City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, recording in process. All right, welcome everybody to our Tuesday, July 7th, 2025 City Council meeting. I hope everybody had an amazing Fourth of July. I know our events were just spectacular here and we'll get to that later in the agenda. So as everybody knows, we are live here in person in City Hall and broadcasting by Zoom. We will start with our invocation given by Mayor Pro Tem Dunn, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Please join us.

Father in heaven, we are grateful to be here together to inspire us, please, to listen and to act in the interests of our community today, tomorrow, and into the future. Amen.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I can call the meeting to order. Start with our roll call. Council Member Darrow. Here. Council Member Sievers.

Present.

Council Member Ball. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Dunn.

Happy to be here.

Council Member Klingler. Here. Council Member Kurtz. Here. Council Member Fisher. Here. All right. All present and accounted for. All right. Always great to start that way. All right. Agenda approval. I know we have one item. We'll look for a motion to remove the executive session.

I move the removal of item 20, the executive session for tonight.

Second. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? It's just not needed tonight. Please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Are there any other requests for changes to the agenda? All right. Move to amend.

Madam Mayor, I move the agenda as amended.

Perfect. We have a second. Motion is seconded by Council Member Siebers. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? All right. Motion passes 7-0. All right. Moving right along. We are up to citizen comments. So we have three already on the books. If there's anybody here in the council chambers who'd like to make a citizen comment, we have these white half sheets. by the door please fill one out and we do now ask for contact information in case we need to follow up and please note if you're a city resident or not if you want to make a comment online please send a note to our meeting host through the chat feature and we will hit you up after the in-person comments and then at the end if there are any written comments to acknowledge i don't believe there are but i will check again We will get to those. So first up, Vicki Markison, and I'll remind everybody the time limit is three minutes. It's a truly citizen comment. There's no back and forth with the council, but if we do need to follow up with you, we will.

Okay. Welcome. Can you hear me? We can. Great. Well, good evening, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Vicki Markison. I'm a resident of Garden Ridge, and I'm the HOA Board President of the Meadowood Homeowners Association, and our association represents about 4,000 Liberty Lake residents. I'm speaking tonight regarding a recent code violation our HOA received for a community sign that's located at North Liberty Lake Road and East Settler Drive. The Gardens Meadows sign has been a permanent and welcoming fixture of our neighborhood for over 26 years. It was safely installed long before Liberty Lake officially incorporated in August of 2001. Because it predates the city, it was originally approved and permitted under the Spokane County signage guidelines in place at that time. within the public right-of-way, this infrastructure layout has existed without incident for over two decades. The code language being enforced has been the same since 2005, when the original Liberty Lake sign code was adopted. Upon a quick review, I easily found, and I do have examples if you're interested, that were installed based after 2005. right-of-way today. In many cities, these signs are closer to the roadway than up until now. Code interpretation sort of instills displacement. I don't know why this interpretation has changed, but treating this specific sign differently, I think there are different precedents in businesses across the entire city.

Thank you.

I'll pipe up and share some stories because when council comments comes up, I'm putting a nickel in it tonight. So I've got a lot of things to share. So first and foremost, and if I stand up, I'm sorry.

Yeah, I may have to cut you off if we get this fixed.

So anyway, first and foremost, our Liberty Lake Rotary Club got to tour the spokesman review. And ladies and gentlemen, we were behind this clock. I do not. 47 OSHA not approved, very dangerous steps. And we were up there.

Nice.

And I can tell, tell me when to shut up.

Are we, we're going to test it again to test, test, test.

My name is Tisha Goodman and I'm a resident of the Meadowood Homeowners Association and the general manager of Rockwood Property Management. As a follow-up to Vicki's statement, I'm here to share that our team has been working with the Meadowood Board of Directors to repair the garden signs since 2021. On June 16th, we received a violation notice indicating that the sign was in violation of the city code. On June 23rd, we met with city administrative staff to discuss options for moving forward. During that meeting, I was surprised by the hostility we encountered from the city administrator and his unwillingness to answer basic questions. When I asked why the garden sign didn't meet code, his answer was because it doesn't. It was at that point that I realized the city administrator was not attending our meeting to help us find a path forward. After he left the meeting, the code enforcement officer and associate planner were helpful in providing information about the issues related to freestanding signs. We believe there is an easy remedy to this issue and plan to present those options to the Meadowood Board of Directors at their July 15th board meeting. That leaves us with the issue of the sign being in the public right-of-way. Under City Article 10-5C, Nonconforming Uses and Development, this sign is permitted as a legacy sign. The code allows signs to be repaired and replaced as necessary if they do not increase the nonconformity. In this case, the sign is the same size, it's in the same location, and has not moved closer to the road. The code also states that when full compliance is impractical, the city may allow a deviation at the zoning administrator's discretion. I'm confused and disappointed that this information wasn't offered as a solution when we met with the city administrative staff. The violation notice provides 30 days to remedy and we ask for additional time. On June 29th, we received an email from the community development director stating that no additional time would be granted and the sign needs to be removed by July 16th. We respectfully ask council to direct city staff to cease enforcement actions related to the right-of-way violation and to provide us with additional time to remedy the violation related to the unconcealed poll supports. Thank you for your time.

Next up, Jim Frank. Welcome.

Thank you. I'm Jim Frank with Greenstone Corporation. And we're the ones that installed this sign in 2007. We think neighborhood identification signs are important aspect of the community, helps give people direction, helps create a sense of identity for neighborhoods. So we install signs. At the time that this was installed, as Mrs. Goodman said, this was a permitted sign under the code that was in existence at the time with Spokane County. This is kind of a unique situation because the road right of way is quite wide there. It abuts up against the drainage easement that drains the lake. And then beyond that, you go on to private property. So there's no place for this sign if it's not located on the road right of way because the next spot is the drainage easement and then private property. So there's no place for the sign other than being in the road right of way. It's also 30 feet away from the road, so it's much further away from the road right-of-way than most signs are. A typical road right-of-way would be a six-foot planting strip and then a six-foot sidewalk, so the right-of-way would end just on the back side of the sidewalk, so it would typically be 12 feet from the road. This is 29 feet away from the road, so it's much further away from the road than most signs are located. I want to read from you the code allows John Potter, A simple solution to this, and I hope and direct some comments to the mayor, because the mayor is the one person is in this room that can resolve this problem. John Potter, The code require this is from your code, the code cannot provide standards to fit every potential development situation the city's very geography and complexities of land development require flexibility. So the code recognizes that you need flexibility. And then in the section on nonconforming development, where it is determined that implementation of the current code is impractical, the applicability of the code requirements shall be determined by the zoning administrator or their designee. So that gives you the authority in situations as this, where there is no practical solution to simply approve the sign as it is. They didn't move it closer to the road. It's not larger than what it was. They did not increase the nonconformity. So honestly, Mayor, I ask that you simply direct your staff discontinue the enforcement action and allow the sign to be where they placed it. Thank you.

I appreciate everybody's feedback. I would ask Sean to get with me afterwards to just clarify if I have that authority or not. But unlike when we normally don't do responses to citizen comments, I would like State Administrator McAvoy to kind of just give a couple high-level bullets as to maybe how we got here and what we're trying to do. And then we'll circle up.

Sure, just for the, and thank you, Mayor, for the opportunity. Just for clarification for the council's benefit and then the viewing public. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to know every detail of every conversation that occurred that led to here. What I can tell you is that the sign in question, as you've heard, is out on the East Settler Liberty Lake Road intersection thereabouts. And as has been described, the sign predates the city's incorporation in some way, but it is in a status that is called legal nonconforming, or I should say it was in a status called legal nonconforming. There was some improvements made to the sign that constituted more than 50% of the signs area and other variables that go into determining what requires a code review and a permit. And so those improvements were made without a permit being applied for or issued. And so the sign now currently sits in a non-legal, non-conforming status. And so the meeting that was described was, what I understood, was specifically called to try to find an alternative solution. And so the city went into the meeting proposing an alternative solution, which was to relocate the sign onto city-owned property that's adjacent to the current sign location and enter into an easement agreement that would resolve all of the code concerns. Now, I realize that's not necessarily the most ideal outcome that the applicant was looking for, but that is a resolution that we felt was viable and one that we were willing to work in partnership with. um with the homeowners association to carry out and and i'll say just from the standpoint of the conversation if anything i said in there was interpreted as hostile i apologize for that that was certainly not the intent we were i at least i thought was we were trying to work together to find a a resolution that we could both live with and so that was that was what we were trying to do um and and that offer still stands um however As has been described. I mean, the council has the authority to staff's role in this is executing policy that the council has put in place. The development code is a policy. So the council has the discretion and the authority to change the policy. And it may consider that now I would. further advise the council to consider any unintended consequences of making policy changes on the fly. But the council has the discretion and the authority to change a policy and instruct staff to carry out the new policy. And so if there are any questions, I'll be happy to answer those. But at a summary level, that's essentially where we are.

And we obviously, we don't have any action items on the agenda tonight for this. So this would have to be at the next meeting if there's any action. Yes. House Member Ball.

Can I make a comment?

Sure. Okay. We're not going to take this. We're still in citizen comments. We're not going to go real long.

Yeah. I just want to say as a longtime homeowner in Meadowood, and I was on the board for a short time, I was aware of this sign being replaced. The old one was crumbling and was in very bad shape. And it took several years to get this designed, fabricated, took a long time to get a fabricator. I wasn't on the board at the time the decision was made, you know, to, but it is a very beautiful new sign and they take care of, or I should say Meadowood was taking care of the landscaping around the old crumbling one. And so I think they intend to do that still. So, I mean, that's kind of a nice perk. So I don't know. It's a beautiful sign. You have to see it.

Well, we don't have a workshop scheduled. So if we can maybe just add this to the next meeting with a potential action, we'll do talk about that we just you know need it or if somebody wants to entertain a motion to ask for that to be put on the next agenda to have a workshop and an action that's not my purview so does somebody want to make that mayor yes i'll i'll make the motion to put that on our next agenda and workshop for council discussion thank you okay all in favor

Any opposed?

Okay. Council Member Kurtz.

One question, though. They had 30 days to cure it. Does the deadline extend past our next workshop? Because I think that would be my concern that it won't be done. We are not levying any fines. I would assume that this would put pause.

I would direct staff to do that.

Okay, so that staff has been directed to press pause on enforcement. So that will last through the next workshop.

Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have appointments.

Lynn, there you are.

You snuck in in the back. We have the appointment of Catherine Lynn Atkins to the four committee for the public safety sales tax ballot measure. So great advocate for everything city. Lynn is disappointed that we didn't have, well, glad we didn't have any opposing applicants, which was great. But it is always good to hear another side of things. You know, we're not all here to be in agreement. We need to hear different people's viewpoints, but really glad Lynn stepped up Um, and so I will take it unless you want to say something, Lynn, you want to, you know, say any words about why you're interested in doing this, or do you want to stay where you are? Okay. All right. I just want to give you the opportunity. So with that, I will take a motion to confirm my appointment to the floor committee.

Move to approve. And a second.

Okay. We have a motion by Council Member Sievers and a second by Mayor Pro Tem. Any comments before we go to a vote?

Did no one else volunteer to be on the vote?

Good grief. I had somebody interested, but she's got some family with health issues. So she declined to apply. Okay. You're it, Lynn.

Thank you. Thank you for your service.

Yes. All right. So all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Motion passes 7-0. Welcome. I'm sure you'll be working hard. When is the deadline for that, Kyle?

Deadline is August 4th.

I couldn't hear you.

A deadline for the submission.

Can you hear me? August 4th. Can't hear you, Kyle. No, it's going the other way.

How about now?

Nope. No, it's coming out on somebody's computer. All right. Hold on. All right. Well, just give me a thumbs up if it's a couple of days before the primary.

That's a thumbs up, which is in August.

All right. That works. Sign language. All right. Next up, we have a presentation. STA Proposition 1. Welcome, Carl. Good to see you as always.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, members of the city council. I'm Carl Otterstrom, the CEO of Spokane Transit, your public transportation provider in Liberty Lake. I'm here on behalf of STA and the board to present to you the information on the STA Proposition 1, which is a ballot proposition on the August primary election. And this is to maintain and enhance public transportation in our region. Go to the next slide. Just for context, as your public transportation provider, we are a agency, like a school district, with a board comprised of elected officials appointed by their jurisdictions, including Councilmember Dunn. And here's our mission statement and vision statement. And our vision statement is ambitious, connecting everyone to opportunity. As we see our role in this community, there's so many opportunities for people to benefit their lives through public transportation and all the ways that we can serve them. Next slide. This is our geographic boundary. So it comprises seven cities and parts of unincorporated Spokane County. It's about 85% of the county population, but only about 12 and a half percent of the land mass. So it's very much the urban areas with extensions out to Cheney and Medical Lake. Next slide. So August 4 primary election will have this proposition one on it to renew an existing sales tax that funds public transit. This tax was first approved in 2016 two tenths of a cent and is set to expire in December of 2028 slide. So this is not a new tax, it's a renewal. So this is already part of the sales tax in the region. Does not increase the rate above the amount voters approved previously. If renewed, the existing rate would continue to support public transit unless we do it again in 20 years, so 2048. So two cents on a $10 purchase. And most of this is maintaining the existing service level, but there's also a portion that goes towards enhancements. Next slide. So over the past decade, as part of the 2016 measure, STA committed to a number of investments to expand public transportation throughout our region. 27 specific projects were identified, 26 of those have been delivered or just about to be finished in delivery. One of them outstanding is connecting service on a pilot basis to Idaho. Cooney County Commissioners declined to explore that further. We've added 35% more service. In fact, we had committed a 25% increase, so more than expected. City Line Bus Rapid Transit, a main project in downtown Spokane, was $14 million under budget. Most of that savings goes to the U.S. taxpayer, so we were able to secure federal funding, which we will be ultimately returning. And we've built new transit centers. We secured over $130 million, including those federal dollars for city line. And STN has no debt. And when you have no debt for a very long time, you're in a better position than otherwise. And it gives us flexibility in saving for projects and delivering on those projects at a cost much below what you would pay with debt financing. Next slide. So how would this money be used again to maintain service? This includes that 35% increase in service levels and then also to deliver on a new strategic plan called Connect 2035. Next slide. Connect 2035 was developed, actually began in 2021 with a recognition that STA as it weathered COVID-19 was in a position to do more investment in transit And before we committed anything on those investments, we asked the community, do you want more transit? We can offer more transit, more investments without increasing taxes. And people overwhelmingly said yes, as we did our outreach. And the board developed three goals to really frame this strategic plan. Elevate the customer experience, lead and collaborate with community partners to enhance the quality of life in our region, and strengthen our capacity to anticipate and respond to the demands of the region. Next slide. So this plan not only has ambitious goals and a vision, it also has specific initiatives and projects outlined over a 10-year period to deliver, most of those in the first six years. So each of these goals, these are examples from the plan. There's actually about 40 projects. But for presentation and brevity's sake and information that we're providing, we're highlighting these. People can read the full plan online. So we have another bus rapid transit project in North Spokane, as well as other high performance transit investments on Wellesley route, which connects two community colleges, two high schools and a mall. The bus rapid transit project, we actually have already lined up most of the federal state funding, the federal funding, $82 million that the Trump administration has allocated to this project, just subject to us being able to commit to its ongoing operation. The bus stop upgrades, mobility on demand, this is a project that's specific actually to Liberty Lake. It's now, we've announced the name of STA Link. We have awarded a contract to a provider. This will be operated with vans and an app. And you living off of Settler Drive, far from a bus stop today, would be able to hail a ride, much like an Uber or Lyft, But it's not taking you to the airport. It's taking you to the park and ride where you can catch a bus to go the rest of the way. It'll be integrated with our Connect card system. So you pay a fare once, and that's your transfer to the rest of the bus network. So the first pilot projects will launch in Latah Valley this September, this fall, and North Spokane Valley. And then Liberty Lake is also part of that. So basically, everything south of here, south and east, and then a portion of the north side of town. And that area, these are pilots with the opportunity to expand and sustain long term as we measure their success. A transit ambassador program. This is something we launched last year. So we've already started implementing this plan. This would be to sustain that program. It's been very well received. These are employees who ride the bus basically randomly throughout the day. They track behavior issues and also can communicate and and coach our customers on how to ride the bus well in terms of their etiquette, paying their fare, how to really maintain the rules of conduct. And it's been very successful, both from our riders' perspective and the coach operators. Next slide. So leading collaborate with community partners. So we have a new past program called the opportunity fair and individuals. Currently it's open to individuals in either spoken housing authority housing, or that have SNAP benefits. We're looking to expand that to other low-income populations. They get a 50% discount on their fare. As a pilot program, we're getting a lot of people asking about this. And sometimes we learn that they're already eligible for a discounted fare, like our senior fare discount, which is actually federally required. And so some of these things, we're finding that it's a gateway to help people get the right fare program that meets their needs. Looking to support more housing near transit. So partnering with developers in attracting and investing in perhaps property SDA owns or adjacent areas to invest in more housing access and then pass access to work with event organizers, venues to integrate transit passes into event tickets. And then just working with businesses in general and accessing more transit for their employees and then expanding EV charging at Ark and Ryde locations like we've done recently in Liberty Lake with Avista, next slide. strengthen our capacity. So one of our key objectives is strategic objectives of the board is to really just support our employee workforce. This was developed in 2022 when STA was struggling to keep up with people finding other jobs because a lot of people were attracting our employees to drive garbage trucks or drive for Amazon. And there's a recognition that it's not easy to be a bus driver. You've got a schedule to maintain. You've got passengers on board. You know, there's not always a bathroom where there should be a bathroom. And so investing in that infrastructure for them, but also our workforce development overall. We've also invested in telematics on all our vehicles. This is improving our safety and something that just in the last couple of months has had dramatic improvements. And then creating greater visibility into our performance data. Next slide. So all of this is on a website, staconnect2035.com. And like we did in 2016, we built a website, stmovingforward.com. You can look at all the Sean SeLegue, Ph.D.: Progress we made and an accountability of what we said in 2016 and what we delivered the same idea is is on this website with the goals, each of those that has the projects listed under there and over time, the progress of those projects will be identified. Next slide. This is a table from our public information, a brochure that we created. Basically, if the tax passes or fails, if it passes, tax maintains the current level funded through 2048. We maintain existing service. We deliver on the projects in the plan. We're able to secure the federal match on different things and maintain competitiveness. Something to note, some of our state grants are conditioned on STA maintaining its level of sales tax collection. So if STA drops its sales tax levels that eliminates state grants that we get, including the state grant we get for Youth Ride Free. If not renewed, the sales tax would expire at the end of 2028. It's not this year. One of the reasons the board went out early was to ensure that we can begin delivery of some of these major projects and also secure grant options. We would lose about $30 million a year. We would need to reduce service eventually, not immediately. Again, this is 2028 would be when it expires. Projects would be scaled back and not delivered. So the overall STA Connect 2035 would have to be revisited. And that includes losing that state grant, about $12.5 million a year between special needs transportation and a transit support grant, which the condition of that grant is the youth ride free program. and again the maintenance of the sales tax rate. We'd also not be able to deliver or receive the $82 million in a federal grant for Division Street BRT. Next slide. So what about STA's reserves? This is, again, this is really, the reserves is what was impetus to developing a plan. In 2021, STA recognized that we were in a financial position we didn't expect before. COVID dollars were very helpful, but yet they set us up for opportunity to grow and invest in the community. And so those, Deliver on the plan. They also, the board sets aside a 15% operating reserve to deal with any unexpected turbulence when it comes to federal funds or state funds or local sales tax. And reserves are not a good source of ongoing operations, right? They're a good source for strategic investments and risk management. As far as the two-tenths, that is where we're able to maintain service levels, add service as an ongoing expenditure and helps again qualify us for grants. I'm sure you're familiar with just securing funding through the state and local partners. You have to have local match and the ability to maintain whatever asset you're building. Next slide. So I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. And we're happy to make any other presentations around your town. We've done a number around the region. But thank you for your attention and for what you do for this community in Liberty Lake and your model of government for others to follow.

All right. I think we had Councilmember Ball first, then Councilmember Fisher.

So when will this mobility on demand arrive to Liberty Lake?

The current plan has it set for 2028. I will note that we accelerated the first launch. We were going to do the first batch in 2027. And so there's an opportunity as we get settled with that to explore potentially doing that second round of earlier as well. So it could be as early as next year at this point, but commitment is 2028, no later than.

Okay. And then 82 million per division something. What was that?

Bus rapid transit. So this is an investment like the purple buses on city line. So division street is one of our busiest routes. And this is to enhance that corridor. improve the speed and reliability of buses on that. Working with the federal government, we project a 40% increase of ridership just in that corridor. And the city of Spokane and Spokane County are working on a transit-oriented development plan, looking at notes along that corridor to increase housing opportunity, commercial investments so that more people have access to transit, but also the city has opportunities for reinvestment. And so at this point, most of the project expenses would be covered by the state and federal government.

Thank you. Councilmember Fischer.

If I could offer in a compliment, bus rapid transit as an interpretation. BRT means not having to know the schedule to know the bus will arrive. To put it simply, right now city line is 10 minutes in frequency or 7 to 10? 7 to 10, yeah. So the concept is, yeah. So the concept is to have a place where you can go, where you can know, I'm not going to have to wait more than 10 minutes at any time to get a bus from that location. That's what we're targeting. BRT.

Thank you. Carl, I don't know if you remember me, but I remember you.

I remember you.

I remember you. So I have known Carl since he was a very young man and he had just started off his career with STA. And so I just want to say how proud I am to see you being CEO of STA. And it's so good that our paths have crossed again. So yeah, you are pretty green. Yes, thank you, Council Member. Very congratulations, Carl.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Before we get back, Council Member Klingler.

I just quickly looked it up. So back in 2016, it looks like it passed with a 55% margin in Spokane in general and only by 51% or under 51% in Liberty Lake and Spokane Valley. So I'm just curious, how do you feel about it passing? Are you pretty confident that people are going to vote yes?

You know, it's ultimately up to voters. And that's something I think the board, one of the other things, the timing the board has considered is whether they return, change any conditions or projects, et cetera, if it doesn't pass. You know, that's ultimately up to voters. But I think One of the interesting things here, because we've introduced this new avenue of the STA length and mobility on demand, we have an opportunity for more people to see that direct value. Certainly anyone who drives on the freeway or drives on a major arterials gets value from other people riding that bus and not being in their way, or you derive value from the store clerk or the Huntwood employee who takes the bus here and provides, you know, economic value to the city of Liberty Lake. But on a personal level, I think a lot of people see that, what does it mean to me? And the idea that, hey, I live in a neighborhood that now has direct transit access, even though it doesn't mean a 40-foot bus lumbering down my residential street, I could still have transit access. And that's something we haven't been able to offer before. And so hopefully- You know, the awareness of that helps people, again, talk to voters, but just look at that through a new lens.

Same as by your CEO because that was a perfect transition. My next question, which was the type of service level for the mobility on demand. Will people that are in wheelchairs and have other kind of limited mobility be able to access that to get the ride over there to the main hub?

That's great. Yeah. So, so initially with the launch this year, they will not be ADA accessible vehicles. But part of the pilot will expand to an ADA accessible vehicle. So individuals who are beyond paratransit access today, and most of the city of Liberty is covered by paratransit, but not all of it. So those people in the corners would also have a vehicle. Part of their account, they would say, hey, I need a lift-equipped van. And then that would trigger, you know, the algorithm would know what driver needs to come. Thank you.

All right, Pullman. I have a question. Back to Dan.

Shane, if you could get the slide deck up, go back to building capacity. If you got a question.

Oh, I was curious. Do you guys have like in Seattle, do you have the Orca card? Do you have a, I don't know, chipmunk card or something?

We're not as clever, but it's called Connect. Some people wish we called it Marmot or something, but it's a Connect card and it's either in a card like that, just like Councilmember Dunn has. There's also an eConnect card, which lives on your phone and is through a QR code. We also accept everything except American Express for debit or credit. So you can get on, you know, this is really handy. Bloomsday, a lot of people showed up and just use their credit card, which they, you know, they had. The only thing they had with them was their credit card for buying treats afterwards. And they can use that to get on the bus.

And you just loan whatever on it.

You can load value on it. You can have it auto load, you know, $10 or whatever. And the great thing, when we launched that in 2022, we launched it with fair cap. So someone doesn't need to put down $60 for a monthly pass all at once. They can load money throughout the month and it will still cap as if they bought a monthly pass. So we never charge you more than $4 a day or $60 a month, irrespective of how many times you ride. Go ahead, Dan.

I love this slide, Carl, because as a testament to the agency and the enduring workforce, this operator has been accident-free for how long? Over 40 years, 42 years.

I'm sorry, do you remember her name?

This is great. Claudia Davis. She is just epic as an operator for STA.

I'm older than her career at STA by a couple months.

There's no other questions. There's two things. So one thing I will throw out there, Carl, is an option. We have had the Central Valley School District, the board at our farmer's market tent to only talk facts, obviously, about any bond issues. So I will throw out that opportunity to you if you want to have somebody get with me on the schedule be happy to share the booth again you know we all know the the rules about you know city property and all that stuff but if you're sharing the facts um happy happy to offer that out to you to talk with our local residents about this and also um Oh, and I would maybe look at the council and we can get back. We can do this more when we get to our future agenda items. But I know there's been controversy in the past whether or not the council should or shouldn't support a bond measure or some sort of tax measure. I would like you guys to consider a quick workshop because I know this is coming up pretty quick on whether or not you guys want to do a resolution to support this. unless you want to tell me now, yeah, put a resolution on there, then we can debate it and talk about it at the next meeting. So if I get head nods enough so we can have enough head nods, okay, we'll get a resolution put together and we can have the discussion and then a vote then. No promises, but we will try to get a resolution.

Thank you, Mary. Thank you, members of the council.

All right. Good to see you, Carl. All right. Okay. Reports and inquiries. I know there's a lot to talk about today, so I would respectfully ask, and I will do the same, keep things short. I know we have a lot of AWC sessions that four of us attended. Maybe instead of getting into the details of those, please everybody know that we have access to the slides. that were presented at each of those breakout sessions. So just a quick blurb, high level, about what the session was about that we went to. And then if anybody's interested in those slides, we can work on getting you those slides, if that's OK for everybody.

I actually had a request for Council Member Fischer. She wanted to go first and then we can come around. Okay. So here's my quarter tonight. First, thank you to Brad and Marilyn for helping me set up the city booth when I had the city booth. I had not ever set it up before and I had no clue what I was doing, but Brad just stepped right up, jumped in and helped me do it. So that was wonderful. The farmer's market booth. Brad Hamlet. Brad Hamlet. Yes. Yes. Let's see what else we got. Oh, and Council Member Ball got there and she kind of saw that I didn't know what I was doing. And so she helped me out. She kind of schooled me how to do the booth. So I got that down. I'm good. And then the other thing I want to say is a big shout out to Officer Darren, because so many people came to the booth and was talking about micro mobility. And we saw it's all over the place. It's quite a little show we do. And so anytime someone pointed to that, I was, Officer Darren, because he was in the rotary booth right next to me. So he worked overtime that day, just in case you know. So yeah, he was just happy anytime, stepped up. Thank you, Deputy Chief. So the other thing I want to talk about, that micromobility, which was very surprising. I got 99% positive. Good. And there were, you know, the dudes that weren't positive were the dudes that are riding them. But, you know, it was I was actually very surprised. Very, very surprised. Founders and fireworks. Oh, my word. Thank you to everybody that I mean, talk about showcasing this city. I am just blown away. And I'm so proud. Rich and I worked when we worked another booth that whole day. We were there all day. So Rotary, we were in charge of the color guard. Thank you, my husband. Here's the biggie. A huge, and I just can't say it, ginormous thank you to staff and the committee and the citizens that worked on that event. Bam. We put our mark on Rotary. eastern washington so last thing that what i love the most this is what i love about farmer's market and pick me pick me always see farmer's market is everyone's so happy and there was endless laughter from everyone having so much fun and i got to hold some really cute babies the rock garden let's talk about that The rock garden was a ginormous hit. And so many people were there, talked about the gold and the rock garden and everything. And so the kids actually painted rocks and put rocks back in the garden. Oh, and I want to say Lynn. So this is my tattoo. This is my tattoo. Lynn, this is for you. Lynn undoubtedly tattooed every child from here to the Mason-Dixon line. She had a line out that booth and she was a tattooed person. Weren't you, Lynn? Yeah, you were.

I applied so for the police department as well. Yeah.

So thank you for my two cents. I appreciate it. Thank you. Oh, can I just say one more thing? Spokesman Review Tour. They do tours to the public. And Rotary, we got to do a tour. I was behind this clock on the clock tower. The clock tower. We were up there. I'm not going to say what kind of steps we took. I'm not going to say how many curves we took. And I'm not going to say if it's safe or not. But anyway. So this is what they call. We actually robbed. Hurley lets everyone in anytime you want to go there. That door is wide open to groups, to Girl Scouts, whatever. It's us if we want to take a field trip. So this is what they call a budget. Well, to me, this is a budget. But what this is, is they're budgeting their time. on what story goes where and how that story goes. And so that day we got to hear how this paper must stand up here. Sorry. You can tell I'm just really jazzed how this paper was laid out. Exactly. We got to hear about it. And so the next day, you know, he did, he's not, he's an online reader.

I'm a paper reader. And we were racing out to drive by, so you get first.

So please, please tell him from your Liberty Lake book tour. It is history in the making. And one more thing. We are one of the three newspapers in the United States that has every single article ever printed in ginormous big books that would fill up two semi loads. That's pretty cool.

Yeah.

So I'm done.

Thank you. Okay. All right. Who is next? I think Rick, you're next.

Yeah. It's hard to follow that at and all of the effusing. Yeah. But all of it. Great. I was one of the council members. This is my first time attending the Association of Washington City's conferences. It was a very impressive event to see all the different cities there. And the one big takeaway, you know, there's a lot of individual things that I could talk about from sessions. It was just a sense of gratitude for our city and not to sound too mushy or anything, but I was included in some small groups and they range from Four hundred citizens all the way up to twenty five hundred. I was in the wrong group, by the way. Small cities. We are not anymore because I was left to my own devices. Yeah. So anyway, it was very informative because I went in there and they get around to me. I introduced myself. How many citizens? Yeah. Nobody told me to leave the room, but just listening to the things that they've had to go through entire, you know. executive branch being overturned and having to leave because of scandals and things like that. And I know that citizens are sometimes not always happy with decisions, they're not always happy with what happens, but we have so much resources. We have so many dedicated citizens and staff that I was just so proud to be there as a representative of Liberty Lake. I will never, ever take anything for granted again. It's just, you know, thank you, lucky stars, and be grateful. That's what I have to say. Thank you.

All right, Council Member Ball. So I was also at the conference of the association of Washington cities and I attended a lot of different, um, events, but I was very impressed with the tour that the mayor and, um, where are you? Oh, council member Darrow and I went on the tour of the Kaiser aluminum plant.

The one in the Valley.

Yeah. Now I was expecting, I don't know what I was expecting, you know, polluting bad guys or something. And, um, Quite the contrary. They are very conscientious about what they're doing in there. And it looks terrible on the outside. When you drive by it, it looks awful, but it's all state of the art inside. It was a hot day and it was hot in there as we went through on golf carts and there's stuff, you know, welding and fire and whatnot. But what really impressed me was that plant's 80 years old. So at some point they discovered that PCBs were used in the olden days. And it was under the building. And so they had to figure out a way to clean that so it didn't get into the aquifer, which is also under the building. So these guys are incredible, just incredible. They got hold of a white paper from China. This is what I remember. I think it was Australia. No, it was China. I remember that. And wasn't it China? Yeah. No.

It was New Zealand or Australia. I can't remember. But it doesn't matter. Whatever.

Anyway, they're engineers. One of them is an environmental engineer. And they figured out that by running this polluted water through... Oh, God.

Hydrogen peroxide and UV light.

Hydrogen peroxide and then ultraviolet light, it cleaned it to 97%.

Yeah, it destroyed it. It just didn't take it out, and then you're left having to dispose of it. It destroyed it.

It destroyed it. Mind-blowing. And this is the only facility like this in the entire world because it's the only place where anything like that's needed because with all this, everything running under this 65-acre building. And, I mean, these guys and that little building, this was in was small, like a quarter of the size of this room. It is insane what they did. So, I mean, hats off to those guys. They are brilliant. So that just, that was very interesting to me. Also the guy that was our keynote speaker, the book, and I'm reading Mark's copy right now. You guys should all try to, I'm sorry, Mark, I've only gotten three chapters read. Are you in a hurry to get it back?

No.

Okay. All right. So anyway, but it's called 13 Ways to Kill Your City or something like that.

I'd like to, if we could, get everybody a copy of it. We can find a place in the budget and we're allowed to do that.

Yeah, that'd be cool because I want to highlight stuff, but it's your book. So anyway, that was very cool too. And also, oh, on the weekend's activities at the park, fire... Founders and Fireworks. Oh my God, I was stunned by the statues by Peter, let's see, Rolf's brother, yes, Gessinger. He's going to do two every year of the original carousel critters from the carousel that was once on the lake. It was a big surprise. They're fabulous. If you didn't go Saturday, I was just like amazed how good they are. So there will then should be all 10 of them there. And it was so cool. That was my favorite part besides trying to get you in the dunk tank. But anyway, oh, and also the farmer's market. I know it's been a while since we met, but the weekend of the garage sale, it was actually busier than I thought it would be. And the weekend before this last one, it was busier than I thought it would be too. It's pretty busy. So anyway, things seem to be going well there. And I guess that's all I had to say for now. Okay. Council Member Darrell.

I also went to the Association of Washington Cities event, which was great. I did a lot of boring and wonderful sessions on budgeting and how cities can use bonds and touching a little bit on the bond market. An interesting one on autonomous cars, and is your city ready for autonomous cars? A security session, the keynote was great, and I'm looking forward to reading the book as well. um the state of the economy and then i did a little bit of a breakout for the um wasselli um collaborative elected leaders um on during that event and then also started our first day and that was a it was a great opportunity to really sit down and spend some extra time with people i had just seen for a few days and really get to know people and realize that um You know, if you really if you really see that people have the best intent, they really do. And you can kind of learn to listen to them a little bit differently and work together. You can really accomplish great things. So that was that was really exciting. And then Fourth of July was awesome. I was in the community band, which is which. Just so fun. And we guys have gotten so good. We've gotten so big. We've gotten so many kids on recorders and trying to step on them. And we had a color guard and cheerleaders and just, I don't know for sure, but I would imagine it was probably the biggest golf cart parade, certainly in a while, if not ever. Yeah. Um, it, it was huge. Um, I went through at the beginning with the band came all the way around and my husband was in a golf cart with my son at the end of the parade. I got in, got a ride for the rest of it. Um, they were still, they hadn't even gone yet. Uh, so that was super cool and a lot of happy faces there. And I just think it was a really wonderful representation of our community, even if the, you know, the line, you know, for the city, it still was Liberty Lake as a community. It was, it was really special and that carried over right to the park and And I ended it with fireworks from my driveway. Being able to see them at the school is an awesome show. And I'm really appreciative of everyone who stepped up and was a part of that. And a special shout out to our police department. We're a really good, really good sports in the dunk tank. And also answering lots of little kid questions about being in the police department, including have you ever been on cops?

No way.

No way. All right, anybody else? Mayor Pro Temp.

I'll recapitulate. A hearty thanks to the staff, specifically on the 4th of July event. I'll say with great earnest, it is a public-private partnership. There are a ton of volunteer agencies that get out there to be part of this, but it really is held together, and I'm going to say held up by the work of the staff, and I'm so grateful. Also, Friday was the first night of our Summer Festival of Films, Pavilion Park, and it was great to see the kids in the park. In fact, I'd share when I'm standing there selling Mike and Ike's and popcorn And I look out at the 25, 50 people out looking for more popcorn. I would say most of them, if not all of them were under 19. So that we've created something in our community for our kids to do safely on a Friday night to me is an achievement. So a lot of fun.

Great. Anybody else? Council Member Kurtz. And I just wanted to echo probably with less enthusiasm than everybody else because it's hard to match that level. But the Founders and Fireworks was amazing. We had a great time. We weren't there as long as some of the rest of you guys were there that day. But the golf cart parade was super awesome. And I know that there's a lot of organization that the city, but also volunteer groups do for that. We were watching the fireworks in the elementary school and like my 11-year-old literally jumped back at the last one. like, Oh my God, like it looked like it was going to explode. It was, it was, it was really great. So, um, and then I'm just also really grateful for the positive energy that's here tonight. Um, I think that the opportunities that everybody's had to go to AWC events and learn more about different cities and, um, different things that we could bring to our city and things that different people are doing gives really good ideas. And so, um, I'm just thankful that we have that opportunity in the budgeting process to allow for people to go to those things and bring those ideas back. So glad you all went. Anybody else?

I just wanted to add to the boat parade was cute too. I don't think it was as good as the last couple of years, but it was fun. I always enjoy that because they're goofy, you know, so anyway.

All right, I'll jump in. I'll make my comments as quick as I can. So yeah, I had the honor again for I think the fifth year or so in a row of emceeing and kicking off both the boat parade and the golf cart parade. And so I was really excited with the boat parade to see a boat of Savannah bananas. Those of you who aren't familiar with the fun baseball league that is really taking the country by storm, there was a pontoon boat full of people dressed up as some of the Savannah Bananas. Now there was some scantily clad ones with some not so proper dance moves, but they were entertaining. Awesome. golf cart parade great great as usual great great to see uh stan endlessly challenged challenged long-standing members of our community be the grand marshals uh awc um part of my time there was spent a whole first day eight to four interviewing um i was on the nominating committee for the board of directors interviewing all the candidates only two races were actually um We're actually contested a very interesting, interesting group. We have, um, the mayor of Auburn who has been in city service for 24 years. She is now our secretary. Um, some people get involved very early in their tenure. Some wait till, till farther on, but I will say, and I'm also on the education committee. So we're trying to be fed up and we have the, the basic, um, certificate of municipal, um, Thank you. Leadership and the advance. We're working on a third tier somehow. We're trying to figure out what that looks like. And I would say, I don't care. It doesn't matter how long you've been around. Those conferences and the other conferences that happen throughout the state throughout the year are so valuable. There are things on the agenda. Um, for, for the week of that conference that like Sam Somerset, you know, autonomous vehicles, um, you know, different bonds and things change every year. Our laws change every year. Technology is changing. So if you guys ever have a chance to, you know, to go to any of those trainings, please, please do. And then it'll get you working on your certificate as well. Um, two, two, Quick on the farmers market. So for those of you there, sometimes they're hard to find. Sometimes I can't find them. There are little like eighth or quarter page little white comment cards. So if you have somebody who has a comment, there's a spot for name, contact information. And then when we're done with that, we bring them back to city hall and they get distributed to the directors to follow up or whoever. I have also asked, Mark and I talked about this, we haven't gone too far deep into the details, but I'd like to maybe have either added to those or separate just a sheet with the website for the report of concern or whatever that we have on our website and or a QR code. So because the thing is, is having people go directly to the website to use that feature, it directs the question or concern to the right department. And it's got a tracking system to see how long it's taking us to follow up and it gets closed. So it's great to have the conversations I learn. I know everybody who's done a farmer's market, we all learn something new. We can't be any everywhere all the time. I remember two years ago, someone came and complained about the the weeds in front of Tesla and I happened to be going over to the river district right after the farmer's market. So what did I do? I drove up to Tesla and walked inside and I talked to the GM like, we just fired our landscaper. We're working on it. But those things, it's hard for us to remember all the time what we talk to people about and we're not the experts. So it's great to listen, get the feedback and have them maybe fill out those sheets or like I said, we'll get something with the QR code, the website on it so we can push people in the right direction so we can track our responses. Um, and then obviously like, like Annie said, you know, the enthusiasm over everything, 4th of July, it was an amazing event. I was first up in the dunk tank. The first, the first person up was former city engineer, Dennis Scott. He paid us 20 bucks to come up and just push the button. Yeah. So we get along great. We go back a while. So that was not unexpected. But it was a great day, a great event. And it was awesome. I know when I suggested combining Barefoot in the Park with 4th of July, they think the staff's eyeballs popped out of their heads. But what a great accomplishment. And thank you, like everybody else said, to the committees and especially to the staff. It's a long, long, hard day for them. They could be spending time with their families and, you know, spend time with their city family appreciative of their time and efforts. And then along with the mural, the carousel figures, which in my little, my intro speech, I did clarify to everybody that they are kid friendly and you can climb on those, but not the goat. I did mention that as well. But we also, there was also the reveal of the new historical marker up if you're facing the pavilion just to the left. So if you're up there, check that out. And I think I'm going to stop it there for now.

And Mary, I got one thing to add. So I've done my time in a dunk tank. And the hardest thing about the dunk tank is getting back on that platform, right? Yes.

Yes. My arms felt it the next day. Yes. So I'll turn it over to the state administrator.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. I think Shane is going to pull up just a report so that we can follow along. And it's going to be a brief one tonight, but just wanted to give you insight into some upcoming events. The summer soiree, which is put on by the Friends of the Liberty Lake Library, is happening this coming week on the 15th. There are still tickets available. So if anybody's interested in getting a ticket, there are some available. And I believe that they also have some at the door, potentially, if there are cancellations. So if you're interested in attending, check that out. It benefits the Friends of the Liberty Lake Library, which partners with the Municipal Library.

And that is starting at 5 p.m. Mark, I think it's on the 16th, isn't it, Lynn?

Wednesday the 15th.

Wednesday the 15th. Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

And then a reminder that we've started our budget engagement. In fact, today is Tuesday, so another edition of Talk Back Tuesday was put out today. And so there have now been three questions, and we will continue this through roughly August 11th. so that we can get feedback of a variety of different kinds to help us inform the budget development process. And then there will be other engagement opportunities beyond Talk Back Tuesday. But right now, those are the questions we're asking, opening it up for the community to participate. And so if folks are asking, if you're out and about, how do I give you input regarding the budget? This is a great way to direct them to a place where they're able to do that. Any questions about those? All right, moving on. We wanted to give you a recap of Founders and Fireworks. You've all provided lots of insight into your experience, but from the staff's perspective, I wanted Jen to be able to just recap the weekend and all that led up to it. And so Jen, take it away.

Jane, do you have my slide by chance? Okay. I have one slide that sums it up. It's really, really exciting, actually. Okay, so little data. Fourth of July over the years, we have this Placer AI software in play right now. I'm not familiar with it, but Mikel is the master. So he pulled these numbers for the last three years for the fourth of July. And so you can see how attendees grew this year, which is kind of to be expected, but that's a pretty decent jump in attendees. Barefoot in the Park, we've always gauged how well attended that has been, even before Placer AI came to be, by the amount of wristbands that we handed out to the kids. So we could kind of gauge, okay, there's approximately two kids per adult, and most times there's one adult, and we kind of get an average that way. Well, we've continued tracking wristbands, and in 2024, 558, and this year, it jumped... Oh, that's not right.

That's a lot of wristbands.

Yeah, that's a lot of wristbands. Hang on. Hang on. I have it right here. Yeah, 1,007, not 8,600. How many? 1,007. OK, 1,007. So the one thing you have to keep in mind this year, it was actually a shorter period of time that we had the KidZone in play. Normally, at barefoot, it runs from 9 to 5. It's a solid eight-hour shift. And this year we only ran it from 3 to 8.30. So not only was it 1,007 on the 4th of July, but it was significantly shorter time. And I have to say, I worked the wristband station. I made it till 8 and I said, I can't, I'm exhausted. I can't do it anymore. I had, I... there was something different about having all of the activities at this event than at Barefoot. And I can't put my finger on it. There was a vibe that was different than I've ever noticed. And the gratefulness from the community saying, thank you so much for doing this for us. And I'm like, well, I didn't do it. Your city council and other staff put this together. So I wanted to share that with you because I heard it over and over and over again. People will come up, oh, how much for the wristband? No, it's free. It's free? And the little kids, it's free. It's free. Yeah, it's free. Just need to sign the waiver and get a wristband. So I thought I'd pass it on. I mean, it was comment over and over and over again from the parents and the kids. Thank you. Thank you for allowing us to do that. Thank you for allowing staff to fund that through, you know, reserving the, the jump house stuff and buy our own. It was so popular. And I don't know what happened in any of the rest of the park. Cause that's all I did that day. I might've looked up and seen Arlene at a time or two, but it's just, it was crazy, but it was well appreciated. And I think sometimes we don't get thanked enough and thank you to all of you for doing that. So, and feedback, do you want to see that kind of program again on the 4th of July?

Yes.

Yes.

Let's just make it an audition.

Yes. And so I think what we'll do next year is rethink barefoot. rethink how we're going to set. Mikel is already brewing ideas. And thanks to Mikel for everything he's done and all the staff. We were short staffed that day. And I mean, we had people from Rotary coming over to help. We had staff that were in attendance that weren't working that jumped in and helped it like pulled together and to dan's point we could not do it without all of the organizations and groups that just pitch in with us and kind of each stake a corner of the park and just do it right so fourth of july okay we'll do it again super

Are there any questions? I just have a comment. The reason I came over to check on you because you looked like you were exhausted and I was kind of worried about you.

So that's why I came over to you. I was like, I can't sit down. I just got to keep going. All right. Thank you again for everything.

Thanks, Jen. And so if it's not been stated enough, just taking an extra opportunity just to point out the level.

I really apologize. My dog sitter just set off my alarm in my house. I got to go take care of it. I will try to be back. But if it's OK, everybody in my pretend is going to take over. All good.

Good luck.

All right, guys. That's OK.

So just making one more appeal to gratitude for the staff's involvement. It's not easy to orchestrate an event like that, and they did it masterfully. So thanks again, Jen, and make sure everybody knows that. And then the last item that I have is just pointing forward to an item that's on the consent agenda. And just to remind the council, I don't remember exactly which meeting it was. It's been within the last handful where we talked about moving forward with some engagement regarding the sidewalk master plan. And so we at that time told you that we could accomplish that effectively in a 60-day period, which would give us data and feedback to help inform the budget. And so I want to clarify that that 60 days is going to start from the time when this task order is authorized so that we can get SCJ in and start working on that engagement. So just to clarify that. And that concludes my report, Mayor Pro Tem.

Great. Thank you, Mark. That concludes the reports and inquiry section and agenda. We'll move on to workshop discussions tonight. We have none. That brings us to general business and consent agenda. Our agenda tonight includes four items. I would entertain a motion for our consent agenda.

I move to approve our consent agenda.

Second. There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? A call for the vote all in favor say aye aye aye all opposed nay. Our consent agenda is adopted unanimously. That brings us to general business action of which tonight we have none. That brings us then on to council comments. We've had some good enthusiasm to comment so far, but if you got some more, let's hear it. All right.

Oh, question. Related to the founders and fireworks and related to Placer AI, one of the things that with Placer AI, it was also supposed to maybe tell us where people then go afterwards. And I'd be curious, not today, but like if you guys have, where people disperse to, if they're from here, the economic impact, I think was one of the...

things that we talked about before yeah that's certainly analysis that we can run and can provide that uh maybe at the next council meeting so you all have visibility into that

Other council comments?

I just wanted to make another comment about the farmer's market. So I'm going to be there again this Saturday. I'm opening. Who's coming after me? Anybody know? It might be me. Might be you? Yeah. Okay. The following weekend, I will not be able to do it because I will be out of town. So I've pretty much done it every weekend but one so far. So step up. That's all.

It's me.

It is something. Okay. So we're covered this weekend.

So Council Member Ball, Rich and I both do the Rotary Market in the city. So I brought my schedule. I'm going to get with Rochelle. And I can be two places at once. It's because I got Rich. So I'm going to connect and I'm going to sign up. And so, and I love the Farms Market.

Okay.

Coolest place.

You're going to clone yourself and kind of be in, you know.

Right, honey? Oh, he's got a phone over there.

True love.

There you go. Tried. All right. Council comments. We'll move on to item 14, our public hearing. Tonight, we're going to listen to the 2027-232 Transportation Improvement Plan.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. I don't know that we have a formal presentation, or I should say we do not have a formal presentation for you. We provided that at the last council meeting, but I just wanted to remind everyone of the requirement that is laid out in the revised code of Washington for us to develop a transportation improvement plan, which is what. We're having a public meeting, a public hearing, excuse me, this evening, and then followed by a resolution on the agenda to adopt. And essentially what this requirement does is puts our transportation improvements into a six-year window, a rolling window. It always is required to cover six years. And so just some reminders. The difference between the six-year transportation improvement plan and that is before you tonight by way of resolution and last year's, there were some changes made to phasing of certain projects to bring, for example, the entire stretch of MOLTR into the six-year window versus having phase one in this six-year window and phase two in a future six-year window. and and so forth and so that uh effort was made as a result primarily of the conversations we were having um by way of the pavement master plan that council adopted back in march the 20-year capital facilities plan that council adopted in may and then the transportation network analysis that council adopted in february and so The combination of all of those conversations that had some feelers into transportation improvements synthesized all of that into what you're seeing now as the proposed transportation improvement plan. And so with that, I would recommend that we open the public hearing and go through that so that we can get to the resolution. Sean, is there any other requirement for getting to the public hearing? Just identifying the time and opening up the public comment and closing accordingly.

Yeah, with that then at 718, I would open the public hearing tonight for our six-year transportation improvement plan. This is a call for action for anyone who wants to comment. Members of the public, anyone in the gallery, and also anyone online who would have any comments or remarks or observations for the council or the city regarding our six-year transportation improvement plan. Going once. Going twice. And a third call. Shane, is there anyone online? Okay.

And Mayor Pro Tem, I can stand for any questions if council has any questions before we move to the resolution.

Yeah.

Thank you all.

Questions from council members regarding our six-year transportation improvement plan. I particularly appreciate the foresight in identifying what are the formidable capital expenses associated with roadways. I always want to try and say that's, for me, one of the most important roles of the city and that we're making provision to be able to make that happen. All right. Sean, I recognize, is it 7.20 now? That's two minutes. Is that sufficient? At 7.20 then, we'll close the public hearing regarding the Transportation Improvement Plan. That'll conclude item 14 on our agenda. We'll move on now to item 15, the resolutions that are in our agenda tonight. The first being 26-287. I would entertain a resolution to move the first resolution. Question? Excuse me. If we could, a reading.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Resolution 26-287, a resolution of the City of Liberty Lake updating the six-year transportation improvement program for 2027 through 2032. Great.

Thank you. Now I'd entertain a motion in support of it.

I move resolution number 26-287, adopting the 2027-2032 Transportation Improvement Plan.

I'll second. With a motion from you and a second from Summer, any discussion? All right. All in favor say aye.

Aye. Thank you.

Public comments? As is tradition and procedure, we'd call for public comment before a vote related to resolution. Is there any public comments here in the chamber tonight or online related to 26287?

Right on line.

Right on. All right. Thank you, Sean. Then I'd call for the vote. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay. We're unanimous then in support. 26287 passes. Next resolution. Rochelle.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Resolution 26288, a resolution of the City of Liberty Lake, Washington, approving the final plat of River District Town Center, second edition, located in the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter and the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 9, Township 25N, Range 45EWM, Liberty Lake, Washington.

Great. This was included in your packet. You had a chance to look at some of the development detail that has gone on. I think I want to call for a public comment prior to a vote.

Move it and then? Accept a motion first. I move resolution number 26-288 approving River District Town Center second edition final plat.

Second. A motion and a second? Now we'll call for, sorry, Linda?

Yeah, so this is mostly commercial part of the river district. Am I correct? It's kind of hard to figure out by looking at this plat, but it seems to be like it's closer to the river. So is this commercial? Is Amy on or anybody?

I would describe that the land use codes, I think, include commercial or mixed use.

Yeah, that's what I think. Am I right, Mark?

Give me a second to get in here and I will clarify that. Shane, is Amy on the line? She is. Okay. Amy can do a better job of clarifying.

Amy? Can everybody hear me okay?

Unless we're having audio difficulty. Oh. Yeah, still.

Can you guys hear me?

Bummer.

Okay.

Hmm.

He's not able to get her. I think Deputy Chief Morgan stepped out. No, I'm afraid I don't think we're going to be able to get Amy's remarks.

So that is correct, Council Member Bowe.

I guess the agenda packet includes significant detail regarding the plant.

So this is essentially the village area.

So north of the new building with the bookstore in it? Correct. That's what it kind of looks like. Oh, okay. Okay, cool. All right.

Indiana frontage.

Okay.

All right. Clarification. I think we're now ready for a public comment regarding resolution 26288. Anyone in chambers or online with any remarks regarding the River District Town Center second edition? Thank you, Shane. All right. With that, I'll call for a vote then on Resolution 26288. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, nay. It's unanimous. Resolution 26288, pass. Next in our agenda on ordinances, of which tonight there are none. There are also no emergency ordinances. I would like to discuss upcoming agenda items. Per much earlier in our meeting, Mark, I think we set to the 21st a workshop and discussion related to sign code implementation?

Yes, and we will mark that and get it on the matrix for future meetings. Actually, it's for the next meeting, so it will just be on the agenda.

Sign code specifically, enforcement and implementation. We have an incident or a specific incident we want to try and discuss. July 21? Correct. Well, what about this Pavilion Park? That will remain on the agenda. Yeah. So that so far is what we've got on the 21st. Any highlights, Mark, of changes or significant additions for future agenda?

Beyond the 21st, as you can see there, we've got several budget-related items. And then I would anticipate, based upon the engagement that we described earlier and that Council authorized SCJ to help us conduct, there may be a workshop that we add between July 21st and September 15th to discuss the results of that. But before we put that on there, let's see how the engagement unfolds.

Good results of it. Great.

Mayor Pro Tem Dunn. Yes. One item that I would like added on to our agenda, you know, hopefully sooner rather than later is I want to talk about the weeds throughout the city.

Okay.

And, you know, what's ours and what's not. I think that's a very, I got a lot of that at the farmer's market.

Okay.

So thank you.

Okay. Mark, I'm looking out into, I'd say August, but before budget season, if we could include a workshop regarding weeds and current code standard for weeds.

Yeah, I would recommend we add that to the first August meeting, Rochelle.

Sure.

Okay. Linda? So we should probably discuss the sign, too, at the July 21 meeting? Yes.

That's the first thing we kind of outlined is that addition.

And then also, is there any chance we can arrange like a little field trip and get a peek inside how the new city hall is looking?

Yes. In fact, Ben is working on that and Ben's last day of vacation is today, so he'll have a desk full of things to work on starting tomorrow. But yes, he's arranging a field trip for the council, which will probably take place later this month. We want it to be early enough in the process where it's not a finished product, but we want you to be able to see something other than a shell when you walk in. So it'll be later in July.

Okay, no, that would just be kind of interesting.

Yeah, absolutely.

Great.

Any other additions on our upcoming agenda? All righty. That concludes 18 in our agenda. On to citizen comments. This is the second part of our meeting. Looking for anyone in changers or online who'd like to provide comment to our work tonight.

Nobody online.

OK. Pretty quiet. OK. We'll call that. We did remove an executive session. And I'm going to say that brings us to adjournment. I'm going to say 728. We'll adjourn. Everyone have a good night.