking you to sell your property to them so a sponsor becomes a very good intermediary in that process one of the great benefits of this is that there's a match of 10 based on appraised value so of course that's the minimum match and bringing extra match can bring more points in but this is a place where if there's a million dollar property that could potentially come into conservation for a hundred thousand dollars so just put in here there's like a lot of detail but it starts to give you a sense that if it is something that we want to bring into the system specifically uh to create park lands then this is the kind of characteristics that they are looking for and that we need to present showing that there is a need for that location it's not it's filling a service gap and it's not in the same area where we already have parks They get to see it as a priority. So our legacy plan is going to have to back up the ask as well as site suitability. And then looking at the public access and being able to show some general design for the parking, the circulation, Low maintenance requirements. So where are we putting in more native habitat versus long and those type of things will be part of that. So they're really going to be looking at the balance in the design that we put forward, which is why that extension at Ward's Lake was a perfect fit. So in terms of gaps, again, some of the opportunities is we can look at properties that we identify as a service gap and that's going to help show the plans. So this is a pretty global level. And I'll tell you in the legacy plan you just got, not only does it show these general areas where we have low park acreage for residents and where there's some hashing in there that you can see where people are more than that 10 minute walk shed. The plan itself will also have some strategies, whether that's working with schools or other public providers to try to fill those gaps. But in addition to those, or in the absence of those, we might be able to go to private property and have some of those conversations about the best fit. where those hashes end there's probably multiple opportunities and some of the question will be how many investments to make in that gap area and if we can find one that's more central and gives more people in a very dense area access to the 10-minute walk then we are solving that gap problem a little bit better by that acquisition than maybe some of the other ones that might be low hanging fruit but only be at the edge of a gap area or close to an existing park so Just some of those things that are part of the decision making process that would actually have to go into the application to make the case for that piece of property. If we wanted to use it for active reasons looking forward. Beyond identifying the property is determining about using that sponsor and that ability for them to explain the process and help walk a homeowner through it. Then at the end, we need to know that we have a willing seller who understands this process and are willing to go through it. We can then proceed with our pre-application requirements, including identifying the match and submit for that conservation futures funding in January and then following it through. if we receive the funding to acquire the property one of the requirements and something a sponsor is normally good at is including a sponsorship agreement how are you going to maintain that property and if we got it because there's a healthy forest or a stream then we have a stewardship agreement about how we're going to care for it to keep it healthy so that it can continue to do that into the future so

John Potter, Thank thank you miss miles i'm going to give miss Pearson, if you would like you don't have to don't feel obligated if you'd like to say a few words I would I would appreciate it, I know just your your view being on the committee and. Okay.

Good evening everyone glad to be here and help you guys with information i'm in my third year on the board so i've been through one two year application cycle I kind of understand how these come in and get evaluated. And just quick background, I have a career real estate. private practice, both in Chicago and Seattle, worked in-house for a while, 25 years, worked at the King County Housing Authority as well. So just moved back to Lakewood in 2020, my childhood home. I went to Clover Park High School. So glad to be back here and helping out. um so roxanne did a really good job describing the whole process a couple things i just want to sort of support or emphasize is as she said a willing seller these can be complicated transactions i think sometimes they can last longer than three years delays come up there are obstacles i've seen ones that are good projects that get set aside to the next cycle come back and get approved the second time so it might be four or five years before one gets done But I also want to emphasize that the city of Lakewood has a successful track record here. For those of you who are new, the words park was five different successful applications to Conservation Futures and Springbrook was two different successful applications. So in all, I think the city has gotten 19 acres added to its inventory and 1.65 million of money that was donated given through the Conservation Futures program. City Council Chambers, I should also say there are 18 positions on this board, we vote on these and then the final. City Council Chambers, Scoring the highest scoring are the ones that go to the Council for final decision, so I have no fun making a decision about the fundraising here, this is not projects really have to compete for this. then um i would recommend that you think opportunistically about this program you know your plan is going to identify your needs and your priorities what you want where you want it and then when a willing landowner comes along and a good property the city can ask you know does this really meet our criteria so then the second thing is it'd be good to work in your capacity um City Council Chambers, And the relationships needed to sort of make this happen. City Council Chambers, So that. City Council Chambers, You can take advantage of the funding when that right property and that willing landowner does come along. And then I guess i'll offer one personal example with the caveat that this is just an example. My parents have preliminary conversations with the parks about a 12 acre property that they own in the city of Lakewood, and they're not prepared to make a commitment and honestly i'm on the board, so I wouldn't go there anyway. i think it's a it just helps illustrate the point that this takes time you know these are conversations that can go on for a while and the timing has to be right from the city of lakewood's perspective from the conservation futures process and from this landowner's perspective so it can it's something to prepare for and then work on over time opportunity fund yeah the opportunity fund is completely separate process it's a pot of money that conservation futures uses when a very special property comes along and it has to be fast tracked and it was used just this past year with the city town of wilkinson It was almost a million dollars. And, you know, I don't remember the numbers right now, but it was a huge parcel. I want to say over 100 acres of really prime native wilderness. And it also had a lot of mining legacy that was important to the town. They wanted to try to preserve not just the open space, but their historical legacy and mining. So it zipped through two months. Yeah, really quickly. Any questions for me.

Thank you, Mr Mayor quick question. So. there's. You know, trying to find a willing seller and that whole thing and it also sounds like there has to be some sort of plan, you know if you're going to use it for a park that we have to have some sort of plan to kind of say hey, this is what we're you know really want to use this for whatever. And then the ecological value. And have we thought about conservation futures for and at least discussing, I guess, with the library folks about the old Tinsler site to would that be a potential site? The map, the reason I ask is because the map that you had on there. It that that area looked like it was within the 10 minute walking you know to park and so that would hit some of the triggers there there's all the Gary oak stands there, so there are some. We might be able to start you know checking some of the boxes off and that might maybe something worthwhile to look into I guess is that. Am I wrong in thinking that or is it like I don't know how to think about these conservation future projects or potential anyway, but that was what came to mind anyway.

Yeah, I mean, I think each property is going to need to be individually assessed, right, for its potential for the program. I think some of this really is going to be a decision a little bit back in terms of priorities, right, in terms of committing match and over time, what are the most important gaps to fill? The Legacy Plan will give you some data in terms of looking at where the most residents and where the deepest equity issues are in our system. So in terms of prioritizing those areas, and giving direction about which one should be invested in to, because there is an investment, right? To work with a sponsor, to have staff with planning capacity or have a sponsor on board to take those elements. Now, sponsors can add and put some administrative fees into these applications, which makes it attractive. there's not um most of the sponsors that i know of are not really focused within cities and not haven't there hasn't been a history of lakeland working with a sponsor so there's just a little bit of work to those piece and i think some of it there's been multiple properties suggested for the same gap so some of this becomes a conversation again which one best serves the needs and then if which one best fits conservation futures in terms of being able to get the funding benefit of it, that might help with determining which is the right one. But I just want to clear the plan other than identifying if it's a public provider, we're more able to say, hey, this or a school or a public provider is on the list as a potential person to talk to, a potential group to talk to. um but we don't have you know private residence or full evaluation done and that just is the next level of detail in open space that would take some resources to do councilmember Branstetter yeah in Lakewood um we have perhaps a half dozen

wetlands that are if you look at depending how old the map you look like they were lakes where they were not being able to go and do that um Most of them are in private ownership or they've got multiple intersecting parcels on them and they're not discrete parcels in their own right. We're particularly dealing with one, the former Emerson Lake that's now a wetland and we've been going through a whole series of hearings because there's a very large oak tree and a lot of things on it and and the but it's not something you can deal with on a we didn't get started on dealing with it far enough to where it just ended up in the land use system with a hearing examiner and that of trying to go and do that But we're wetlands, whether it be Emerson Lake or Lost Lake or one of the other small places where there used to be a lake, but there's now a wetland. But that we don't really want to open it up to be... a park to say we just don't want it to we truly just want it to be conserved and there are some areas along flood creek i think that are like that this conservation futures program available to acquire things that you plan to leave as they are and not let them be disturbed

yes so that active recreation is just one category by far everything else really is more about protecting that habitat function the way it is and to keep it and from development impinging on it but with securing it a stewardship uh plan will be required um that just over time right trying if they're keeping back the ivy and those type of things we will be having an obligation to maintain those open spaces so open space is a category um entirely different from our park lands but it is something that we do manage as well and i think it you know it came up in terms of Fletch Creek and what was known as the blueberry farm that's all in a creek bed that is doing its function but is not anything that we could develop on moving forward. So development is not a requirement and 90% of the categories are actually meant not to be developed on or you're removing development from as part of the application.

So in your experience are stewardship plans complicated or labor intensive?

Not normally. In some degree of annual work plans in a good stewardship group like through our volunteer program can often help, but there are some areas that do need really much more of the technical expertise. in order to set up those plans properly and a good sponsor would be bringing that to the table and then identifying the frequency part of this then in perpetuity right this is governed and then whatever cycle of monitoring that the county puts into place to check on that site and make sure that those activities are happening So it's all very specific to the site itself in terms of protections. And sometimes it's just adding buffer to a creek. But we're doing some of that. Like in Springbrook is a great example of needing to make sure there's um two to four work parties a year to try to keep the invasives off that stream so that is things that habitat crews can do but need to have the resources to guide those crews or to bring in that outside expertise thank you thank you council member brown center any other questions council member laura sella

uh thank you mayor bokeh and thank you miss miles uh so make sure i understand so we need you need a willing seller a willing receiver potentially a sponsor uh The seller could be either a private or public entity, right? And you said the receiver generally would be the city. Could the city be a seller to a land bank nonprofit sort of situation too? Or is that sort of beyond the scope of thinking if we had property that we wanted to preserve, but not necessarily have the funding to preserve it ourselves?

So some of it is really it has to be something that's not under any protections going into protections. Right. So, you know, there's some properties that if people have already given up their land rights or whatever it might be, one, that affects the praise value. And so there's certain things and this is where like the land use with easements and other elements come into play. So the scenario you described isn't unheard of. That's possible. And I've seen scenarios where the land trust would take it and maintain it and do initial conservation for five years. But they tend to like that relationship and not to want to be in long term maintenance. So it always usually comes with a staggered transition back to the city for long term. Okay.

I'm thinking of situations where we may not have the resources to properly preserve land that we own is there a method by which this sort of funding could be used for that either through a third party or something similar yeah I mean in the time that I was overseeing the program and now I don't have you seen that scenario that it's a city owned that actually goes to a land trust

Yeah, I mean, I would have to look at there, because I think part of the principle right is bringing it into public ownership and so that's one of the things we have to even look at if it's going from one public agency to the next. Where you know surf listing and transfers it's possible. case by case, which is why all these scenarios, it's those factors coming together. It's really helpful to have time to analyze each one. And I'll just say that what happens most to me is I get a call from a real estate agent who's like, my person wants to sell. And it's like, An outright buy is possible, but if we're going through the most likely avenue of this program, it's usually when I say the timing and the appraised value, I don't get a lot of calls back.

Do you see this sort of program happening often with, say, the county having property that they would then go through this process to sell to the city?

I've seen that before, where a certain party is the right one that is the willing receiver for the process to come through, but then is able to transfer the property to another jurisdiction to maintain.

Yeah, I was thinking something like Seeley Lake Park, right, maybe a candidate for a county owned that the city would be potentially interested in. Thank you.

i'm kind of separate from councilman you know when we're looking at gaps there is a piece there right there are county-owned parcels and their state-owned partials and so if we do we want to identify a relationship with them that counts those as part of the system and how to count those is always one of the questions that the plan has to address

Thank this is a very successful program a surprise we've come out with 19 acres, though, because I remember, since we've been here, we did buy that little so we must have bought most awards lake with it is that is that what it comes okay. I know I know we added that little piece.

yeah okay so that's where most acreage came in yeah and adjacent that's been kind of part of it so that's one of our you know we can make some of the sites we have bigger if they need to be um but going into a service gap to fill it that doesn't have one within 10 it's really identifying what what's already there that we can actually call out to conserve so we do have fish bearing streams right or that are in some amount of distress and that's to put it mildly

um that score is good if there's fish bearing

um just because I was involved in all these conversations this last time absolutely the water riparian um fish bearing streams are important also what was added last year is an overlay to the scoring for income equity as well so I think that will align with your gap analysis as well and then just to The earlier point, the applications I saw in the last cycle, what really helped scoring was when they were threatened for sale, private owner really wanted to sell for a public benefit, but they were getting a lot of money from someone else and they needed to find a reason to turn around and give it to a sponsor. So they were, if you can't approve this application, we're gonna lose it forever. That was also compelling.

Well, thank you very much, Ms. Pearson. Ms. Miles, we appreciate both of you being here and your expertise on both subjects since you worked in this area for a long time there at the county. So thank you very much. What's our next step here? We're just, you're out looking, scouring the landscape for potential.

Well, I think as we go through the legacy plan presentations in coming up shortly, you'll get a review of the draft. It's open for public comment. So any edits are going to really happen before your October study session before it's there for adoption. But as part of that, then what is the direction in terms of investment? And as you know, we've got regional assets, local parks, open space. you know, in terms of what's the priority to focus on to try to find and identify parcels and also, you know, vetting those opportunities as they arise. We do tend to get those calls, but really going out and curating the relationships in the areas where we're seeing the habitat that is most important to Lakewood is probably going to be the most fruitful. And then the timing has to work for the seller in being able to map some of those out.

Well, I think when you come back you'll get plenty of opinions, I know i've got my opinions as to what where i'd like us to go, but again it's willing seller right. So thank you very much, I appreciate it and I appreciate that your your service to lakewood miss Pearson. Next is review of automated traffic safety camera program is walk there.

And, Your Honor, if I just jump in for her, I put this memo together. She was going to present, but I thought we can simplify it in terms of the presentation and material. At the meeting on July 20th, we had reviewed the material from the memo that was attached. As part of that discussion, a lot of topics was around how to select, and it was requested that staff bring back three to six sites that they would recommend in respect to discussions moving forward, with the understanding that that doesn't mean it would be those three to six sites. More could be added. be reduced however council wanted to just try and get an identity of specifics from the staff perspective so city attorney myself and one of the captains from the police department sat down and reviewed the areas that had previously been in discussion identified three sites within the characterization of parks and three within the characterization of the schools just as the starting point really focused on those that had the higher incidence of collisions along with incidence of infractions representing speed related to those respective areas. Also just trying to highlight different characteristics that were present with each of those locations, be it if there are major roadways, if they were in the downtown area, they had pedestrian traffic associated with it, what the residential areas were like. So that's what we did here. Presented those six different sites. Have absolutely zero pride of authorship because this becomes a subjective decision in terms of what we are looking for and why we are selecting sites. But this is from the staff perspective of focusing on those safety areas that are also associated with areas with speed in there and a little bit of pedestrian activity with it. So happy to answer any questions council may have. Otherwise we'd wait for direction and if We have sites that are identified. We're happy to continue that process in moving forward in anything that may be required in terms of reporting. There are some components related to state law in terms of moving forward, but we're happy to do that under council guidance tonight. Happy to answer any questions council may have.

City Council Chambers, Any questions come whether we can just go to comments I tried to catch you guys, I was not here at that July 20 meeting so. City Council Chambers, And then i'm also you know Council member lindholm if you want to weigh in. City Council Chambers, You have a question go ahead Council member bell.

City Council Chambers, I have a question about the park lodge elementary it says that there is has an existing southbound camera So what will we be adding there just for clarification.

We'd add a northbound and what we'd envision is both directions on any of these locations with cameras, adding it. So we'd add in that other northbound camera coming in.

Council member, Laura Sella.

Thank you, Mayor Boki. I'll have other comments once this gets going. But I had a question about specific to these areas around the schools with these cameras only being used during normal school hours, or are these during the whole day like they would be for parks?

We would expect to use the school cameras during school hours and the way that we're currently doing that at the locations in the city, they are actually stopped during things like Christmas break and they do just function during school hours.

Is it an option to use them as we would in the parks or not just when school is in session, but you know kids frequently use schools after hours?

I I don't think so, but i'd have to double check that the traditional use that i'm aware of in. Most of the cities where i'm aware that they're being used is during school hours, because the idea is supposed to be that it's speeding in a schools and the school zones really only a school zone when there's school.

T. Councilmember pearson thank you mayor um yeah on that point, you know part of what we're trying to do here is to. T. Correct some behavior and build in some you know some sort of. No matter if it's schools in session or not, I always want to drive slow along this road right like. Maybe the power is out and the schools, you know things aren't flashing and you know or whatever I don't know, but like. Part of it is the is the behavioral aspect of it, and so I would, if we, I would be supportive of having you know the cameras in those locations functioning at all the recommended times outside of just the school hours as well.

Anyone else? Councilmember Branstetter.

I appreciate the works that's done in the proposal. And I would tell you that no matter where you put them, there's going to be some safety benefit that we could go along the dais and have preferences in terms of priorities. But some other sequence will still provide benefit and be able to go and do that. And my advice to the city manager is put what we can afford in the next budget proposal.

Okay. Councilmember Pearson and just one.

So I, I, I like all the ones that were, um, analyzed at the schools there. Uh, the parks, I, I still go back to the Fort silicon park thing. Like, my. Personal preference would be to have where pedestrians are. pedestrians and youth are near the roadway. And Fort Silicon Park has a whole lot of people and a whole lot of them are not near the road. So that to me seems like that's more of a cars. We're just getting speeders that are speeding. But, you know, there are some traffic incidents, but there's not. Incidents with pedestrians and we're not, you know, I guess my focus is protecting pedestrians, so. That would be not at the top of the list for the parks for me personally.

City Council Chambers, City Council Chambers, Council member Laura seller. City Council Chambers, All right, thank you, Mayor bookie so I took the liberty to look through all the data and build my full list of one to however many we have and prioritize them and to me. City Council Chambers, My biggest priority was where do we have the most accidents and then my second priority is where do we have the most people. City Council Chambers, going far and above the speed limit, whether it's five over 10 over 15 over. and then I built my rankings based on that. And so personally, my number one spot is Fort Steilacoom Park because it has the most accidents of anywhere in the city. And there are lots of people in that area, including coming across to go to all sorts of kids' sporting events there all the time. And I suspect we'll probably see more and more folks in there as we put more stuff in the park. So that was my number one. And then the school sites, I've got five of them, because that's what the initial data was shared. I know we have three that were provided, but I'd rank them over park high school would be the top one for me then dower then park lodge then custer and then lockburn so that's my top six for silicon park and in those five schools thank you okay so i i also think

But I still have questions about the whole thing because I do have questions about the overall cost. But I like the Ford Silicon Park one because I think they really do race along there and very high speed because it is a wide stretch of straight road for a while. as a policy do we want to slow people down along there um and and given all that goes on at the hospital and and that kind of thing we we probably do um I also thought Ward's Lake because there's a lot of speeding along there again big open stretch um don't know what to do with the schools I I thought about dower I think dower a lot of the things are gonna the incidents Not the not the speed, but the incidence of traffic problems once we fix that intersection is going to improve, I think the numbers will improve their. But I do have questions around the cost because I when I when I read through this potential costs and then it got to we might need another person or two depending on this what's the math behind this and i'm looking at financial considerations under. On page I have 197 of the packet. going on to page 198.

So basically, if we add cameras into the system, it changes the model. So right now, it all comes into the general fund. So we don't pay for our police department personnel now that processes the citations. But those are eligible expenses. You know, anything that's associated with it is an eligible expense. So it basically create kind of its own enterprise fund, you know, for lack of a better term related to it. So when we add cameras in because of the grandfathering rule and the changes in state law, that'll change the model of how it's used. So initially any expense is the first things covered with it. So if we have to add more personnel, which we likely will for the processing of those, it'll still be covered by this. So those funds right now that come in, don't go in the future, won't go into the general fund anymore, but they'll still be paying for personnel that otherwise would have been paid for the general fund. and it's said in there so i want to make sure we could take out all our expenses yes yes so if we had to add the state additional attorney support if additional clerical support all that is covered with it all the expenses related to the cameras themselves are covered with it so we'd be able to pay for that then afterwards i think it's broken down a certain percentage i think after four years uh goes to the state and then the remainder goes to potential traffic improvements to have that corrected i think in terms of how that is so it just changes the model in terms of really the accounting of it internally but it would still be able to cover some of those current general fund expenses that we have excess would be distributed basically towards uh road improvements in really areas that we probably wouldn't be providing a lot of funding for just because we don't have those sources of funds for it how many do we have now we have red light cameras yeah we have we have any one the one speed

I believe we just have the one speed camera and I think it's close to Harrison prep it's not on that lakewood drive I think it might be on the other road.

Okay, and park lodges just the southbound park lodges. Is. That red light just a school one just during school hours.

No it's a red light camera. And 512 is a red light.

Where's that at? Doesn't make any revenue at all. I mean, I didn't even know it was at that park in front of Park Lodge. Where's the red light in front of Park Lodge? Oh, I thought it was a speed camera there. There you go.

Okay, there.

Okay, I'm with Council Member Branciter. Pick two or three locations and tell us what the costs are and tell us what it'll be in the budget, but it's got to pay for itself.

Well, I think the company installs them at no cost.

So I think that's... Again, but the program has to pay for itself. I mean, you just wrote in here that... there's cost to the program.

Right yeah you're mayor and members of the Council, the way that the funding is restricted under the newest legislation is that you take off the top all program costs right and. In the numbers that we've run and I know there's been hesitation to talk about revenue, but in terms of whether or not the number of tickets will pay for the program it's our belief that it will at least break even. that you will be able to cover your costs with the program. Any level. Each camera will generate enough tickets to cover the cost of that camera, at least in terms of the numbers that we've run. Now, obviously, there's the belief that once you install the cameras, the behavior ultimately will start to change, but we would start to see that coming at some point.

I don't know that that's true from our red light cameras. We've had some of our red light cameras in spots now for 20 years, and people still run them, which is amazing to me. Okay, well, you've heard me that what I think I mean two or three and come up with something in the budget and figure it out. And he wants six and Yeah.

Okay.

Uh, so I'm take away is we're good.

Being quiet. I think he might've fallen asleep.

We're good. Adding to the program.

Mr. Mayor, I'm still here.

Would you like to weigh in on this? I guess I said the right, the magic words.

I certainly support two to three locations, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay, good. Thank you. All right, you got your marching orders we're making progress. It was bell and Laura sella. All right. reports by the city manager, Mr Russell.

Yes, Mayor and Council. Reminder, we have a Council meeting tomorrow night at six o'clock to go over our legislative agenda and start working on that for the upcoming year. This week, we have a Fort Steilacoom Neighborhood Association on 630 on Wednesday at the pavilions. Saturday, Youth Council kickoff, Saturday at two o'clock at the pavilion at Fort Steilacoom Park. Next week, Desserts on the Driveway. That is also at the Fort Stockholm Neighborhood Association on the 27th. As a reminder, we have the summer concert series starting up again on the 25th. And then the only other thing is send an email out with the legacy plan that you heard referenced today. Send it out and also a link. And obviously more of that discussion will come within the next month. And that is all I have, Your Honor.

Okay, thanks so tomorrow at six how's how's that look with because the agenda is pretty skinny.

Is this what.

We have a pretty skinny agenda. All I see on the agenda is like discussion. Is there more stuff to it?

It's just going over the legislative agenda. You know, basically, you know, look at specific, well, it can be as extensive as council wants it. We can, basically what we're trying to get is, you know, capital requests we're looking at, potential policy requests, potential legislative requests, and both the federal and state lobbies will walk us through that. So they're kind of really focused on the major components that we're looking at. You know, last year we had four one pager type things. So really trying to find those specific areas if there's specific policy issues we want in hand, if there's specific. things for like at the state level you know we may be looking at you know reinforcing the community partnership with western states and trying to get that codified maybe looking at if we want to take a stronger approach adult family homes and densities from a capital perspective you know we may be looking at continuing with potential h barn or camp murray so really kind of

dividing those down in there in the agenda materials within the federal and the state they kind of give some recommendations for that that can help in steering that forward okay great thank you any questions for the city manager a lot a lot on the agenda hopefully folks can make it to desserts in the driveway or port silicon park neighborhood association i don't know that i'll be able to um

council member comments so let's start with council member lindholm would you like any comments thank you mr mayor this felt like a good night for lakewood i'm sorry that i couldn't be there in person you know we recognize members of our police department we highlight a local business and we continue moving forward on some important investments for our community so there's a lot happening in lakewood and i want to thank my colleagues and staff for all their hard work to make that happen thank you council member lynn holm council member laura sella

Thank you, Mayor Boki. I will echo what Councilmember Lindholm said. It was a good night for Lakewood because we got into depth on a lot of really important topics. So I appreciate the camaraderie amongst this Council, public comments and police officers who are here and all the things we celebrated. City Council Chambers, Enjoyed summer fast over the weekend was nice seeing members of Council there. City Council Chambers, Everybody seemed to have a good time it wasn't too hot it wasn't too smoky. City Council Chambers, Despite what we may have heard tonight about it being too loud I didn't feel like that was the case and it's a the one day a year that we can all get together and celebrate liquid together and i'm sure the rest of you will talk about that as well, and what you what you observed. uh enjoyed uh the spring brook desserts in the driveway just the night before summerfest uh council member or deputy mayor bell there and we uh really appreciated the huge turnout from the community uh they were giving out school supplies and all that to the kids so it was very very crowded and everybody seemed like they were in a good mood and happy so And even our city manager took notes on repairing a fountain there at the park. So I'm excited to see that get fixed. I will be at the session tomorrow. Looking forward to meeting with our lobbyist folks. And our next meeting beyond that isn't until after Labor Day. So have a lovely Labor Day, everyone. And we'll see you on September 8, which is a long time.

yeah three weeks i think thank you council member laura sell i do have a question for the city manager are you feeding us tomorrow we'd be happy to so i'm thinking that was a consensus directive we'd have something here to eat we'd be happy to yeah yeah council member brandstetter needs to be fed yes thank you for the suggestion Councilmember Pearson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I did not, unfortunately, go to Summerfest. I came down with a cold last weekend, and I'm kind of nursing over it now. That was unfortunate. I did go to the desserts on the driveways downtown. That was a good event. And it seems like whenever you're in the downtown area, you know, going to these events that are close to crumble and the nothing but cakes, you know, that does always get people to turn up. So... um enjoyed some desserts there and um yeah i'll be here tomorrow night and then plan on going to the youth council uh kickoff event on this weekend so thank you thank you council member brandstetter hey mr mayor i i i was uh

sensing uh a pretty positive in uh in environment during the police commissioning commendations uh promotion ceremony today uh you know both uh from the folks that were there do that uh and from the uh from the assistant chief who who who managed that so um and gotten positive feelings about the direction of the health department from that particular thing going. I did appreciate the visitors from Gimhae that the, the performance was good and that has been a strength to do that. I would like to take a look at, Mrs. Connie Coleman-Lackady has been essentially the chair of the Lakewood Sister Cities Association that has nurtured these relationships for, a significant number of years. And I'm wondering whether we might do a proclamation or some other recognition of her efforts with respect to sister cities and enhancing the relationship between Lakewood and the three sister cities in one friendship city that we have. I think that would be be some appropriate recognition because she works really hard coordinating that international festival and and and and doing that and i think um and i know council member talvo is our liaison to the sister cities to do that but maybe she can help us put something together that we could add a near-term council meeting um recognize her in some way uh i also attended the downtown neighborhood desserts in the driveway and um to really be honest it was probably the best one that i have been to um and the the positives about it were that there were people that really got engaged in talking with but not just with those of us from the city were there but with each other around some issues that were promenaded by a homeless gentleman who was there a young a young man who has been trying to do that and talked about his his his experiences is in trying to get help through the maze that is our the system here in Pierce County about trying to help them. And he got both offers for help, a lot of questions, a lot of folks looking to clarify what he was doing. And it promoted a really good conversation at the table that was there. And then there was a lady who was there and she lives on Ponce de Leon Creek. and the city is in the midst of a six-year plan monitoring that creek in terms of doing it and she is the first member of the public that i have met that has actually read that and and and is concerned about what it was going to do that and she she she asked some questions about how she could look to do that because she's concerned about various elements in the creek that included the water but also the fact that as we heard in public comment today many many of the trees in the ponce de leon canyon if you will are covered with ivy and the question is is there the the the plan didn't particularly address what we were going to do about about that but it's it's an it's an issue that's there and and that goes on but uh it was good to see someone who was paying attention to even some of the obscure things that were that they were doing um and uh i guess the the last thing you're just just just budget wise as i will tell you is that the um the the the student whom we uh nominated to go to uh and get the scholarship at awc and so he he got our 750 dollars scholarship and he got the the scott three thousand dollar scholarship from adc and he got ten thousand dollars a year from the university of washington okay to be able to go and do that and he got the computer from uh comcast able to go and do that but uh it brings me back to that first scholarship the one that we contribute to uh ourselves as a group uh and that is and then and then our donations are matched by the lions club and so with that even if we have a student who doesn't get the multitude of or essentially our last three students have gotten, that we still at least have something for them. Well, the Lions Club did their budgeting work and they, They appropriated in their budget $350 to match $350 from us to collect. And so I'm willing to collect it and maybe collect it before the 1st of February instead of... as as as we're going on but as any of you get to that point to do that it comes out to be fifty dollars from each of us um it rounds to that last year we we did okay in part because um two former council members who would were with us until january made contributions so we all didn't have to contribute as much uh as as we did before but we can um Just thought I would mention it given that the Youth Council is getting ready to get started again.

Thank you. Elijah Stana. And I was there, and a lot of us were there at AWC, and he was almost most excited about when the guy from Comcast came and gave him, like, here you go. And he's like, oh, my goodness. Because it was completely out of the blue, right? I mean, it just fell out of the sky. And so, yeah, and really... Elijah has a great story and really enjoyed meeting his parents and mother works out at a western state and the dad is a good job so they're both you know they really enjoyed meeting everybody and I think that was a good day for Lakewood. Deputy Mayor Bell besides your pledge of support to match anything any other member gives on the scholarship, which we appreciate. Thank you very much.

Oh, I love that. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So we did have a busy week last week, it was as everyone knows summer fest, which I think was an amazing event full of the Community, and yes, it was it was everything a festival should be it was loud it was beautiful weather it was tons of music that was playing. lots of vendors a lot of food a car show i think all of it was fabulous and very worthwhile and glad that it happens every year in lakewood at our lovely fort silicon park and it was great to interact with the gimhae delegation our sister city we were able to see them and greet them when they arrived on wednesday we were able to also visit with them at dinner and talk with them and bring in other i think tacoma sister city with Our Korean Women's Association was there, the Korean Association was there also, I believe, School District, Pierce College. So it was just a really great event and I appreciate them coming out and always am looking forward to what we can do with them in the future. And I also was with Council Member Laura Sella at the Springbrook Back to School event, and it was amazing. Next year, we're going to need more stuff because they ran out. Like, it was amazing. It was so cool. All the kids were there. People were having hot dogs. They got their backpacks with everything. Pierce County was there. The Health Department for Pierce County was in conservation booths, all sorts of extra booths. were there with just really great information and everybody seemed very interactive and very grateful and thankful for it. I too will be at the Youth Council kickoff event on Saturday. And I just wanted to say in regards to our commendations and our promotions tonight, Hearing all of those stories of what our police officers do in this Community day to day is amazing and the assistant chief had every right to get teary eyed with. Some of those stories will almost all of them, it was amazing and I just wanted to say thank you to our staff and our police force for what they do every single day, and I know a commendation is a great way to acknowledge them but. We want I want them to know that it's an everyday situation, not just to one off because of something special so that is it for me, Mr mayor.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor Bell. I will also, you know, second and third, all the things that Summerfest went great. Really do appreciate the efforts of all our staff putting that together and everyone who participated in that. It went extremely well. The weather helped. I mean, it wasn't overly hot. had a wonderful time with the Gimha delegation. I really, I'll probably have to write some kind of thank you note or whatever. I was really impressed with the quality of entertainment that they brought. They clearly, and when I was talking to them, they said that the performers were really college level performers. They were like Going to college to become in dance. Right. So they were High level performers and I'm glad was worried about it in the morning and they were a little bit kind of like because We didn't have that many people there at the international stage, but they were very pleased in the the evening. There were a lot of people there and they got a very warm reception, which they should because they were very good at what they did. closing remarks by the vice chair though and he told me he goes well since we've been here you know we've been in a drought and he he goes there's one reason the mayor stayed back I mean this drought I guess is very severe but since they had come over it started raining there and so he just thought it was good luck so I guess I'll take that you know that we're a good luck charm that um it actually started raining there um in in Gimhae so you know really really And I say this and I will admit it, so I have to have these admissions once in a while, when I came on the Council. I had no intention of ever getting involved with the sister cities. I'll tell you that right now. I had no intention. In fact, I was like, if they didn't go away, no, I just want to do Lakewood stuff. But I got to tell you, when we finish a few days with a delegation like the folks at Gimhae, I see why it's worthwhile, really. It's really gifts. I'm happy to give the entertainers an opportunity. It sounds like they had a really good meeting with the KWA in the day. They made mention of that. Don't know what that meant, but they said they had a very good meeting and agreed on some things in principle, it sounds like. really pleased. I thank the Kims for always helping out and really spending a lot of time with the delegation along with Connie Coleman. So we should probably work on some recognition of another very successful thing. Looking forward to everything this week. I think we'll see it tomorrow night, just a few hours, so with a very productive session, I'm sure. Councilman Lindholm, thank you for hanging with us tonight.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.