City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Uh, welcome everybody to our what is today? We've got a somebody with their speakers on. Please hold. Oh, that was pretty funny. Did you see the color block pop up?

Testing. I still hear it. Where's Michelle when we need her?

Recording in progress. No, it's me. If everybody could just Hello. For those of you online, we're trying to solve a echo problem.

Sound test. No, I don't hear. No, I do. But it's not as bad. Bad. Oh, it's not It is bad. Okay. It's not good.

Hello. Still there. And when we solve this, we'll get uh Council Mayor Prom Dun promoted to panelist. I'll aruse to wait for the city attorney.

Testing. All right. I think our echo's gone. Wonderful. Just in time. Welcome, Sean. All right, Shane, if you could uh please promote uh Mayor Prom to panelists, I'd appreciate that. And then we can get going. All right, thanks everybody for joining us here in city hall for our Tuesday, March 17th, 2026 city council meeting. I still with that three months in. Um we are here in person in city hall uh chambers and also we have our zoom component online as well. Did I lose it? Oh, hold on. Did I think I audio check see if I'm in? Yeah, we hear you. Thanks.

All right, there's the meeting. Okay, so we're going to go ahead and start with the invocation given by Council Member Ball. Follow Pledge of Allegiance. Please join us in the spirit of today. This is a classic Irish blessing. May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sunshine warm upon your face. the rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand. Amen. Very nice. Thank you.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. And we'll start off with roll call. Council member Darl here. Council member Severs present. Council member Ball here. Prom happy to be here. Here. And um Council Member Curts is out for a school event. So I would entertain a motion to excuse her tonight. I moved it.

Second by Council Member Ball. All those in favor of please say I. I. Any opposed? All right, motion passes. We're up to agenda approval. Are there any requested changes to tonight's agenda? Woohoo. All right. Um, so I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda. Move to approve the agenda as printed. Second. Okay. All those in favor of approving the agenda, please say I. I. Any opposed?

Okay. Motion passes. ized. Uh, Mayor Prom, I saw your note. Are you Can you hear us? Okay. Are you good? All right. Gotcha. Thank you. All right. We are up to citizen comments. We start off our meetings with an opportunity for citizens to comment on anything your heart desires. Our limit is three minutes. Um, and a uh comment this comment section only. So, if you are in chambers and would like to make a comment, we have some white half sheets over by the door. Uh if you please fill that out and get it to Kyle Dixon, our finance director at the end of the table, um that'd be great. If there's anybody online who'd like to make a citizen comment, please send a note to our meeting host in the future and we'll recognize you. Uh I don't see any in chambers at this time. Is there anybody online?

Nobody online at this time. Thank you. And um Kyle, do we have any written comments to read? We do not. Okay, great. Just a reminder, we will have other opportunities during the meeting for citizen comments. So, next up, we are two announcements, proclamations, and special presentations. And we're honored tonight to have uh a proclamation for developmental disabilities month. And we'll have um I will send Roelle, but she's not sitting there. We'll have Kyle read this in and we'll um vote of support and we'll then we'll finish it off.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh tonight we have a proclamation for the city of Liberty Lake, Washington declaring March 2026 as developmental disabilities awareness month. Whereas intellectual and/or developmental disabilities impact an estimated 7 to 12,000 Spokane County residents and their families and growing numbers of these individuals and their families live, work, and attend in Liberty uh and attend school Liberty Lake and are essential to the vibrancy of our city. And the 2026 national theme, we're here then, now always, honors those who have always been a part of our community and affirms this as a lasting priority as Lake grows towards a city of approximately 14 to 15,000 residents. And the barrier to full participation can only be reduced through community commitments to awareness, accessibility, inclusion, engagement, and support. And in 1987, President Ronald Reagan issued the first proclamation establishing March as National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.

Okay. Before we go on, I'll take a motion of support for thisclamation. Madam Mayor, I move the council to support the proclamation. Thank you. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second by council member Severs. Any discussion or questions, comments? All right. Not hearing any. Those in favor of supporting this proclamation, please say I. I.

Any opposed? Right. Not hearing any. Motion passes. Now therefore, we the mayor and city council of the city of Liberty Lake on behalf of its citizens do hereby proclaim for the second consecutive year March 2026 as developmental disabilities awareness month in the city of Liberty Lake, Washington, and encourage all residents to recognize the enduring friendships, contributions, and leadership of neighbors with this developmental disabilities in every part of community life. I'd like to invite uh Debink up if you say anything. She Well, you can introduce yourself. I won't steal your thunder. Thunder. I have to have thunder. First of all, please tell me if my mic is working. It is.

Okay, that's hardly ever the thing I pay attention to, so I better um Good evening to all of you, and thank you very much for being here, all of you, and for approving and adopting this proclamation. It sounds pretty formal, doesn't it? All the wherehouses and this, that, and the others, and that's how they're done. And I started um participating in uh developmental disabilities proclamations um back in 2012 or 13 in the city of Spokane when uh we first started offering the opportunity to the city to to engage in such an activity and and that still goes on today. But it is mostly the purview of large cities, counties and you know urban areas to make these kinds of statements. And for me I feel a special pride in this city of Liberty Lake which is where my family and myself have lived for over 35 years that you would take the time and the energy to do this. Thank you very very much. I hope that you'll all take a good look at the proclamation and that we can at some future time dissect it for what it might mean for every resident in this community. I really appreciate this time. First of all, thank you, mayor, and also to all of you council members, new and I wanted to say old, but I'm going to say experienced. Um, I really appreciate it. and most especially to Dan Dunn who is um a friend and a real help to to uh us in Ohana to um to make um this and other initiatives for people with developmental disabilities a reality in Liberty Lake. Uh thanks Dan for putting

this forward. I really appreciate it. Um I'm Deb Fank like Mayor Chris said. Um, I'm the director of building Ohana here in uh, Liberty Lake. I'm also the wife of Charlie Frink and the mother of Jonathan. And tonight, that's my most favorite role that that family person that I am. um in this in this endeavor to make Liberty Lake a real live community that acknowledges um the value of people with developmental disabilities. I'll talk about what that looks like, but um I want to say first that it's an odd idea, this idea of a proclamation, and I just wanted to address it a bit. The idea of any kind of month being devoted to something like this in large cities and counties like our own, you know, larger areas, more urban areas, there are celebrations and dances and meetings and lectures and all kinds of things that go along with this. In our smaller community, we have some unique opportunities as well. And I want to a little bit about that. First, I'm going to tell you about a Facebook post that I saw at the beginning of March. and it was this is national don't forget where your keys are month. So we're in competition apparently with that group of people who always forgets their keys. And the point here is yeah that's a silly joke but the is if we paid attention a little bit if we attended to the issues surrounding losing our keys all the time. If we did that a little tiny bit in a mindful, attentive way every day of that month, chances are we would improve our situation regarding our keys. I'm pretty sure that I need

that more than anybody. The fact is that awareness months can go by and we just notice or make make take stock of it in very light-hearted ways. But in Liberty Lake, we have an opportunity to take what I would say sadly is the last half of this month because I couldn't get myself together to get here fast enough to do this um request. Uh but we have a half of a month every day of which we could make some intentional mindful decisions to pay attention to the issues of living with developmental disabilities and some of the ways we can make our community better. So um I just want you to be aware that um this isn't about an intellectual decision. It's not about a big activity. It really is in some ways a little bit for me like Lent. You know, I I walk into the period of Lent and I realize that if I don't pay attention to it, 40 days are gone and I haven't really even thought about something that means a great deal to me. It's like that with all of us in the things that we do. We can lose focus. So, I wanted to share with you that idea that this idea of a a developmental disabilities awareness month isn't about spending the whole day or the whole month celebrating or thinking or working, but it is about attending to it in a mindful way. And so, um I want to just say a few little things. uh our calendars are filled with these special days and months that we humans like to put them aside these periods of time to remind each other what we think is important. It's how we remind other people. So advocates do a lot of this kind of work. Um developmental disabilities month is

no different. Um, it reminds us to focus, like I said, even in the middle of very busy lives, and to be mindful and attentive, as I said, and it's a call, as it was in 1987 when the federal government under Ronald Reagan decided um to to begin developmental disabilities awareness month as a national holiday or national attention. Um, you can't have a month that's a holiday. So anyway, whatever it is and they called it out in two ways. Not to discuss the details and the tragedies and the overcomings and the all the stories about disabilities, but to talk about two things. the contributions and the value of individuals who are live with developmental disabilities. And also rec to recognize the barriers that exist in our culture, in our society, in our institutions, in our neighborhoods, in our uh in our physical spaces, in the way that we build our communities. Barriers that keep people from living their fullest lives. all of those different things. So here we have on the one hand um a celebration and on the other hand how it is that we might be able to engage to make the lives of individuals including people in our own families, ourselves and our neighbors um better, more fully participative in community life. Liberty Lake is uniquely positioned to do that. the kind of community that this already is poises us to be able to attend to these things. How do we do that? Well, first of all, I just will say to interrupt myself that the conation and range of experiences that constitute the

description of ID are chronic and lifelong. They affect nearly or all parts of daily life including communication, relationships, agency, independence, health, safety. It is estimated that in Spokane County, as the proclamation states that there are between 7 and 12,000 children and adults living with some aspect of developmental disability. I think this number even in its larger um 12,000 number is small in comparison to the realities of people who live with a a wide variety of uh developmental disability. And I would also say that this month is less about some kind of idea or mental acknowledgement in the abstract and more about the attention we can pay to the people that we live in our community with. And that means perhaps in our own families or in our own neighborhoods. In a small city like ours, that kind of seeing can happen easily in our parks, on our trails and stores, in conversation with strangers. And whenever we pay attention to how community, our community is working well for everybody, inviting and supporting individuals and family to be able to participate and contribute. We all need that. every single human being also to see where there might be obstacles, where we might be the obstacles. Um, one time I I when I first started building Wana, I I had an office free of charge at the Ark of Spokane and they have a wonderful community center that brings people with developmental disabilities together and all kinds of

volunteers and I was going to be one of them on my lunch hour every single day to pay them back for offering the wonderful opportunity to be in that space. And I went down there and the first couple of days I was just meeting a lot of people. And the second day I thought, well, I'm just going to go around and see if I can help and be of service and this that and the other. And so I started around this room and all these people were milling about and enjoying themselves. And one fellow walked up to me and he's apparently a long-term community center attendee and kind of knew the ropes and knew what the whole thing was all about. He walks up to me right like this and said, "You are a giant obstacle." And I thought to myself, well, first of all, I was shocked, but second of all, I realized that it was actually I was there in the middle of the row, the aisle where people were traveling to kind of get to their friends and try and make, you know, pay of the hour and a half that they got to be there. And here I was right in his way. And I have never forgotten that because I think I become that person very often. Obstacles an obstacle that the the a giant obstacle in so many ways that I don't want to be. And so I I just I I wanted you to know that we we ourselves can be obstacles to people in our community. um along with our physical spaces, our um the way in which we formed to cert certain expectations and activities that our community engages in like how fast events go and who rushes to the nearest whatever and where there's room for slower pacing and for slower absorbing of and where there are places to retreat, refues. We we have all kinds of

things that we can see if we just look a bit. And the way we see that is by looking at the whole crowd. Most of us can't see that. Well, I certainly can't. But the person right in front of us for whom we are, we might even be like I was a giant obstacle. So, um, so th those are the ways that Liberty Lake is uniquely poised. We have a beautiful vibrant small community and we can see our neighbor and we can see um we are not anonymous in this community. We don't have to be anonymous in this community and I love that about Liberty Lake. In any case, um those obstacles um are numerous and I could talk about them, but I don't want to because what I really want this to be is about an opportunity for Liberty Lake and its residents to to pay attention to what it is that they notice in their own communities that might might benefit individuals. Um I lost my page. Uh I a lot of times when these proclamations are issued there are all kinds of facts and statistics that usually are accompanied with stories. you know, tragedies, difficult lives, heroic overcomings, bleak statistics, you know, overwhelming problems, these kinds of things. I I don't think this proclamation this year needs to do any of that. I think we move into spring and we use this proclamation to open all of our eyes and give people

an opportunity to see what those some of those obstacles might be and also meet some of those people that it will take both time and and and intention to know. Um, so I hope I hope that is a positive note for you because for me um who has often gone into these proclamations with those messages that I just listed before um this is a breath of fresh air. Thank you for being Liberty Lake and thank you for having us here. I do want to say one last thing and that is um if you want to know more because maybe you're living at the intersection of needing to know more here about this issue or maybe uh you are already engaged you know as a provider, a professional, a family member, a person with disabilities yourself. There are so many ways in which this community has um a very diverse population of people. But you might be standing here having just heard that your niece or nephew or neighbor has um a new diagnosis of autism or another developmental disability that will both be chronic and lifelong. And how is it that you know how is it that you can do more than just you know pay attention in your community which by the way is I think the most important thing but maybe you want to know more and so I would just say quickly that you want to avail yourself of the groups in our county in our area that do wonderful work and from whom you can learn a great deal and that includes the Ark of Spokane all of these building moana partners um the Ark of Spokane. Um the place where I've got my

you know my comeuppants and uh uh Northwest Autism Center um Isaac Foundation also an organization that serves people um with autism and and other neurodeiversities. Uh and um uh Side by is another organization that I want to mention to you. Uh we are blessed to have David um Sitzer on our board of directors and he um founded Side by Side as that very kind of organization that brings people of all abilities together to participate in activities around the community. They've been an inspiration and a help to our organization as we work to build a neighborhood of intentional support. Um, and uh, just don't forget that you want more information, need it, want it, or um, or imagine that somebody that you know or love needs or wants it. Please contact these organizations. It's easy to find them and or contact us at at building Moana. We'll be glad to help you out. Uh, I really appreciate your time. Thanks for letting me talk longer than I said I would, like you always do. Well, we we traditionally do get a picture with the council um with the proclamation if you'd like to come up for a picture or that I'm leaving it up to you. Would you like one?

Okay. Could it was it would it be possible in Sure. my uh landscape ship building and her two years. Oh, come on. Council member may get

Oh, yeah. Pretend we like each other.

I can't see your hand. Okay. All right. Um, next up we are up to reports and inquiries. First is city council. Do we have any city council reports or is any there anything from Mayor Prom to report today? Um Tim,

I would just uh want to say a great a gracious thanks to everyone involved in last Saturday's father-daughter dance at Ridgeline High School. Uh the Kuanas Club here in Liberty Lake welcomed more than 400 people uh to the Ridgeline Commons. Um this was a a great adventure and a great um you know way to have this in our community. Actually uh prior the event had been uh held at the Miru Park Hotel for many years. Uh this was our first um ability to present in the community and everybody had a great time. So it was wonderful. Great. Well, I thank those volunteers too. I know it was well attended and there was a lot of competition Saturday night for different events. Went well. All right. Anybody else from council?

Not hearing any. All right. Move on to my mayor's report. Make it short and sweet. Um some things that have uh and been part of the last few weeks. We had our SRTC board meeting um pretty much status quo there. We will have some some new reports and things coming out from there um in the next couple months. We our April meeting has been cancelled. Uh I did have the opportunity to attend most of the Gonzaga's women lead conference on Wednesday. I had to leave a little early because um Mark and I had a meeting later that day with U. Congressman Bombgardner here in chambers. But it was great event. I highly encourage any of our women leaders and there were several men in the audience as well uh to attend that each year. Um there's a lot of good information um breakout sessions. I won't go into any details of it, but I can share some resources um about um you know how to how to think about things um from different different perspectives, how to this year is a lot around um managing our reactions to ourselves and to each other. Um uh so could have used that last year probably. Um but other than that, uh the Valley Chamber Business Awards were a week or so ago. Um the Girl Scout Suites Before Supper um fundraiser was um two Saturdays. Always a great event um put on by former commander of Air Force Base. Um Brian Newberry as CEO of the Girl Scouts. The hub crab feed and I hear they raised quite a I'm not going to announce the number. I don't know if it's public yet, but lots and lots of money for the hub which is well attended. Uh, and I also uh attended um the visit Spokane meeting with the American Legion delegate who I've mentioned before they're trying to find a place for their 2032 um national conference um 14,000 room nights over a week. Uh so when I saw them that Monday night, they had toured the hotels and then the um

and then uh the next day they were going to go visit all the venues for meetings. So, uh, the pavilion, uh, uh, Spokane Parks, uh, turned on turned the lights on the pavilion, red, white, and blue for us. They turned on the merrygoround because the meeting was at the Lou Carousel. So, they turn on merry ground, let everybody ride for for a turn. And, uh, I think they were pretty impressed. So, that went well. Their decision, I believe, comes later this summer. Um, upcoming Spokane County elected officials meeting is tomorrow. That's where we go over GMA items. The Greater Spokane Incorporated State of the Region is Thursday. I'll be attending that. And then um there is a Valley Chamber networking event next Wednesday at Longhorn. Um that's about what I could come with. I'm hoping fundraiser season is a is over. I've spent too much money in the last couple weeks at fundraisers, but all welld deserved. Um so I think that's it for me right now. We will move on to the city administrator report.

All right. Thank you, mayor. Uh members of the council and our guests both in the chamber online. several reminders to bring to your attention as Shane is bringing up um the report that you'll see in just a minute. Here we go. So, the first one, very importantly, we've re-entered March Madness. Okay, so the Gonzaga Kennesaw State game tips off Thursday, March 19th at 7 p.m. If you're interested in that kind of thing, set your own calendar. Uh the next day, Friday, March 20th, is the spring equinox. So, we will formally be in spring as of Friday, so later this week. Um the cuto off for the governor's action of bills that were passed um as the legislature ended its session is Saturday, April the 4th. And so you've seen, I'm sure, uh reports of the governor signing various bills. He has 20 days after the session ends to sign everything that's been passed out of both houses. Um or else it effectively dies on the vine. He can also veto during this period. Uh but as this is going on, we will get you updates on all of those bills that we were tracking to let you know whether the governor has or has not signed them. Um and then a final report uh after April the 4th. You notice on here that we don't have any mention of Easter. All that's uh although that is coming up, we don't observe any of those days. Um, so city hall and the library won't be closed in observance of any of those days, but that's certainly happening. And there will be activities around town to be mindful of. And then the week following, uh, Central Valley School District and I believe also East Valley will be on spring break. So there'll be extra activity happening with more people around town during that week. Any questions about those reminders before we move on?

All right. So, with that, I'm going to ask Jen to come up to the podium to give you a preview of the 2026 recreation and events schedule and I have four quick slides, but um just wanted to share I actually printed everything out for you as well on the community event side. Um if you'd like a copy of the recreation, we can get that sent out as well. Jed, quick question for you and that is is this set in stone? I'm finding the red dates a little bit difficult to read.

No, it's just a print for you guys. That's all it is. It's not a formal Thanks. Wait for my slides. Well, so the slides um and I you can see it on this community events. We'll start with community events. Um, what I kind of wanted to point out, uh, that's spike safety. Uh, what I wanted to point out on the community events at the very bottom are the partners. Yeah.

So, an interesting an interesting thing I noticed when Muel put that um, flyer together this week is I looked at that and I said, "Wow, we're really our partners are growing." And it's true. I think when we started doing events a long time ago, it was really just us, Rotary and Quantis as the three kind of the main ones that provided events mostly at Pavilion Park. And it's grown significantly with partners um over the years. So, it's it's really impressive to see that. Um we've worked really hard to include people that we hadn't thought of, invite them to help support. Um and people are excited and willing to help us. So, just kind of wanted to point that out with with the um

So, Shane, we have the wrong presentation up if we can switch that.

That's all right. And then on the recreation side, um just a quick uh update on that. So, as we obviously have brought Muel on, I think this is his third year. I think he's going almost going on his third year. Um he's started this year with a couple of uh programs. He had a Lego program that was a huge hit and he also had a PD excursion for littles with their moms and dads which also was a huge hit. So the first two out of the gate that were staff led by him uh on city property were very successful um which is a good gauge for where we're going our recreation. We've also expanded um there as well with our recreation agreements. So tonight you'll see a tennis agreement on the agenda. Um, that's one that we haven't had before. Um, so some new and and exciting things. You know, when he and I sit down and talk quite often, we discuss, well, what should we what should we look at? What should we achieve? What, you know, what programs should we bring on? And we I think our goal is variety. Variety for all ages and variety of niche things that will grab people. Legos and PD excursions, you know, that's not a generic maybe Legos is, but those aren't typical generic programs um that we've ever had before. You know, something beyond just sports. So, that's our goal. Um trying to keep our our uh decision making in line with the strategic plan and and what the goals of the city and the community are. So, u are there any questions? This is the community events and I think the recreation is the other slide but are there any questions? Yes.

Is the clean green and bulky waste cleanup that's when they come to u town square town square and you can bring big Yes. Yeah. And I believe uh waste management they usually send their flyers out I want to say two to three weeks prior maybe it's four. So they should be coming out very soon. And you can bring stuff that hazardous for example or No, like old batteries. No, no. So when you receive the flyer, there's a pretty pretty significant list of what not to bring. Oh. And if it's not on that list, um, call Mccelerai and we you figure out if it's safe to bring and and we begin messaging for that so that that kind of information is out in front of everyone well before the event.

Yeah. Everybody, please remember to get closer to your mics. Oh, any other questions? Jen, this is all great. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for all the hard work, you and Mikuel. I'll pass that on to Muel. He works really hard. I know. Thanks, Jen. And then the final item on my agenda is uh to let the council know that uh the city has been nominated for and has received uh an award from Tyler. And I'm gonna let Kyle explain to you what that is and why it's significant.

So, um, a few of us, if we'll recall back to 2024, uh, there was an effort by the council at the time, uh, to push what is, uh, what is known as priority based budgeting. And so this is our third year um kind of implementing this this idea of priority based budgeting looking at the programs that the city delivered kind of through a different lens. And there's a bunch of work that's done um by staff on the back end that allows the communication for us as city staff and us as as uh city leaders to tell the public what investments we're making in these programs and what results we're getting in return for those. And so that's a it's a fantastic communication mechanism that is spreading pretty quickly across the nation. And so, um, we're we're very thankful that, uh, the city council has continued to kind of, um, prioritize this effort. Um, and we're seeing increased ability to kind of deliver those key metrics and those key results to, um, to not only to to you, the council, during the budget process, but, to our residents. And so, we can tell them definitively what this program costs us in a year to run. how many FTEEs uh does it take to run and what are some key metrics uh and results to measure that return on investment that we're seeing year-over-year. Uh and so um and thanks for Tyler. Uh they've kind of helped us through this process to to kind of implement this and um I'm I'm just I'm thankful for for mayor and council uh to continue to prioritize this through the budget process. And so more than anything else, it's your work that's recognized here. Uh the city is receiving the award, but it uh

it it's it's the council and by extension uh the the team of city staff members that work diligently on this to bring it forward and manage it uh on an annual basis that's being recognized by this as a sort of out a leader in particular uh methodology. um and and and seeing the work that goes in leading now to recognition is not only exciting, but it's a testament to your commitment um to making sure that we're able to continue to communicate in this way. Um and so I want to thank you personally for that. And mayor, that concludes my report.

Okay. U before moving to SER Water District, um I I did forget this and I don't know if we got this on the community on the city's page or not. Um, but I would I would have been remiss to not acknowledge. So, Ty Burns, one of our pros over at Trail Head, um, was named the Shawn Frederickson Outstanding Associate Professional of the Year, an award that represents the legacy of an incredible professional in person. Shawn left a lasting impact on so many within the PGA community with his integrity, character, and passion that he brought to golf in life. Tyler says he's um incred incredibly grateful to have met with his parents um who carry on his legacy. So congratulations to Ty the at the golf course for his award.

Okay. So now we'll jump over to golf club golf club. Golf club. Yes. Sergeant sir nada. Good evening. I made it just in time. I guess my flight was delayed otherwise I would have been there earlier. Um, all I have really to report is that uh we're working with the city on the the permitting for the wellhouse which will be u bid out pretty soon once we get all the permitting straightened out and then we'll be building that over the early summer I think. So everything else is fine. I talked to Bay I said well no news is good news in our business. The water's flowing in and other things are flowing out so everyone's happy. So happy to answer any questions otherwise uh happy St. Patrick's Day. Any questions?

Question about you wouldn't have to know when the outlet channel will be running. Let me open that up. You know, I asked about that and is this on? Can you hear me? Yeah. Um, I don't think we're going to have enough water to open the outlet channel this year. I've been down there after the last sort of snowstorm we had. There was supposed to be rain all day. What was it? Last uh Friday. But um when I talked to Baij earlier, he said that he didn't think the lake was going to be high enough this year to have to open it up. because it's an adjudicated lake level. So once it gets above a certain part uh level, we have to let the water out. So probably not be good for us around August. Yeah,

when you do that, where does when you let the water Oh, when you let the water wrong tonight, when you let the water out, where does it go? It comes uh out from the lake. I know every spring there's sort of a flooding issue kind of uh in that flatlands there where the the trail starts, you know, to the south of the of the golf course. It kind of goes in there and there's a holding pond that the district owns a little bit of land in there uh next to the golf course between the I guess it's right around where the the trail is and it goes underneath the road. Which golf course? Uh the the city's golf course. Oh, okay.

Yeah. Trail head. So if back in there there's some storage drainage areas that fill up and then it goes underneath through a culvert to the other side back behind where the the it's not Jiffy Loop. What's it called? Um Liberty Loop. Liberty. Yeah, Liberty Lube. Yeah. Back in behind there. So there's there's sort of a a flood plane area where the water goes. Yeah. Okay. I always like saying that it percolates back to the aquifer. Um there's we're returning it to the aquifer. That's right. Okay. Yeah. Some of it evaporates, but it does go back to that. Oh, gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. Right. Any other questions? All right. Thanks for being here. Yeah. Thank you guys. Thank you.

All right. Parks and Arts. Welcome Katie. Good to see you again.

Hi, I'm Katie Ferris. I'm reporting for the Parks and Arts Commission. And I guess we a couple slides that he tried to put up earlier, but that was just a little preview. So, we have a lot of ongoing uh art projects that are happening and some have to be installed according to the weather and that type of thing. So, there they are. All the different art projects we're doing. Do you want me to read them off or anyway? There they are. Lots of exciting things. The main thing that I am reporting uh tonight and you can go to the next slide is about the bike and pedestrian safety advisory committee as we uh report to the parks and arts commission and uh it's kind of like I know you guys have been talking about having different committees. We've been going uh having a committee for about uh probably a year and a half now. So, we meet uh with some bikers from the community, usually a city staff person, the Liby Lake Police Department, and uh one of the things we've talked about recently is the issue of slowing down the street lights on Liberty Lake Road to allow pedestrians and bikers to cross in the crosswalks. And uh you know even people all different people take different you know paces to get across and we're getting busier and busier and if we can slow those special lights down the city administrator has recommended that so has the police department because we're only going to be getting more and more traffic. So, we just need those lights like at Liberty Lake Road, at Apple Way, and Country Vista uh crossing time to be extended a bit. So, we're recommending

that. And uh we have uh some exciting things planned too for the spring in May. We're going to have our first parks ride where we will have a bicycle ride from Orchard Park up Harvard over the Liberty Lake uh pedestrian bridge there. We'll go to Rocky Hill Park, Pavilion Park, and back back over the Kramer Bridge to Orchard Park. So, it's going to be a really fun bike ride. It's May 31st and we'll bring you more information and map and everything we're developing. But it's kind of a way to show off our city and the parks. If you have friends or family that come into town, you get them on a bike and have a real fun bike ride. So, we're doing it on a Sunday morning where there's not much traffic for our first one. So, it should be super fun. Uh let's see what else we have up there. Okay. So, I do want to talk a little bit about how important it is for people that are driving cars as all the bikers are starting to get back out on the street. How important it is for us driving cars to slow down. That's the main thing you have to do when you see a bike on the road. Slow down and look for about 5t of space to pass. Otherwise, you just need to wait till there's room enough to pass. The other thing is if you're getting out of a parked car, make sure you look over your shoulder and see if there's a bike going by before you open up the car door because that's another common injury that can happen. Uh the lastly, which is very important right now, too, is watch out for children that are just learning about the rules of the road, getting your bikes around your neighborhood, your parks, the schools. a lot of, you know, middle schoolers are scued around. So, we want to make sure that uh we give

them a little bit extra space and time just slow down around uh the parks in those areas. So, because we want Flurry Lake to be a bike friendly community, so we're going to give it our best effort. We're also hoping uh the community engagement committee will have a town hall where we can uh have a presentation from the police department like they like Chief Simmons did in October about what's legal and what's not as far as ebikes and talk about bike safety. So hoping that's come up pretty soon this spring. So any questions?

Anybody have any questions? Let me get back to my phone. I pull my meeting up so I can see. I keep losing it. Sorry. There we go. Um I don't see anybody online. You guys have any questions? Council member Paul, just a comment. It's not on here. Your the bike ride on May 31st. Yeah, we're just getting all the map and everything's figured out. So I'm sure uh David, our communications person here will get and Muel Stevens is also working on like a little flyer type thing. Okay. So yeah. Okay. Okay, thank you so much for your hard work. Okay, should be really fun spring. Awesome. Thank you. Um, next up we have library board of trustees.

Good evening. U, my name is Jennifer Chase. I am currently the chair of the library board and Jandy and I have some updates for you. We do have a couple slides as well. You could go back just a couple. Perfect. Actually, the next one. So, we have uh five board members and knowing that we have some new city council members, we wanted to take an opportunity um to introduce um the roles that we all sit in. Um I am the board chair. Anna is our secretary. Uh Barb Richardson is also our liaison with the friends of the Liberty Lake Library. Brad Hamlet is our former chair and Michael Bodha is our final uh board member. Our plan this year is for all of us to sort of rotate through these um quarterly presentations so that you have an opportunity to um meet so to speak all of our uh library board members. Next slide please. We'd like to share some highlights of things that are going on in the library. We'll have a more um statistics-based presentation later this year, but uh one of the fun opportunities have now with increased staff is that we are able to offer story time every single day. It's always full. Um and depending on the age or the theme, children have an opportunity for about a half an hour of story time and about half an hour of playtime. Next slide.

So, I'm going to take a turn and do a couple of slides for you guys. Um, so each year, um, I'm required to submit a large public library surveys to the state library. Um, so I will be working on that report for the state during the month of April. So each June you can expect to have our annual report. Um, so I just have a couple stats that I'm going to share with you today, some of our highlights from last year, but you'll get a more in-depth um, presentation in June for us at our next quarterly report. Um, so just some highlights from this past year. Um, we had over 92,000 checkouts during 2025. Um, 69,700 visitors came through the library during 2025. Um, total we have 7,400 card holders. Um, each library card that we distribute is good for two years. Um, basically we go through um every couple months and we'll delete cards out of the system. So your card's good for two years. If you then take another year and visit the library, your card is deleted out of the system. Um, this just allows us not to have inflated numbers and cards floating out there that aren't getting used. And it also allows us to make sure we have updated contact information. So, if somebody's card gets deleted out of the system, they come back the next day, just give them a new free library card. Um, lastly, our room usage. So, we have a study room and a meeting room at the library that we're going to be talking about the meeting room a little bit later. Um, but in 2025, we had um 812 um room reservations. These are for private groups, not story time, not any of my library programs, just um private groups, study groups, HOA meetings um within the library. So, next slide. So, today we're taking the opportunity to highlight the highlight the friends of the library um

who is one of our major supporters of the library. Um the friends group meets once a month um at the library for their monthly meeting. Um the money that they raise throughout the year um supports a lot of our library programming. Um they support the summer reading program that we do each summer June through August. Our summer reading program is for ages 0 to 100. So it's all ages. Um they also support the poetry slam that we do. This is a program we've been doing with the Spokane County Library District and the Central Valley School District for about three years now. Um they also support our um our partnership that we have with the hub and the play unplugged program. You guys might be familiar with that. They've been doing it since co. The kids are able to go around town and they get little key tags for doing different activities with different businesses. The purpose of the program is to promote things that are not screen time. So basically they can come to the library, they can come to city hall, they can come to the police station, complete some sort of challenge and get their badge or their keep tag. Um so that program is supported by the friends of the library. And then lastly, the majority of our classes and presenters. So if we bring in a an artist to the library, if we bring in a magician to the library, all of those programs are supported by the friends of the library. Um the other one I wanted to highlight is our past programs. Um, currently at the library we have three family passes to the Mobius Discovery Center in downtown Spokane. The pass is good for two adults and four kids to enter Mobius and play for free. So, that's wonderful. They also support the um, we have a family pass to the Mac Museum of Arts and Culture. Um, that pass has been extremely popular and right now it's really popular with the Lego exhibit if any of you guys have seen that with all the downtown Spokane landmarks. Um, so we get we have a family pass there for two and two adults and three kids.

Basically, they come to the library, they pick out they check out a DVD case and inside it has the the family pass and they're able to check that out for a week, go to the MAC, go to the Mobius and it's a a free entry which if you have four kids and two adults, like that's that's that's a good chunk of change. So, we're really appreciative that the friends um fund this for us. Lastly is the Spokane Symphony tickets. Shane, can you go to the next slide? Um, so this is a program that we've partnered with the Friends and the Downtown Spokane Symphony. Um, get tickets to three shows. Um, they are all masterworks shows. We get three during the spring. So, right now we have tickets to two in March. Um, to two shows in March. We had one the beginning of March, we have one the end of March, and then there's one in the end of April. Um we love our partnership with the symphony. Um the friends purchase 20 tickets to the symphony and then the symphony donates us 20 additional tickets. So for each show we get a total of 40 tickets and um patrons are able to reserve up to four tickets for the symphony. So this is an incredible program. If you've never been to the symphony, it's a great great way to, you know, be able to go try it out, see if it's something that you want to take your family to again. Um, so we're really appreciative of that. Um, the last last year, um, we had a total of 120 tickets and 119 of them were used. So, it's a program that we're paying for and that our patrons love and it is is heavily utilized. They don't just grab the tickets and then don't show up. So, that's that's incredible. Um, next slide, Shane. Um the friends fund um programs for the library um through various fundraisers. Um they have the book sale in June and November each year. Um and then also the summer sore that they do in partnership

with the Liberty Lake Winery. Um they've also been a grant recipient many times over the years. Um this last year they were the recipient of the humanities Washington award um for friends groups. Um so that was wonderful. they um won that award back in November and you know all of money that they're able to raise goes directly back to the library. Um each year they donate about um $8,000 to us. So it's it's not a small amount. Um, I went to the estate director's meeting in Tacoma last month and one of our sessions was on friends groups and um, foundations and that sort of thing. And um, we kind of went around the room and talked about our friends groups and um, there are so many libraries who um, don't have thriving friends groups like us. they want to have something like that, but you know there isn't the interest from the community or that sort of thing or they're older and aging and they're like, "Oh, we get a couple hundred dollars." People were floored when they heard that we get for for a library of our size that we get $8,000 a year. So, we are extremely lucky to have the friends group that we had. Um, next slide, Shane. Okay. So, um, Jen and I are going to be talking about the, um, library policy that we have, um, on the agenda tonight to be updated. I just wanted to give you guys a little bit of background on how our meeting room and study room reservations work and then Jen will get, um, a little bit more detailed into the policy. Um, but for about two, this is our second year. Um, we have a software on our website. So, if you see in the corner, um it's just right directly on our main page of our website. It has reserve a room. Um patrons are able to click on that button and then it takes you to this larger screen that you see right here. They can res um they can search by date, they can search by time, they can do a broader search that shows them all the reservations that are available for the month. Um and they can make a

reservation for our study room or our meeting room. Our study room you can book up to um from anywhere from zero to two hours at a time. Our um meeting room can reserve for up to four hours at a time. Um so they are able to you know call us on the phone, make a reservation that way, but we have entered the modern age and they can also make a reservation online. Um the study room immediately reserves for them. Um with the meeting room, I go through and make sure that they um are meeting all of our requirements. They aren't like a birthday party or a wedding reception. It's a more um community use for the room. And then they're able and then I go ahead and approve that reservation for them. So that's just kind of the background of how our reservations work. Next slide. Um so as Jandy mentioned, we recently updated and revised the meeting room policy. Uh previously the library policy and the library website had slightly different wording and organization though the intent between the two was the same. So we adjusted language to ensure that the website and the policy aligned. Uh we also clearly defined the two different spaces as the large meeting room and the study room um to provide that clarification and we clarified the criteria for the use the expectations and the available equipment in both spaces. So now both the policy and the website have the same information and it's organized in the same way. Uh so I I know that you have that policy later on in your agenda. Um, our next slide just is our recommendation from the library board of trustees to approve uh that meeting room policy and Jandy and I would stand for any questions you might have.

Any any questions? Council member Ball. Um, yeah, I have a couple of questions. Um, when when is the RGELine slam? That was in the report. I'm just curious. It already happened. Oh, the poetry slam. Yeah. I don't know the date off my hand off the top of my head, but I can look it up when I get back to my computer to let you know.

Okay. I was just curious. Then also in your report, I had to laugh about this kid that uh who did he ask or something? A sixth grader asked about um how much education it takes to be a librarian. And he he says, "Oh, that's why librarians are so old. I thought that was I thought that was hilarious. No, that's it. I had a question. Yes, go ahead. Um,

mine was just a brain worm after reading through um the proposed changes. Um, in the study room it says you can have up to eight, but you can have up to 10 people in there. Why is there a discrepancy between how many you can have in there studying versus how many just in the room? I think that was just a Okay, I think so. We intended that to be 10. that says 10 in both places. Yeah, it was just like is there just not enough? No, the intent was for that to be 10 in all places. Thank you. Nice catch. Good catch. Okay.

All right. Any other questions or comments? If there's any more com questions about the policy change, we can do that when we get to the action item. All right. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

Okay. Um that's it for our reports and inquiries. Next up is the follow-up discussion with regards to committees. Um I don't know um just for uh history purposes, you know, in the in the past uh when Council Mayor Prom Dunn and I were, you know, we're the ancient ones around here with regards to tenure, you know, we had our three our three um well, and I think Council Member Severs was on there at that time, too. You know, we had our three different committees. We had our community development which met once a month um on a on off Tuesdays. Um we had public safety once a month and then finance met every Tuesday before council meeting. So just as a framework that's what we used to have. Well actually it was public safety and library which included PD fire and library. So I just want to kind of give that for some background. I don't know um what you guys are thinking about what those committees need to be like them to be going forward, what the cadence is. Um I see Mayor Prom has his microphone unmuted, so I'll let him kind of jump in and start since this was his topic.

Yeah. Um to recap, in our last meeting, we reviewed the prior policy present presented through the procedures uh for the council which outlined the uh operation of three unique committees. uh the three committees their titles number one finance number two community development number three public safety um the nature of those committees was discussed and I think there's a general uh interest in pursuing that I believe that on tonight's um agenda we well we do have a resolution uh prepared uh for this um what I thought was important uh and I think Mark has encouraged us to consider for tonight is the actual participants uh in those committees the appointment process how that comes together Um uh I just begin by volleying the procedure previously reviewed has a pretty formalized hey mayor is going to pick one and prom picks two and I would just voice quickly that I would want to solicit from council members their interests and try and ensure that they are seated in the part of the committee in the committees which they have interest for. Um, so you know, I I don't see this as necessarily a a vying for someone's attention to try and obtain an appointment as much as just, hey, let us know where you'd like to participate and serve and we'll see that you get in there.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's we we did that. I think I think the formal policy was that, you know, but I think it did work more smoothly to take the volunteers. Now, with there being three potentially three committees and seven council members, somebody's, you know, there's going to be a couple people may need to serve on two because I think we had three on each. Um, and I think my my other concern um that you guys really need to kind of nail down is when because at that time these meetings were happening at 6 PM um on council nights. Um we have since moved our meeting start time obviously to six. So um that's up you guys. um to decide what days of the week, what the cadence is.

I believe the committee can select and with the cooperation of staff a different and alternate date time. So the mission would just be to see that each committee meets once a month um uh you know with the participation of staff. Yeah, I think it was actually called out previously, but if we don't need to call it out, uh, Sean, if that doesn't need to be in there, a specific, you know, time and day of whichever the month, that'd be that would allow for a lot more flexibility. That was one that was one of the reasons I wanted this kind of back on the agenda to make sure we pointed those things out, kind of work it before we get to the um the resolution.

Yeah, you don't you don't have to get so specific as to days and times and things like that. This is council's rules, so they have the flexibility to set however they want to meet and get together. All right. So, go ahead. I see you getting ready to speak. C May, go ahead. Uh, no, I would just ask um for observations or comments from all the rest of the council members. Yeah, same. And I'm willing to take take notes of uh who is interested in what and then we can kind of go from there. Uh, Council Member Severs, if I just be in support of what you guys are both volumeing back and forth here and that let's just establish the committees and then let them figure out their first meeting and let them figure out the cadence with the idea of it being once a month, right? Um, mayor, did you say that finance used to meet twice? Twice. Yeah,

I didn't remember that but it um not doubting you but uh I would think even on the finance just say up front once a month and if the you know the committee decides it needs to meet twice a month great you know so and I'll you know which one I'm interested in. Yeah. So so council member Tvers is interested in finance finance and if public safety is needed I'd be happy to do public safety. Okay. Second option. Okay. All right. Let's go around the room real quick. So, um let's start over here. Council members, public safety and finance. Okay. Which one first? Public safety.

Okay. I'm just keeping the list here. We can go through that later. Um Council Member Ball. Um well, I was going to ask. So, is it uh flexible? I mean, do we meet the committee meetings are here in um public safety typically met at the police department? Oh, I don't know if we still want to do that because that requires signing in now and all this other stuff, but so yeah, it's either here or at the PD. Oh, okay. Um, I'm interested in community development. Okay. Would there be a second choice? Uh, um, public safety. Okay. Council member Clangler.

Yeah, public safety first and community development would be second choice, but I'm flexible. Okay. And obviously we'll need to get um Council Member Curts to weigh in on We won't make any decisions now. I'll have to get with her and have her weigh in. And Council Member Fischer would be finance and public safety. Which one first? Finance.

Finance. So ones and twos next to everybody's name. So, I will get with council member Curts um probably tomorrow, the next day and kind of fill in the blanks and then I will um I'll reach back out to everybody kind of list who who you know one or two choices. We may need to do some shuffling around. Um and remember, don't reply all just reply to me. Um and then we can go from there. Oh, Dan. Yeah. Um all good. Um community development. Yep. And number two would be public safety.

Okay. Okay. So, all right. Okay. Great. I will we'll hopefully get these uh situated by the by the end of the week and then whoever gets put on those and then what we'll do, we'll also ch we always had an alternate. So, we'll choose, you know, the we'll we'll look and figure out who the the fir the main three are and then we'll figure out based on people's selections and interest, choose an alternate because it's always good to have um have somebody be able to go in their place and make sure everybody has each other's phone numbers. Okay. So, are there any other questions or comments on on for the workshop on this council? So, um do does each committee then report back to the full council like once a month? Yes.

Okay. Yeah. Usually the usually the um meeting right after your committee meeting. Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, Linda, I' I'd voice just as an observation. Um it's an opportunity for the council to hear as a greater uh body what what was really kind of the heart of the discussion. Um if there was anything that particularly you as a participant in the committee um thought was of interest and relevant. Um yeah, I just try and say observations and reflections on uh what the experience of working with that committee was. There may be some resolutions for example which are kind of percolating along uh which are really relevant to those committees and so the discussion and detail of those resolutions or ordinances um and what's important um yeah that's what I would foresee as you know important action in the committees and reporting

yeah and and not not getting into the granular level but but the high high level high level summaries um and usually we would pick one person from each of those committees and we just kind of alternate it just kind of like the library board of trustees does council member Darl, um, is there any history of ad hoc committees or is that something that we'd be discussing in this workshop as well? Just if not regular ones, we've had ad hoc committees. Um, we had, you know, people working on the ordinances and the governance manual. So, as those are needed, we don't put them in in a resolution. Okay, great. Yeah. Okay, thanks everybody. I will follow up on that and get information back out. Council member Clinger.

Yeah, I'm gonna prove that there are some stupid questions. Um so are the council members active? You know, we can contribute comment and stuff like that. It's not just there in observation. Yeah. Okay. Discussion, recommendations.

Um and so yeah, so the the the point is really to if there is more detailed level that you go through at the committee level that then you guys come back with a recommendation and you know to trust in our appointed committees to make those recommendations. What happened was when these things went away, we got to a point where everybody else on council wanted all the details, too. And that's that's kind of how we ended up having committee overall committee and director's reports at six and the meeting at seven. Then we've morphed into where we are today. Yeah. Council member Oh, sorry. Count

actually just complement the observation. Um, Rick suggests it's also a relationship building opportunity with staff um for us to be able to as you know the electeds and other legislative types um just to try and really understand and um offer more uh I'd say detailed discussions uh stuff that um might we don't not have time in this regular council meeting to do. So yeah focus is is policy not operations we just need that council member Ball. So does like for example Michelle attend our committee meetings and take No

there there will be so so Kyle will do the finance um we used to record them on a tape recorder I don't know what we'll do now we'll we'll figure that out we won't put the technology in the resol I don't think the techn is in the resolution um so yeah each you know the chief or deputy chief will do public safety um uh Amy's point will be doing you know we'll be doing community development and any guests from staff as needed Okay. Yeah. There there aren't formal minutes or anything like that or agenda. Okay. So, it's more casual. Yes. Okay. And in finance, we used to uh review the vouchers. So, that might be a something we get back to.

All right. There's no more comments or questions on that. We'll move over to the youth commission, which is sort of an extension of this as we're talking about potential changes in some of the bylaws to some of our commissions. Youth Commission has been dormant for a while. We had um talked about revisiting this um later in the school year and we are much later in the school year. So um I know there's different thoughts on this. Um do we continue to um have a youth um a youth position on our larger um commissions as an as a you know advisor and um you obviously not a voting member as part of that. Um, do we stand restand up the youth commission as it was in the past? And Dan can probably speak more to that because I know his kiddos were involved. So, I'll let him kind of describe what commission was involving um back when it was very active. It kind of took a took a dive, you know, right, you know, not long before co

um this is a great uh to me an important opportunity. Um I want to make sure I'm unmuted. Um but really clearly it does rely on um students and uh the youth in the community who honestly demonstrate initiative and the will uh to get out there and do it. Um I believe that this ordinance, excuse me, the resolution, the ordinance that prepares this is, you know, said in statement of spirit, uh we want to really empower um youth in our community who demonstrate, you know, a level of leadership and a want to try and uh organize and present and contribute So, you know, I I guess I'll pause and just Yeah, the word's dormant. It's hard to say, but it's like we just haven't had a ton um a critical mass of uh students arrive and present themselves and say, "I'd like to be part of it."

Yeah. Now, maybe that's part of us as a city government to try and say, how can we create better outreach? uh to look out to what are maybe these maybe the student government types who are within uh now the high school in our community and the middle schools that are in our community um to to say you know help us to recognize and to I'll say directly solicit and recruit uh who we think are students who can uh really live out this. So

yeah, and and I think you make really good now that we have schools mostly, you know, full of of Liberty Lake students, um, some of them do cross over, it may be easier to get some participation. At one point somehow years ago when when Amanda and Michelle were still here, I ended up being like the the council liaison youth commission somehow. Not sure how that happened, but um, but the challenge then was like you said, participation. and we had all these kids participating but you know nobody showed up on a regular basis. It was really frustrating. Um and the other thing to consider that this will will um and maybe we look at another maybe we look at a council adviser instead of involving staff somebody who's you know um you know wants to take on that leadership role maybe with the youth. Um because you know a staff is you know each major staff member has a commission already. Um, I don't know if we have the bandwidth to to to add a staff member for this or make them part of um something with Wreck, but those are things to be um decided, but I'd like to hear your guys' voice on whether you we want to try to start recruiting again and get this going back up. I think I had council member Darl first and then Klinger.

Um, when I was on the community engagement commission, we uh spoke numerous times about adding um a youth uh non- voting member to the group. Um it's always a challenge uh with that group to to get participants. Recently we've been very lucky. Um but I would I would say that that would be an appropriate place um for a youth member. Um and I think the other commissions also have a a a similar pro probably a similar feeling is my guess. Um so that would be my thought initially and if that becomes very popular in some way maybe that's a time to look at a separate one and maybe it would be with those same that same group of people. But that that would be my thought initially.

Um Councilman Cole, you were next.

Yeah, I was going to ask um um Pro Tim then whether we had engaged what level with I think you hinted at it or intimated um the schools. Um it would be cool if their student body um elected officials and stuff were kind of engaged in that and could draw in other students, but it would seem like to be successful, we would need to engage with the school system to really get those people that have shown some, you know, interest in in leadership and and things like that or existing leadership um you know, programs and stuff. if it could be kicked off, I'd be really interested in um participating that in some way because I think that that's an amazing way of contributing back to the community. And kids have the best levels of energy and you know, they haven't become jaded like us old people yet. So, it can be really inspirational.

Oh, I totally agree, Rick. And and to be clear, I've not personally yet extended that, but I think that's where this needs to go next. Um we're all familiar with DECA and other I'll say leadership oriented uh both extracurricular and then curricular programs uh for our secondary and um middle schools or you know so uh it's just a matter of you know having an outreach out there and saying you know we are as a city we have this um we would like to engage and we would like you know to solicit and recruit uh students who would like to participate. Yeah. And just a a slight followup to that. I know we used to do like um there was a debate process that people that were um going or running for a city council office they would show up at Ridgeline or some of the local schools and you know maybe there's a way of looking back into that and seeing who were the key people that helped you know uh facilitate that and and they might be interested in it because it's not just about leadership it's also getting in involved in local government. Sorry.

I agree. Okay. I agree.

Go ahead. Um, council member. Well, look whose names on this. Uh, I remember back in the day that um there were a couple of teachers from the local school district who came to us and it was a requirement back then that kids have civic responsibilities and civic duties. Obviously, this is 2020 or 2006 and we're, you know, way ahead of that now. And I'm, you know, there's so much packed into a young person's day that um I want I would love to see it resurrected and see the kids involved, but I also am cautious about just how packed their days are and there's so much responsibility on them and with media and all of that. So I'm I'm for it obviously, but we just need to make sure we have participation.

Yep. Okay. C. Um well, so we council member Seafford has not gone yet, so we'll go to him. Yeah, I'm struggling with this one um because of the lack of participation in the past. I'm thinking the same thing that um council member Fischer's thinking um with one just out of high school and one in high school and the amount of stuff in their day. But but I don't want to shoot it down. I think that uh I think we should engage the school and get their take on it and go see if there is um active interest in it. if I don't want to sit here and think that I know whether there's going to be or So I'd say let's let's engage the school and I don't know who wants to take that on but

well I was going to I I know prom has some things going on but I know he's got some relationships over at Ridgeline so do I AP government a couple bunch of similar the others maybe um maybe prom maybe you and I can you just do a quick phone call when it's convenient for you we can line those people up and I'd be more than happy to go over and have those conversations and then if you know if they do indicate that you know this would whichever format it takes whether it's a full commission or, you know, adding student commissioners um on the different um our commissions. Um you know, maybe it's something we I'm going to way way back when I was in high school um you know, we had you know, at the beginning of the year, we had like a club fair, right? You know, all the clubs, you know, had their display of what you can get involved with. maybe this would be an opportunity to get ahead of it and at the beginning of next school year have some representatives there from from the council or whoever to engage with the students about what this would be and then because you know if we start recruiting now summer's going to go and it's going to be totally different but I think this the last few months here before school's out would give us a good opportunity to have those discussions then set something up for the beginning of the school year for the actual engagement recruitment for whichever form this is going to take council member for Darl. I know you well for real quick uh counc anything.

Well, yeah, I I I think I agree with the uh approaching the school for Ridgeline and seeing if they think there would be any interest because it would be it would just be, you know, fruitless to have a committee and nobody shows up, you know. So, um that would be my I like plan. Good. And we're back to council member Daryl. I know it's still at the early stages and I uh wholeheartedly agree that working with the school is is the best initial appro approach. Um and I know David's really uh great at reaching the community in general online, but there's a lot of students who are homeschooled and private schools and I would hate for them to be uh left out of the process um here.

Yeah. Um so again I I've I've seen lots of you know uh there's room on this commissioner that um from the city uh itself on Facebook and in the libraries and other other places like that. Um so the same channels basically. Yeah. Well and and you know we have um you know private schools around too where you know we've got you know kids who go to G Prep and St. George and and Liberty Launch Liberty Launch. So, that's a really good point to add those to our our um our outreach and to engage with some of the homeschool groups, especially since frankly a lot of them are going to have more flexible schedules and might be aligned with the specific um asks. Yeah, very good point. Thank you. Yes,

you just mentioned G Prep. So, we're going to go outside of Liberty Lake for the students would need to live here, but G Prep St. George. showing there's yeah the Catholic schools and the other other magnet schools y and there's even well it would be difficult but I think most kids are choicing into ridgeeline and not out um but there are kids who live in lake I know who in the past have you know choiced out to west um so you know obviously that that's a whole different discussion you know but I appreciate you bringing this up and council member prom done I will reach out to you here um and figure out what's convenient for you so we can kind of get our heads together. Sound good? All right.

Great. Not hearing anything feeling further. We are up to our consent agenda. Um, Madame Mayor, I move uh general business items 10 A through G. Second. We have a second by Council Member Fischer. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda items 10 A through G, please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Motion passes. 6. All right, up to action items. U Benameir, I move uh action item 11A, approving a pavement master plan. Second.

We have a second by council member Seabirds. All right. Are there any and we've had presentations on this? Are there any questions? Ben's here in case there are questions. Um but the ask is to u approve it for incorporation into the comprehensive master plan. This is one piece of the whole. No questions. just offer off an observation uh a hearty thanks to um public works director Ben um specifically how I perceive the utility of the pavement master plan is um an really important part of our upcoming capital plan uh specifically this needs to outline when expenses and I'm going to say significant expenses are going to need to happen for the city and I look forward to incorporating what's been outlined here uh into our projected spending.

Right. Thank you. All right. I'm not seeing any other questions. So, those in favor of approving the pavement master plan u for incorporation into the city of Liberty Lake comprehensive master plan, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes 6. Next up, recreation agreement. U madame mayor, I move general action item 11B, uh, US Tennis Association, uh, three-year tennis recreation agreement. All right. Second by council member Sebrers. Any questions on this one? Jen's here. if you have any questions. Not hearing or seeing any. That's awesome.

I just want to be enthusiastic about this one. Um I see this is yet another uh opportunity to create recreation for our community um and especially associating a partner uh that brings to the table expertise um knowhow and prior experience and how to deliver programming. So well done staff. Are we going to have fights between the pickle ballers and the tennis people? I hear yes somewhere in the audience. define fights. The real sporty. Oh, all right. Those in favor of of authorizing uh me to sign the three-year recg agreement with USA PNW to provide tennis lessons in city parks, please say I. I.

Any opposed? I motion passes 6. Uh Madame Mayor, I move general business action 11 C uh library meeting room policy changes. Second. We have by council member Sever. All right. Are there any more questions or comments with regards to the amended policy change for the meeting rooms at the library?

Um I would observe um I appreciate the ability to clarify this policy to reflect our actual facilities as well as the way the facilities are uh supported uh for reservation. So, I see this as um largely a clerical action um that really just um provides clarity uh for how the facilities are to be reserved. It's great to have the flexibility and that people can um go in on their own and um make their lives a little bit easier. All right, those in favor of approving the changes to the library meeting room policy as recommended by the board of trustees, please say I. I.

Any opposed? All right. Motion passes 6. Okay, we're council comments not including upcoming workshops. So, are there any um council members? You'd like to make any additional comments before we move into resolutions? Council member B. Um well, in the uh city administrator's report, he didn't get to like any questions about the different department reports. I don't believe did you uh we we have removed that item from the regular agenda. if if you do have questions, this is a opportunity for you to be able to ask those if you'd like to do that or or send them to the department heads as well. But

yeah, I I did send a lot of emails, but I forgot a couple things. Um Kyle, since you're sitting there, one of them was for you. Um I just had a question. Let me find it here. Um in your report under administrative um where is it? Finance is evaluating options and potential benefits of conducting a sales tax review audit, which aims to review and correct the vendor location codes that may be incorrectly reporting to neighboring jurisdictions. Does that actually happen? Yep. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, have that on.

No, you're fine. That's uh it is uh it is nice to see an advocate on council that is aware of uh these potential errors. And so so the department of revenue really relies heavily on businesses to report where those taxes are going. And so, um, it's up to us to the extent that we can to get the word out to make sure, uh, that those businesses within Liberty Lake are reporting their activity within Liberty Lake. And they do that by vendor location codes. And so if if you're new uh to Liberty Lake and you're not really familiar with the surroundings or how you set up your business, you could just kind of assume, well, I'm in Spokane Valley in the Spokane and that's how you set up your business. And then you're reporting to the the Department of Revenue. uh my activity is going the city of Spokane because generally regionally people think we live in the Spokane area and so there's potential for incorrect reporting to happen. Liberty Lakes a relatively younger city um and so I I don't know that you know any losses that we would find have been compatible for all that long but it's just really important for us to be able to say that all of the activity that's conducted within the city is going to the right place. So this just stuns me. So So this what you're saying is like um you know I don't know Joe's meat market or whatever could potentially be reporting that he's in the valley or the city.

I'm gonna put my hat back on. No, I can answer this because this is this kind of been my baby. Yeah. And I kind of invented this. So what happens is is every city gets a fourdigit code. 1, two, three, four. You know, Spokane Valley could be um 1314. Uh Liberty Lake could be 1316. And if Susie Q bookkeeper or um the CFO or whomever reports to the department of revenue, if they don't put the right fourdigit code, that money goes doesn't go to the right place. And you don't know that. Like Kyle, he doesn't know that.

Yeah. So what happens is is is if you have corporations come in I know Greenstone knows it you know all of our big players they all know the city's fourdigit code and they report it accordingly but you know uh maybe uh I'll do the new meat market copa is that it is rich what's meat market rich okay butchery thank you meat market

they're new and they're awesome and so let's just say that um they they don't know what code to report they may report the valley and So, we miss out. So, it's incumbent on us to go to these businesses says, "Hey, by the way, do you use our our four-digit code, you know, one, two, three, four, and they may say, "Oh, I didn't know that." And you just remind them politely. And everyone wants to do the right thing. Trust me, they do.

And if they know what the right thing is, they'll make those changes. And it's been in my past in every single city I've increased tax by 30 to 40%. It works. And Kyle that. And so, but it's an effort. It It takes staff time. It takes, you know, going out there asking the questions and I'll volunteer to help you. I know what to do. So, but it's huge. It is huge. And since we are kind of in Spokane Valley, city of Liy Lake, you know, we're all kind of in this cluster here. It's very important that that our vendors know, hey, this is our code. So, that's how that works.

Okay. So, you're evaluating whether or not to do this. Is that We are doing it. We're just Yes, we're rallying the the troops to execute it, right? Yeah, I'll help too because that just Yeah. Okay. Um knows my history of this. And then I had a question for well is uh let's see on the parks. Um Jen, are you still here? Yeah, just Oh, hi. Um I'm just cons I'm curious. What's an RCO grant? Pavilion Park playground stuff. It's Washington Recreation Conservation Office. Okay.

It's a big deal. That's a big grant that we are going to start working on to hopefully qualify for and um get some help paying for the pavilion playground renovation. Yeah, that's good. And then um what's the pit vehicle? I don't understand that. it. That's a question for Chief and uh DC, but it's uh I think from what I understand it's a vehicle that's got extra heavy duty bumpers on it that they can take out and do maneuvers, pit maneuvers to practice what when they hit a car in the corner and make it spin around. That's a pit. It's one of the old cars, one of the very old cars. And so we're just making something work out of it.

Oh, okay. And then also the baseball field story walk. Where exactly is it going to be at Molter and um uh yes, it's going to be east of there, east of the Liberty Lakes uh elementary school field. So the the baseball diamonds our property. The very it'd be the very south side near the trail on the side of the trail. Okay. Along along Country Vesta. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you. All right. Any other council comments for tonight?

Yeah, Madame Mayor, I'd offer kind of as a um PSA for everybody and with gracious thanks to Jen for reminding me. Um if you find yourself standing at our parks and witnessing, I'll call it vandalism, especially in the form of ebikes ripping up grass. Uh an appropriate action is a call to crime check. So, um I just want to say everybody is, you know, able to and responsive to uh understanding what's going on and and that'd be a fair thing to do. So, thanks. Right. Don't don't don't jump in front of them. Call for that. No. Uh citizen arrest.

All right. Not hearing anymore. Um we don't have any public hearings or appeals. Next up is our resolution 26-283. Kyle, buckle up here. Resolution number 26-283, a resolution of the city of Lake uh Liberty Lake, Washington approving the final plat of river crossing 2023rd edition located in a portion of the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter and a portion of the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter and a portion of parcels B the binding site plan 76-00 section 9 township 25N range 45 WN Liberty Lake Washington.

What about the file number? No, I was waiting for you to read that, too. All right. Um, well, let's let's have a motion so we can have discussion. Madame Mayor, I move resolution uh 26-283. Second. Second by council member Severs. All right. Discussion. Any questions, comments?

None. Um I'll observe uh what I recognize this as an action of our city's planning department. We are um documenting uh for um posterity the definition of more housing in our community. Uh the development the growth of our community. So this is an action of our community that we've I don't know come to really expect. Um and I just want to recognize that um it will not go on forever. Uh the wonderful and I'm going to important growth that we've got here um yeah is something that I personally value highly. uh the partners that we have in that, but we're not going to see these forever. So,

thank you. All right. There any other any questions, comments? All right. Not hearing any. Um before we go to a vote, u with resolutions, we do take public comment. So, if there's anybody in chambers or online who'd like to make a comment on this resolution specifically, no other topics, we'll entertain that. Don't everybody jump up at once? Is there anybody online who'd like to make a comment? Okay. All right. So, not hearing any public comment, we will go ahead and move to a vote. Those in favor of approving resolution 26-283, I will not read the rest. Please say I. I. Any opposed? All right. Motion passes 60. Next resolution, Kyle.

All right. resolution 26-284, a resolution of the city of Liberty Lake, Washington, providing for submission to the qualified voters of the city a proposition for the consideration of a sales and use tax of 1/10enth of 1% for the purpose of funding criminal justice services. We have a motion. U Madame Mayor, I move uh resolution 26-284. Second. We have a motion second by Council Member Severs. All right, any questions, discussion? I know um you guys talked about this uh the last meeting. Mayor Pro Tim.

Yeah. Um I would lead in the discussion to introduce this resolution as uh creating opportunity for the voters of the community uh to consider an incremental sales tax in support of public safety which it appears uh will be a choice uh between the resolution proposed by the city and the resolution proposed by a greater and I'm going to say larger entity. So, um I am supporting this strongly as creating that choice for our community. Um the voter will have the opportunity to say yes or no to what is our proposed public safety opportunity or it appears a greater uh a larger area's uh proposed public safety opportunity. So, um respectfully, uh I I leave that to the voters for their decision, but creating the opportunity for their decision is what this action is. So, I'm grateful.

Thank you. And there will be some, you know, education that comes along with it. Um, with some facts, facts and figures, no opinions from the city. Um, anybody else have any comments on this one? I do.

I agree with Prom Dunn. Um, I like very much that this aligns with uh goal number four for our um city to maintain safety and um to do that, we have to have the funds to do it. So I think this is a great opportunity at a um very reasonable cost. Hope that um the voters will be behind it too considering that it was uh almost 50% u voting that you know goal number four was the highest concern. So right that's all I have to add to that.

Right. Thank you. Anybody else? Council member Severs and then Ball. I guess more of a comment about this and sort of a reminder of some of the education we got last time for anybody listening that was not listening last time we we spoke about it. This is putting a vote on the ballot to allow the city of Liberty Lake to the sales tax versus giving more of the sales tax to the county. This is it is unlikely that this is a vote for a tax or not a tax that I that we believe strongly our citizens will get this tax increase one way or the other. It's just a matter of whether or not the revenue will stay in the city of Liberty Lake for our public safety or if it will go to the county. So, this this is where I strongly align with this that this is a good thing for the city of Liberty Lake.

We want the money to stay here, right? Y council member Maul. Yeah. And I just wanted to add that um it's important that we do educate the public that the money is going to be in our um to our benefit by doing it this way. I've already seen some negative um comments on social media. I don't talk to them, but they don't understand. You ever see positive comments on social media, Linda? Come on. I mean, really. But it's it's disturbing because we're not even, you know, it's I mean, we're just starting this and it's already like, oh my god, another tax.

There will definitely need to be a lot of outreach because it is a very confusing even to us here. I I think it can be confusing and we sit here and listen to it deal with it to to make sure people understand the difference between us the county what happens to what number of funds if if this and not that or if not this and that. So we'll definitely need to work through all those scenarios for our citizens so they can make a make the information to make their choice. Yes.

Okay. All right. Um, so, um, again, before we have a council vote, we are open to citizen comments on this resolution. So, if there's anybody in chambers, please let me know. No. And is there anybody online who'd like to make a comment on this resolution specifically? There's not. Okay. All right. So, we will take we'll take go ahead and take the council vote. Those in favor of supporting resolution 26-284, please say I. I.

Any opposed? My motion passes 6. Okay. Okay, we have no ordinance, no emergency ordinances. Uh upcoming introduction to upcoming agenda items. You've got your your list here. So, we are making some progress. So, we've got the micro mobility town hall. We're looking at the second or third week of April. We're still working that. So, quick update on that. We we've got a tentative uh date uh which is April 28th, which is the fourth Tuesday of April. and that's designed to and that could change based on tomorrow's conversation at the community engagement commission, but we want to give them ample time to be able to plan. So, that's what we're targeting right now. Perfect. Thank you. Um, we have the capital facilities plan. Yes, go ahead.

Where will the micro mobility town hall be? Uh, that's yet to be determined. Likely trail head uh rotary room.

Okay. Okay. Then next up, we'll have the 20-year capital facilities plan on the 14th, parks plan update on the 21st. Um tenative finance workshop with with Kyle that same day. Um we also have a special meeting tenative um 27th or May for a review of the draft comprehensive plan. And then we have a couple dates out there um waiting on doodle poll responses. I guess I better go check my email because I have not done that yet to um to do a special meeting to finish getting through the governance manual and obviously everybody will get um get a refresh copy make sure it's at top of your email box as to what's out what's out there um what's been done the red lines and then we can go from there. Council member Ball. Well, yeah. I had asked um um the city administrator earlier today in an email, are going to pick up where we left off, start completely over since there's new people?

I I don't Go ahead, Mark. So, I can't answer that. Um that's going to depend on how much review new council members going to want to do. And some of that is going to be um doing work in advance to get familiar with what changes were recommended through the early uh discuss earlier discussion. So I I think that's going to be dependent upon those individual council members and I would kind of expect a review of what had been re a review of what had been reviewed and kind of agreed upon. Hopefully there's no major, you know, requested changes to that and then move on. What's left would be my hope. Um here, council member Severs.

Oh, that was okay. Sounds good. All right, anybody? Okay. All right, sounds good. And then we have sign code TBD along with social media hazard um hazard mitigation risk plan and shared response to homelessness. Um so we have a full calendar of workshops through the end of April. All right. Is there any that I missed that we need to add? I don't think I heard any discussion about any additional ones tonight. No. Okay, good deal. All right, now we are back to citizen comments one more time. We'll we'll sign we'll fill out a thing for you or you can send it give it to us later. Nada, just so we have the record.

I just want to be quick, Council Member Ball. I can do better. I didn't see the map until after I sat back down just really quickly. Is that okay? Careful. But um but for those of you who can't see, we're getting a visual of where the water goes.

So the so it comes out right through here and goes across the street there and it goes through this top. You can kind of see right here. That's the outlet channel and it's really old. You can see there's a little less concrete looking there was some kind of farm here crosses spray goes here crosses across settler and then goes right along course here holding on here some place the district owns a little bit of land in here and then it like right there that gray area it's empty and then it goes under in here and can kind of out this area. So this is where the water kind of gets in the whole area just It's just usually not that much, but like this not going to probably open it at all.

And so it and then some years it kind of floods where the uh the trail is right in uh right in this area right in here. Sometimes you'll see a cone right here, you know, where there and this is the kind of flat area you see. Can you guys all see this on that side? Well, we'll do we'll do a tour of the other map at the end of the meeting. I just expect your session. I'll do this after, but So, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.

All right. So, if there are no citizen comments online, not hearing any. Okay. And none here. Um, so we um so we do have an executive session. Um, and so yeah, so we're good on time. So have executive session for our 42.301C real estate transaction. Um, so we will um, Mayor Part call you on your um, so loop you in. Um, you're familiar with the topic. you'll know what it is once we start once we start the meeting. Um so we will council will adjourn to the room next door um 15 minutes. So we'll expect let's say 8:05 for return. Um that gives us some transition time to get in there and um if you guys need to take a quick bio break but we will council will convene there. We will not make any decisions when we come out where there's no further business. So we will adjourn when we come out of the meeting. So thanks everybody for being here. All right, everybody. It is 8:05. As promised, we're out of executive session. There's no further business before the council, so we will adjourn at 8:05. Have a great evening. Go Zags.