City Council - Regular Meeting

the Oregon California Trails Association and after retirement was a living history performer maybe even before retirement I'm not sure when you started that but that was in fact we've had him here in Tumbwater many times portraying Father Rossi Willis Bman Ezra Mer

Okay, I'm going to start the webinar. Recording in progress. I turn on my mic. Welcome everybody. You've made it to March 3rd. We're in March. That's bananas. Roll call, please. Ken Weeden, present. Council member Angela Jefferson, present. Council member Joan Kathy, and she is excused tonight. Thank you. Council member Eileen Sworthout, present. Council member Megan Sullivan, present. Council member Peter Agab, Council Member Kelly von Holtz, present. Mayor Leetta Dolhoff,

I am also here. Join me in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you everyone. We have some special items tonight. One is a proclamation of American Red Cross Month. Mayor Prom Von Holtz, would you like a hard copy or would you like to read?

You have options. Let me know. Okay,

thank you. Whereas for more than a century, the has been at the forefront of helping Americans prevent, prepare for, and respond to large and small disasters, families and communities depend on the Red Cross in times of need. And the Red Cross depends on American people to sustain the foundation. And whereas in Tumbwater, the American Red Cross works tirelessly through volunteers to support us when disaster strikes, when someone needs life-saving blood or the comfort of a helping hand. It provides 24-hour support to members of the military and veterans and their families, and provides training in CPR, aquatic safety, and first aid. And whereas the Red Cross makes t and tumb water formally recognizes the American Red Cross and its critical humanitarian role in our community and honors the South Puget Sound and Olympic chap chapter contributions to make this city a better place. Now therefore, Leetta Dhof, mayor of the city of Tumbwater, does hereby proclaim March 2026 American Red Cross month.

Thank you, Mayor Prom Von Holtz. We have Shannon Glenn, director with the American Red Cross South Puget Sound and the Olympi Olympics chapter with us tonight. Shannon, do you have a few words for us?

Just a few. Thank you, mayor. And thank you, council members. For those of you that I have not met, um my name is Shannon Glenn. I'm the executive director for our chapter here serving an 8ounty service area of which Thirstston County is included. Thank you so much for your time this evening and your support of the American Red Cross. We've been in this country, this community for a whole lot of years. I did read ahead on the agenda and it is women's history month and we were founded by Clara Barton who is an incredible woman um led by a lot of incredible women. So looking forward to hearing that next proclamation as well. Um, the American Red Cross, particularly in Thirstston County, is always there. When I speak with children's groups, elementary schools, what I say is, if you see this symbol, you can find help. If you're in an armed conflict, you can find help. Whatever. If you're in need of blood services, there's someone there that has blood. Speaking of that, uh, you have a blood drive coming up here on March 25th in um, somewhere in this building. I'm a little unsure of where exactly. Um, and there are still some appointments available if anybody's interested. Um, but we've had a long history here. If there's a home fire in your community, we'll show up if someone needs assistance and we're so grateful to keep this partnership going. So, thank you for your time this evening.

Thank you, Shannon. I will open up everyone's mic if you have any comments, questions for Shannon. She also takes compliments. Uh, council member, I was thinking about CPR classes. ly had honored some of our city employees who perform CPR on a local citizen and so I'm thinking that probably would behoove us to as far as CPR goes and I understand that we can reach out to the Red Cross schedule some classes and we have life saving awards too if there's a donated can we do that in like in a work session Shannon would you be open to that of course what do you think

Paul Angela I mean council member Jefferson Yes. Um I'm familiar with your work with the military for notifications and such. Where are you located at in the community? Your headquarters. So our headquarters office for the chapter is in university place. I live over in Olympia. So I'm pretty easy to get a hold of. But uh we have offices throughout the chapter in places like Shahalis Breton on JBL um on the base in Breton as well. And you said five different cities or five different counties. We support this chapter supports eight counties. Eight counties. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Jefferson. No else. Your mics are hot.

Council member Sullivan. Just wanted to say thank you, Shannon, and thank you for all the volunteers behind you and beside you. Um, and for everyone who came before you. We're just grateful. Thank you. Shannon, would you be open for a photo op with council?

Of course. In the front. Thank you. If we could all go down and get a photo. Can you get David's head? Three, two, one.

You lost your life. Thank you, Shannon. Next, we have Women's History Month and that will be read by Council Member Sullivan. Thank you, Mayor. Whereas the city of Tamwater strives to promote a strong and inclusive community that recognizes and celebrates efforts to bring people together for a greater good and highlight the many threads in our fabric that make it strong and whole. And whereas International Women's Day is celebrated globally on March 8th by those who believe in gender equality and who seek to improve the lives of all women through cultural, legal, economic, and social change. And whereas in 1987 and each year since, Congress has passed a resolution recognizing March as National Women's History Month, women of every race, class, and ethnic background have made historic contributions to the growth and strength of our nation and have served our c our country courageously in the military. And whereas women are critical to the economic, cultural, and social role in every sphere of life by constituting a significant portion of the labor force working inside and outside of the home. Women have served as leaders in the forefront of every major progressive social change movement. not only in securing their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity, but also in the abolitionist, emancipation, industrial labor, ci civil rights, and peace movements, which create a more fair and just society for all. And whereas the National Women's History Alliance designates a yearly theme for Women's

History Month. The 2026 theme is leading the change, women shaping a sustainable future. This theme honors women who are rebuilding systems for long-term sustainability across environmental, economic, and social justice areas. It emphasizes creating a future rooted in equity and resilience. Now, therefore, Mayor Leetta Dhof of the city of Tater does proclaim March 2026 Women's History Month. Thank you, Council Dullivan. We have I see Shelley Willis. Do you want to come up and say a few words?

Thank you, Mayor Dahlhoff and council members. On behalf of the Zanta Club of Olympia, I appreciate and support your proclamation for March as being Women's History Month. Your leadership affirms that the Twater Council recognizes the impact of women past and present whose courage, service, and determination have strengthened this city, our state, and our nation. Proclamations like yours do more than honor history. They empower and shape our future. This proclamation reminds us that women across generations have stepped forward to improve education, expand economic opportunity, protect human rights, equality, and build healthier communities. Women continue to lead with abundant and diverse strategies, both visible and quiet, in an effort to ensure that the systems we pass to our children are just, are more resilient, and are more compassionate than those we inherited. Through Zanta International and our work with the United Nations, Zanta advances the rights of women and girls around the world. Because when women lead, communities thrive. Here in Washington, we advocate that every girl grows up knowing her voice matters and her leadership is needed. Your proclamation reinforces that message, and it tells every woman and girl in Tamar that her contributions are seen and her future is worth building. Tonight, I'm honored to present each of you with a yellow rose, the symbol of Zanta. And it represents hope, friendship, and the enduring strength of women standing together. May it remind us that sustainable change begins with a recognition, grows through partnership, and flourishes when we lead together. Thank you for your vision, and your commitment to shaping a stronger future for all of us. Thank you, Shelley. Can every mics are on if you'd like to comment, question, compliment.

I can start. Thank you, Shelly. Um, those aren't just words because today, you know, as women in leadership, it's not easy. So, I like when you say that quiet part. You don't always have to be loud and outfront. you can lead from. Thank you for that. Thank you for your presence. Thank you for that. Thank you, Council Member Jefferson, Council Member Sullivan. Thank you, Shelley, for joining us and for your words and for the opportunity to present you with this proclamation. We appreciate you and everyone that supports Santa. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate you being here as well. And um I'm just reminded just try not to be a Debbie Downer, but there's just so many so many things lately that just have brought just to it seems like we're going the wrong direction, but I'm reminded that we need to celebrate our successes and celebrate the women and the helpers in our community and celebrate the women in the room and celebrate our staff and celebrate the women that are police officers and I celebrate the people that I serve with and people the women that serve in our legislature and and finding the helpers. And so, uh, to quote, uh, Mr. Rogers and so, um, I appreciate your service and and just your and what you do with FES and, uh, your service to our community as well. And Dr. Jackson, we've had the opportunity to have her here and just we're just really blessed and so thank you for your service.

Thank you, Council Member Sworth. Council member Weeden, I'd just like to thank you for being here today. Um, as a parent to a now, what is she? 9-year-old little girl and coaching our 10-year team coming up, it's these types of events that really need to be brought out in the fact that women have had to fight and continue to fight. And like Eileen said that it feels like we're taking steps back. So with you being here with this proclamation, it's sending in the message that we here in Tamar appreciate everything the women are doing to make our lives better um past day and present. So thank you very much for being here.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Widen. Mayor Prom Von Holtz.

Thank you. Thank you, Shelley. It's so nice to have you here tonight. And um yeah, there is a lot going on right now, but I am the mother of a very strong 26-year-old young woman. and she speaks out in a way that I would have never at that age had the I didn't find my voice till I was four. There's hope and the strong women that have come before us and the strong women that we are um making its way to our future leaders. And so um thank you for being here tonight for the proclamation and thank you to all the women who have led. I see former mayor de Debbie Sullivan, our current mayor. Like we are surrounded by strong leaders that are women and that is great to know.

Thank you, Mayor Prom. I'd like to say something to your mic is on.

So it is it is good a good thing to celebrate our women history month. America is the only civilized country that has not nominated a woman well elected a woman president. So while we are here to turn our own about women instrument we should also look back in retrospect and see where we are and how we got to where we are today. People are saying times are hard things are not working. It I it seems to me that last November right? So please um I am glad it's women instrument at the same time too we should keep an eye on it on our history tends to um put women forward but necessarily giving them the tools to get the job done. So on that note thank you for coming.

Thank you. Thank you council member Gabby. I just want to summarize this is really fitting. I you get so caught up in your days and remembering that March is women's history month and some days feel less like celebration and more like survival. And I think of Mayor Sullivan, our first female mayor, right? That it took 150 years to get a female mayor. Thank you, Mayor Sullivan, for being here tonight. There's a quiet pressure that women pressure that women carry. We just can't be good carry. We just can't be good. We have to be We have to be exceptional. We can't be mediocre. Have a day off. When things are hard, we still have to show up. And we can't be almost. The margin for error feels razor thin these. While double standards still shape how we're judged, how we're heard, and how we're valued. And I just want to say the quiet part out loud. But we're still how we look before we are evaluated for how we perform. We are trolled for our appearance. We are picked apart for our tone, dismissed for things that have nothing to do with our work. Our competence becomes secondary to commentary. And when it feels like we're moving backward, that weight just gets heavier. And so the vulnerable truth for me is I get tired. I get really tired and I get pissed off. And we continue to push forward because progress has never been linear because women before us kept going when the standards were unfair and the scrutiny was relentless. Because even when the bar is higher and the noise is louder, we are still here. We are building. We are leading. We are creating. And so this month and every month and

every day for us, we keep going, not because it's easy, but because we deserve a world where we're judged on our performance, not on our appearance, and we're being human, not a liability. So that's my mayor's report early in this section. So thank you, Shel. Would you be open to a photo with counsel? I would. Can we invite Shannon to join us? Oh, yes. Shannon, Jenny Foglia Jones, would you also like to be in the photo? Come on, Jenny. Come on. All right, photo time.

Shelly, can I hold my rose? There's no rush. Three, two, one. Melody, it is now time for public comment. Okay. So, at this time, we will receive public comments. You may comment on items related business not scheduled for public hearing. When I call your name, please come up to the podium, speak into the microphone, and state your name and contact information for each individual will be limited to one 3inut period to make their remarks regardless of the number of topics they wish to address. Speakers may not come upon, promote, advocate for, oppose, or speak against a pending initiative, ballot measure, or candidate. All comments shall be directed not to

individual council members and not to members of the audience. Please refrain from disruptive behavior such as booing, hissing, cheering, or clapping. And currently we have no one online. So we are going to start with a Trista Mason followed by Debbie Sullivan. Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to be here this evening. My name is Trista Mason and my address is PO Box 145. Um, and I'm here tonight because I wanted to um share some concerns and celebrate our student resource officers. Um, on February 15th, the Tom Marta Police Department put a great celebration of our SRO's as it was um talked about how much they impact our kids and how positive that is. And so I am a parent in the Tomwater School District. I have a middle schooler at Bush Middle School and then I also have a daughter who goes to school just around the corner from here. Um, and she is non-speaking and she may never speak and so I'm here to make sure that her voice um is heard in the best way I know how tonight. So on February 15th, a Facebook a Facebook post was posted. And then on the 18th, 72 hours later, my phone blew up as I picked my child up from school because parents are asking me why is removed from Bush Middle School. And my kid gets in the car and I said, "Hey, what happened today?" Oh, Officer Bowling said goodbye. Um, and so, you know, no notice, nothing from the school district, nothing from the police department. And that's super concerning because I know members of council have expressed opposition to our student resource officer program. And so when no information is given and then suddenly they're pulled as a parent, there's a problem. Um and I in December it was stated by the city that the police department was going in a new direction and then reiterated to the media that there was a new vision for the police department. However, no information has

been forthcoming. And so with the removal of the student resource officer, with that information, the community is concerned and there are many members that will step up and support our student resource officers if that's needed. So thank you for your time. Thank you, Trista.

And now we'll have Debbie Sullivan, Mayor Sullivan,

former. Uh thank you. My address is PO Box 1432, uh, Tumblr, and I'm here also for the same reason. Um, so my phone kind of blew up also when we when she came up and the only notification I saw was a Facebook post on the uh, school district and nothing from the city. The problem was is that we had just signed the school resource officer interlocal agreement with the school district and it wasn't even 70 days into the new contract. Uh I understand staffing issues. However, we need to plan better. These staffing issues were not unknown before that contract and so that that is disheartening for me. Um so there is a huge amount of work that school resource and so I'm still not clear because my understanding according to the agreement was one of the schools was u the one school resource officer was supposed to do Tom High School and Bush Middle School. The other one does Black Hills High School and Tom Middle School and then cover the elementary all the elementary schools as needed. I don't even know where that's at. I have grandchildren in the school district fortunate, you know, and they are in Twater High School. So that school was impacted by the school resource officers not being there. So how do I answer my granddaughters? I don't know. So I I just think that there needs to be more transparency. Um I'm just not happy with some of the adjustments with the police department has been made and I think that there just needs to be more planning. We plan the police department put that into place. Uh and so we know what the staffing level should be. We know what the future is. And you don't get police officers overnight. It takes a long long time between going to the

academy and getting through field training officers. I don't know how fast or how we would even recruit laterals. So um we need to be the city needs to be much more transparent on things that impact the stu students and thank you. Valid. Thank you, Mayor Sullivan. Do you two have capacity to get an update from Chief Keelles on the his chief's message on the website? Would you be interested in that or would you like a follow? I think that letting all of the public know every school district. So somehow the city getting that information out. I love that. Thank you.

Specifically, I you know that's fine for me. I probably am in the know way more than most people are. So I think getting those people who do not know uh the information would be a Thank you for sharing your concerns. Valid. We are requesting a joint meeting with the school district April 14th through the 28th. We're waiting to hear back. We have the chief's corner message and Tom Water and Tap. There's going to be another message. So noted more transparency more clarity. You have concerns valid. We are are committed to the SRO program. We are not removing SRO. It's temporary. valid noted. Administrator Simmons, did you want to say anything?

Thank you. Uh for the record, Paul Simmons, city administrator. And I'll just add that um that when Chief Keel started, we were vacant several positions and then we had a couple unexpected retirements matched with a couple officers that needed to move to light duty for various reasons. And so this is not this wasn't a problem that just started in the last month. This has been an issue where we've been short staffed for a while and we are working as vigilantly as possible to restore the staffing so that we can restore that officer. It's a high priority. Um, we did update the chief's message, I believe more than a week ago and um, we're also working on an updated article in the Tumb Water on top as Tom Water on tap as the mayor said and we'll continue to to push messages out as well. We also did meet with the superintendent uh, prior and then we've also communicated directly, the mayor has communicated directly with the school board members as well. So, we've been um, to get as much communication out there as possible so that folks understand where we're at and where we're going. But we are deeply committed to the SRR program. Our top priority is to restore it as soon as possible and we will be moving in that direction once we have the resources to be able to do so.

I take ownership for the delay and it's not going to happen again. So, thank you.

Okay. Now, we'll have a Linda Bert. Uh, well, I've been here several times and I'm back. My name is Linda Bert. I live at 3244 66th Avenue Southwest, corner of Kitop and 66. And um we are in a mobile home park that's trying to get rid of us. People are always saying housing and the word affordable is what we have one at the very top of this country that doesn't know what affordable means. And I think that's A lot a lot of people don't understand. We older seniors can't afford what's out there. Can't and people take that in the information in and they say, "Yeah, we should do something about that." Well, I'm here to do something that which last month I said, "Would you appoint me?" Why I ask that is I am obviously an individual and you really need a group behind you but I'm working by myself. I am a forwardinking lady and I am a leader and I'm going to do this. What I'm asking is that I'm going to write billionaires like uh Melinda Gates French and Basos former wife. They're billionaires and they seem to be open to this. Also, we have 168,000 millionaires um state. Why aren't we asking them? Why aren't we asking them to help us help us have I said, how are we going to construct this? How are we going to pay for it? Or is it still laying on

somebody's back corner going, "Yeah, we'll get to that." Well, we'll die seriously before you get to that because 7 years ago, I showed up for Women's Day with a long 1898 black dress. Did any of you remember me? Probably not. I've been here before and I'm tired of waiting. So, I'm going to do it myself. I have a plan that we're going to have the millionaires or whomever donate a track of land. On the land, we're going to build round houses. These are going to be whimsical, very um in the middle will be landscaped, a water feature, trees, obviously a little town. We need to help pay for our infrastructure. So, you need people coming in and visiting. And when do you think you can back me on this? Because I'm running out of

Linda, have you circled back with Housing Authority at Thirsten County and Habitat?

So, the one thing that you you shared with me, I went to and they want a mortgage. I mean, we don't have any money. I've pointed out to you guys before that I make $1,330 a month. Divide that by three third of my income. I can pay 400 and something, right? It's not there. And nobody I know how we could do that. Except I do know how we could do that. And I can do it. I have a master's in education and I can do this. Linda, I will circle back with you this week. Okay. Okay. Good.

Okay. I'm I'm moving on with mailing all this outing. You do that. I will circle back and then we'll figure out what we talked about with the housing authority at Thirstston County. Their housing different from Habitat. I'll circle back. Right. Except you're circling back to what is or what has been and and I will make time for what you want to. Yes. Yeah. I want to do it my way. That is not a surprise to me. Linda Bert, I am on it. I asked the vote for you.

Can you make a note for me to circle back with on that? Thank you, Paul. And now I would invite anybody else that would like to speak to public comment that didn't sign up. Okay. And we have no one online. So that would end public comment. Thank you, Melody. Moving on to consent calendar. Any items need to be pulled? Hearing none. I would entertain a motion. Second. Got a motion from Council Member Jefferson, a second from Council Member Sworth. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor, please say I. I.

Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Have you ever had a day where you were swear using technology that had a touchcreen and then you try and do it again and this is not touchscreen? That's what I just did. Okay. Happy Tuesday everybody. We are on item number seven, council considerations. Uh Kelly Adams, would you like me to read this title or would you like to read the title? Do you want me to read it and then you also read it? What is your preference, Kelly? Because this title is amazing.

Myself as a bureaucrat that I have 30 words in this title. So, this is the regional memorandum of understanding with cities thirsting county and port of Olympia for planning and managing the Olympia Lacy fan zone for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Can you read? I could I could. I'm joking. Please proceed. Kelly Adams, what do you got for us? All right, I have a presentation. Look at that title. Look at that.

So, in plain talk, this is an agreement that we are going to talk about for the next steps in working with our region to plan and manage the FIFA fan zone events. I am your assistant city administrator, Kelly Adams, and I promise I will never use a title like that again. And so, first I want to introduce some guests that are going to speak to you in a few moments. And these are our friends from the Chamber of Commerce, the Thirstston Chamber of Commerce. And we have CEO and president, David Schaffert, and Jenny Foglia Jones, who is a consultant to the chamber, but we think of her as the project manager for this effort. and Jenny and David have been wonderful resource in understanding how the different players and the different parts are coming together. And I want to say at the start because I think there's been a little bit of misinformation. The cities, the county, and the port asked the chamber to help and to be the lead planning entity for this act. This is not the chamers's idea that they've asked and solicited the cities to participate in. the local governments asked the chamber to help and they so wonderfully volunteered to pull together this effort. And so because we have new council members and for the benefit of the public, I just want to go through a little bit of the funding history that occurred in 2025. So on September 2nd, city council had a pretty robust discussion and determined that the best funding for this event were Tom Water to contribute funding was lodging tax. And so the council authorized the city administrator to put in an application with our ELTAC committee and to put in the original $50,000 request. This was part of a

broad regional request. So at the same time that we were talking about this, Lacy, Olympia, Thirstston County, and the port were all talking about their contributions. And so on the 29th of September, the lodging tax committee chaired by council member Eileen Sworthout recommended came to a recommendation $7,500. And I wanted to give a little bit of background on how we got there. So there was an application, there was a presentation by city staff and the way that ELTAC recommendations come together, there are four committee members and each committee member makes a recommendation and then we take the average of those recommendations and that's the final funding amount that council sees. And so we had three commissioners who voted for $0 and our hotel year voted for $30,000. So there's a bit of a a background there in different perspectives, which is why it's fantastic to have diverse advisory board members. And so that is how we arrived at $7,500. And on October 21st, the council adopted the ELTAC funding recommendation as part of the consent calendar. And so now we're at the next point in the process, which is a memorandum of understanding. And in government speak, this is the agreement before all of the other agreements. Those so this sets up who are the regional parties and who are the supporting participants. And so for this agreement, we are signing Lake Thirstston County and the Port of Olympia are signing. And some of our wonderful supporting participants that are named in theou, we have the thirsten chamber of commerce as the lead planning entity. We have inner city transit experience Olympia and beyond. The VCB is a really important partner in making sure that we are going after positive marketing and tourism benefits. Uh Thirstston EDC, I'm going to talk

about them in just a second. They're providing potential local business training and the Olympia Downtown Alliance. And so the purpose which is very wonderfully uh couched in OU is to plan, resource and deliver these events and really with a focus on showcasing Thirstston County as a region, our hospitality, tourism draw, our culture and how wonderful and vital our small businesses are. Really coming with that identity as a region and then in the funding commitments. So theou clearly outlines roles, responsibilities, the scope of work, what the events look like, contingencies, and we see here the funding committed by ourselves and our sister cities, the county, and the port of Olympia is host is their inind contribution is the property that the events are going to take place on. And our friends at the chamber will be showing you maps and details and all the fun all the fun stuff. one thing that I am really excited to participate in. So I think one question we hear is how does this benefit Tomwater? And as the person who works with our economic development program, I'm very excited that you don't have to be a vendor at the event to actually participate and benefit from this activity. So on March 18th, the EDC is going to have a local business training where they talk about how you can host a viewing party and they will help walk you through the regulations and rules from FIFA and also our staff will be participating to help walk Tumbwater businesses through our permitting processes. So this is really a wraparound support for local businesses to participate. And so I am going to invite David and

Jenny to come up and if the clerks don't mind switching out that presentation. And David, could you also give a shout out to the person who's sitting between you and Jenny Foglay Jones? Actually, Kell, you want to do the introduction? I'll do it.

He's your right-hand man. Yeah. Yes. We'll take care of that. So, well, good evening, mayor and uh council members. I'm David Schaffer, president CEO of the Thirstston County Chamber. It's really nice to be here this evening. I'm just going to do a little additional information of we'll call it a pre- preamble or post preamble. Uh about a year ago, right about now, uh give or take maybe 15 30 days, uh FIFA Seattle, the steering committee for all that is World Cup uh for the state in Seattle. It's the nonprofit organization that is coordinating uh all the activities and events to maximize the World Cup being within our region. Reached out uh throughout the state to a select few communities and asked the question, would you like to host a regional local fan zone? and our community said yes uh via chairmener and the county and and uh so we were off and running. Fast forward maybe three months after that, uh I was invited to have a sit down and I think it was the mayors and uh the municipalities in our community plus senior staff were there and the conf revolved around how how might we be able to maximize the opportunity of the World Cup and how might we maximize being connected to the world which is kind of brilliant of FIFA Seattle for thinking a little bit beyond just Seattle King County. how do we spread this throughout our state? And so that's what that meeting was about. And one one thing that was needed at that meeting was they needed an entity to sign the NDO for FIFA, meaning we got a FIFA playbook. And the FIFA playbook, it is not that glamorous. It it's more about you shall not do this. It was what you should not do and cannot do. and uh so had it in

hand and so we were off and running. Uh since that time uh we've put together um I would say a a pretty good structure that is reflective of our community and the interests. We've worked with uh the local governments and trying to under u understand what everyone would like to try to get out. Uh but please know that there is um a fair amount of uh I'll just say restrictive nature of the effort. The business model is challenging at best. uh we are in the process of soliciting additional resources and funding to try to make sure that it is as robust event as possible and I think I will stop with the preamble so you can get into maybe a little bit of the weeds which will give you a little bit more context and of what's really happening and and how you know it's going to be an exciting opportunity for our community and uh the chamber is very delighted to uh give its expertise and infrastructure in support of it. Uh any questions before I step away? Well, look at that timing. Council member Jefferson has a question.

Um, yes, David. Yes, please. Is this a first for us in the community, like the first big statewide project like this or event like this?

Um, I think it's uh well, it's there's never been a World Cup. So, this sort of um opportunity to to plug into the hundreds of thousands of people that will be coming into our state in a very short period of time. That was one of my big fears is not having infrastructure set up to help accommodate attracting people down the I5 corridor coming into our community and wanting to take advantage of what is the state capital community about or maybe they head off to the coast. You know, how do we connect? And so, uh, yes, it's the first World Cup. Yes, it's the first time that we've hosted a fan zone. There may have been other really large statewide type activities in our community, but this is the first World Cup. All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Jefferson. Council member Agabi. Um, good evening. Yeah. Thank you, sir. Do you play soccer or football? Have you ever played soccer or football? Yeah. No. No. I played neither. Okay. Yeah. So, for some of us, soccer is a religion.

Mhm. So my objection was there's this fantasy that we're going to have this event and everybody is going to air mass and that was before ICE decided to turn uh Minnesota into Belfast. So all those fans that are going to come here where are they coming from? Are they coming from out of the country or from uh within within the country? So we'll we'll let um Jenny get into some the projections are is that you're going to have hundreds of thousands of people coming into Washington state and for that matter uh into Vancouver, Canada and then of course down to LA. So you may have a west coast up and down uh migration depending on what um those visitors are are planning to do. uh there is demographics and profiles of visitors that come to World Cups because they are fanatic about football

and they are not Americans, right? They have to be from South America or Europe, right? Right. The Americans the Americans should be here in force, we would suspect, but okay. Yeah. But um really I if you wouldn't mind me punting over to Jenny who can maybe fill in a little bit more of those details especially on uh the types uh of visitors that were anticipated by FIFA Seattle uh and the duration that they stay within a geographic area when they show up they're going to need visas and they're foreigners and we know what is happening in America. So, council member Gabby, do you have

a question or do you want to you want to hold that till you status? You council member Gabby. Perfect. Anything else? Great. It's all yours. Do you have the clicker? Oh, left. You stole it last time. All right.

Hi, I'm Jenny Folia Jones. Good evening. Um, as David said, I am um, uh, planning the event for the World Cup. And I do want to just say that um, the Olympia Lacy fan zone here. Uh, this is more than just the activations. We're going to talk about the activations of the actual fan zone, but I'm also going to get into a lot of the business support that we're doing around this effort as well. So, it's not all about just the um, the activations. Okay. The middle button. Is that how I the big middle button? Far right.

Far right. There we go. Okay. Um so just a little bit of an overview about this uh World Cup. Happy 100 days till kickoff. Uh today is 100 days. So um uh the tournament is uh June 11th through July 19th, 2026. This is the World Cup is the largest sporting event ever staged. Um this year we've actually we're seeing it that happens every four years. Um there are 104 matches, 48 teams. Typically it's 32. They've increased it to 48 teams. Teams, more matches. Um and it's spread over three host countries. So you do have Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Um 16s you'll see represented on this map. Um and 50% of the fans that that came to the previous World Cup four years ago did come from abroad. Um when I say this is the largest sporting event ever staged estimated uh 19 billion plus global viewers and that is they're counting viewers multiple times. So if you're watching two matches that's two views. Um 6 million plus ticketed visitors are expected to come into the US for this uh World Cup and 750,000 visitors are expected to come into Washington state. I do not have the breakdown on how many of those are international versus um uh US citizens that would be coming into the state. Um so fan zone uh locations. So as David mentioned um you know Seattle is hosting six of those um 104 matches. So Seattle was selected first time that Seattle has um hosted a World Cup. The last World Cup that was held in the United States was in 1994. Um and so Seattle uh of course um being selected this year. Seattle FIFA nonprofit that is established to help support the

visitation and everything that's going around the World Cup in Seattle did um kind of do something pretty incredible and pretty um innovative is they went to FIFA and they asked can we spread the love around Washington state and look to have these activations of these smaller fan zones. Um FIFA did give the approval for that and so we are the only state that is doing this. Um, normally you'll see a large fan zone that the hosting stadium. So, you will see uh Seattle Center will be, you know, that big location for Seattle. Um, and they have some doing in Seattle. But for them to go out, they did look at the nine largest counties within the state, thirst county being one. And then they went to the largest city population. Um, and they did tell me that Olympia and Lacy's population is so close to each other. That's why they put the two city names together and asked Olympia and Lacy to host initially. So that is why the name um is Olympia Lacy. It was not a local decision. That was Olympia Lacy came from Seattle FIFA. That's why you see the other cities on here. They were determined by the largest city within that largest county. Um and then like David said the uh Olympia Lacy agreed to to do this, invited thirsting um thirsting county came to the table and then invited Tom Water to the table and then the um I will say that we have two sites in the state also that are hosting um teams that will be their home base. So, Reon is going to be a home base and then um Gonzaga University is going to be a home base and we don't know yet what teams are going to be um scheduled to stay there, but that will be you'll start to see them coming in in midMay. Think of it almost like spring training. They do travel with um with their uh fan base sometimes depending on what country it

is that's coming in to stay here. Um sometimes they can have a large fan base that's coming into the area even before that June 11th kickoff time. So, what is a fan zone? Fan zone is think of it as a a large community festival. Most important thing you need is is a giant screen to watch the matches on. Um, so we'll have a giant LED screen. Um, live entertainment will be happening before and after matches. Um, FIFA in that in that uh super tops uh playbook has asked the fan zones to really focus on local culture. Um, and so we are working um with uh our local memb to be able to feature on the culture. And you'll see this represented in the food that we're going to be bringing in as well um as some other activations that we'll be doing within. Uh you'll have food vendors, you will have a beer garden there as well. Um interactive um event or activities. So you'll have for kids and adults alike, you'll have soccer themed um activities there. And then of course we'll have our our activation for partners. We will um this is a ticketed event. It will be um 12 and under is free. It will be general admission $10. Um and then we will be having VIP um tickets as well, which will be um we're still working on what that package looks like. They will be at an elevated um expense, but there will be um different elements that come along with those tickets. So, where is this taking place? It is taking place on the Port of Olympia's North Point. If you're familiar with where the South Sound block party is and has taken place, we're utilizing a little bit of what that um event does use. Um estimated attendance 2500 to 5,000 people per match of course um uh depending on the match makeup. We still have some unknowns which I'll go through for you um in a moment. Um and again, we've gone over this, but the Thirstston County Chamber is um organizing this on

behalf of the cities of um Olympia, Tom Water, Lacy, Thirstston County, and the Port of Olympia. So, um a lot going on on this here, but I just want to show you the six matches that are being held in Seattle. Um and then I wanted to show you call your attention to the little asterisks that I have there that these are the matches that we're looking at activating our site for. So, uh, Friday, June 19th is a US men's national team versus Australia match. This is a match being held in Seattle and, um, this is a noon kickoff. We are definitely opening for this, um, this event. This is also Junth. Um, so we'll be we'll be doing some, uh, Junth celebration. Um, Wednesday, June 24th. Um, this isn't one of those unknowns. So, we know one of the teams and then at the end of this month, there's still a um, a year played. So, there's four more teams that will be coming in at the end of this month. We will know who um this one is. So, it could be Italy, Northern Ireland, Wales, Bosnia. We don't know yet, but that's a Seattle match. Um and so we would open for that. And then if you skip over to the right, Thursday, June 25th, another US men's national team match. Um again, an unknown um opponent at this at this point. Um but this is an LA match. It's not a Seattle match, but it's a US men's national team match. So, we did get approval from Seattle to be able to activate for that um match as well. And then um going back over to Friday, June 26th, um this match is the Seattle Pride match. So, we'll be working with Olympia Pride to help um um bring some Pride elements into our our event as well. So, um with that these dates, one funding, right? We were asked to open for all six of the Seattle matches. um funding. We just cannot be long of a period of time. Mostly it comes down to the rental expense to have everything there for so long. But we did look at how can we encourage overnight

stays um and hopefully stays. And so we we know we want to be open for that US men's national team match on the 19th. Then we looked at the block of the 24th, 25th, 26th, 3 days. Hopefully we can encourage some overnight stays to come in um for those matches and show another US men's national team game as well. I know this is a little bit um maybe difficult to see, but I wanted to show you the map of the Port Peninsula where the fan zone is going to be located. We are working with Olympia Police Department. Um they are our lead agency for public safety um and Olympia Fire Department. And so they will be doing traffic control at the um corner of Market and Marine Drive where you see a little stop sign at the bottom there. They will be um limiting the uh traffic down to the site. We um we are partnering with um Inner City Transit is our transit partner. They will be um and we will have we're working on different lots around town that we'll be asking people to park in and then and then be bust in by inner city transit direct to the site. Um and so we will be of course open for Swantown Marina um tenants. They will still be able to come in as long as they have their parking pass. The boat launch will remain open. So, um, if you're launching your vessel out there, you can still do that. And then Hearth Fire will be open for patrons as well, and we will be able to have someone there monitoring that lot to make sure people aren't using it as a parking spot and then walking over. Um, and so that's kind of what we're going to be doing for managing traffic. This gets you a little bit better view of the layout. And I apologize, my labels are hard to see, but it those aren't as important as just the footprint here for you to look at. Um, so you'll see the uh the big boat launch parking um uh more of an oval kind of shaped lot there. We are going to be taking um roughly half of that lot and

using it for our um setup. We will also have within that section a VIP extra kind of fenced off area where the VIP section will be. And then the lower lot to the left there is going to be kind of your main entrance in um that'll be a main footprint of the event and then we'll be taking over the grass section below too and putting some different elements in there. Um we are if you're familiar with the topography out there, these lots have a bit of a difference in height. So, we will be um having an ADA ramp built between the two um uh um parking lots there to be able to make sure that we're compliant with ADA to move people from one um lot to the next. So, you'll see here also the the kind of bluish teal line that loops around. This is our but our bus route that's going to be coming in and um going around the uh building there to the left and then circling back out. You see our bus stop. it will be right at the entrance of the event. Um, a couple other elements, we are working um with the EDC for their um event. Um, we are also hosting a business webinar. So, ours um on the 12th is online. We have a slightly different focus than what the EDC is doing. We'll be going over um more elements of the visitor aspect of how to make sure that you're u working to kind of pull those visitors into your um as well as going over the fan zone elements, but also talking about um some of the stuff that I'll be talking on the next slide here for and letting business know of other opportunities that we have going on. Um so that is something you can sign up through the thirsten chamber right now. Um sign up for that and our business webinar. This will be a taped webinar and then will be available to be viewed online if you can't make it as well and it is free. Um there's also

human trafficking prevention. We know that unfortunately with events like this um that type of behavior does um increase and so uh Seattle FIFA is working with a company called Best out of Seattle and they are um they've put together training specific for World Cup. It's really focused for your front desk desk desk person, your uh customer service individual, your transit individual. Uh really being able to kind of recognize the signs of human trafficking and then how to report it. Um and right now they have prepaid a bunch of seats. And so any business in the state can go access that right now. If you go to seattlefwc26.org, you can go and um and take that training. And I do just want to acknowledge we have a in addition to the jurisdictions, we have some sponsors um that are coming in. Airbnb is sponsoring our um our uh fan zone activation as is inner city transit. Okay. So some other things that are happening um starting this Friday we um Seattle um FIFA has created an app and this app is called see and win and it launches this Friday and it's going to run from this Friday. This is a um I don't it's a it's a tour. Basically, every fan zone had to create a tour through the city. So, it's a walking tour. Um we have one that stretches from the farmers market down to the state capital, goes through downtown Olympia. We have a a shorter one that goes from like Hunter Park to the um food truck depot in Lacy. And then we have a couple stops in Tom Water as well. Um Brewery Park as well as the craft district are on this map. Um, and what it's doing is it's encouraging people to travel around the state starting this Friday and be able to go to um, these different take these different tours and you go to kind of it'll show you on the map a business.

You go outside of that business and once you get within the geo fenced area, a little ticket counter will pop up for you. You can select your tickets. It'll go into your little counter. Games will unlock for you while you're standing outside of that. And then there's trivia questions that will be about the businesses in that area. It'll be about Washington State. It'll be about the city that you're in. It'll be about World Cup trivia, soccer trivia, that kind of stuff. Um, and the more you play, the more tickets you get. And then as you um and then you go and you can redeem it for World Cup um Seattle World Cup prizes. Our redemption site is at Wembley Soccer Shops or a local soccer shop which is between um kind of a good middle point between Lacy and um Olympia. And that is our redemption site. So you can go turn it in for this cool swag. Um we were asked for we did a test run um to make sure that all of our geo fenced areas were not in the middle of the street, right? Sending people in the middle of the street. So, we did do a a kind of an invite um an invite party where you could come play it and test it and we had a lot of fun. We actually had 67 individuals that showed up to test play with us that day zone that did that. So, um because of that, we've been asked to um do this special kickoff event for the app. Our team was asked to kind of create a little bit more of excitement around this app for specific days um within the first few weeks. And with that, we've selected Friday, March 26th and Saturday, No, that is wrong. I'm sorry. Friday, March 27th and Saturday, March 28th. I apologize that error. Um, and we are encouraging people to come play, you'll start to see that promotion next week for that. On those two days, if you come play our tours in our um or in our community, I should say, you then go redeem at Wembley Soccer Shop. um you'll be able to redeem

for prizes. Maybe some elevate prizes will be given to us and one uh lucky individual who plays and redeems on that weekend will be um uh awarded a set of World Cup tickets in Seattle. Jenny, while you're taking a breath, would you like us to hold our questions or would you like to take them throughout? Your choice. Um that's fine. I think I'm done. Oh, well timing. Uh, Jenny, Council Member Jefferson has a question. It was amazing. Yes. This is Angela. I lined you up on everything.

This is on time because I was talking with our city administrator about creating a Tom order first city passport program and this sounds like it. So, who did you use for the app? Was it?

So, we didn't create the app. Seattle create Seattle FIFA created the app. It's this is a statewide app that every fan zone has. So they are working with a an app developer. I will tell you that um we are starting to look at how can we create passports through the cities that are separate and we've been given the authority to be able to do that by FIFA. So, um already downtown Olympia, um Olympia Downtown Alliance is already thinking of how a passport through downtown can be created. Uh willing to talk about how we can create one for Tom Water, too. Yeah. Nice. I mean, while you're saying that, I'm looking at Ryan Reynolds with Tom Water Chamber. Council member Jefferson, you want to circle?

Um no, I'm going to brief that as a matter of fact during my report, but like bringing Ryan into that. Okay. More to come. Okay. C. Thank you, Council Member Gerson. Council member Gabby, can you please put back that map that has the matches back on the on the screen, please? The matches. Yeah, for sure. died. Um the the visitor Yeah. the visitor um is uh typically when they come into the state, they will stay for 9 days.

Um and so they won't necessarily be going to a match at all. They just want to get close to it or they'll be going to one match and then they'll be going and sightseeing. So we're working on how to attract people down to nine those other eight days that they have something you know to see. Yeah. So for the march on Friday, June 26 between Egypt and Iran, what is your projected number of attendance here in uh in this area that will come to the fan zone?

Yeah. Um this is this is actually a match that um uh I think is going to get a lot of attention. Egypt has a player that is um people are excited to be seeing. So, I know that um this is a game that I think is going to get attention for sure. Um I will tell you right now that we're working very closely with Seattle FIFA and we're monitoring the situation for um for the the matchup. Okay. Yeah.

So, I said before for me SA is a religion that is for us. SA is an emotional thing. Go to war because of Suka and has happened in South America happen in Africa all the time. So your match between Egypt and Iran plus or minus fan zone in this area maybe 20 30 you might have close to maybe 200 250 fan zone uh arrow. You know why? Because both Iran and Egypt don't play in this. This is conquer right they don't play in this part of the world they play on other part of the world so the fan are going to come from overseas and again my point still stand where are they going to get a visa to come down here that is basic they can't come here if they can't come here we have Minnesota

and and I I respect um your comments on that I'll I'm um friends and relatives from outside of the state who already have tickets to that match, who are planning on traveling here, uh US citizens that are coming into the state for the match. So, um I hear you and I understand that. I come from a a football family. Um football is life in my family. Um and so, um I I respect the comments and and what you're bringing um to that. I just I know that there is excitement. It is the World Cup. The World Cup is coming here. I know individuals who have tickets to every single one of these matches that are up on the board right now.

So, can I want to wrap up that player from Egypt that you said plays, his name is Mo Salah, Muhammad Salah, he plays from Liverpool. So, you have players from Liverpool players that will come and you have players from Egypt and West Africa that will come. They all need visas. That is just basic. the early visas to come here.

Got it. Understood. Council member Agabi. Great points. Thank you so much, Mayor Prom Von Holtz. Yeah, I I appreciate where Council Member Agabi is coming from. I also appreciate that this is an opportunity that we need to experience. Um I don't know if you heard, but the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl in the Bay Area. Very similar. Um, I've had I didn't get to go because my husband doesn't love me enough to take me to the Super Bowl. But that's another story. But I had many friends who went and were not in Santa Clara, but they were in the Bay Area where they said, "We could feel before the game even started, we could feel the excitement." And they didn't necessarily go to the Super Bowl, but they were part of the fan experience. And that is something that I think we need right now as a community. And so all of the things that are happening are beyond FIFA's control, beyond your control, beyond anything. But we need something to look forward to and something to celebrate and I am very excited um that we're Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Temp Holtz. Anything else? Council member Sullivan,

I had a question. Um, what is the anticipated release timing for the pre-sale of tickets for the fan zone? And what might you guys do if you saw that they were approaching selling out? Yeah. Um, well, we can hope that we get to that point, right? Um, we're probably going to be releasing tickets. I would think probably like first week of May is the timeline that we would be looking at for tickets to open up um for the zone. And so, um, if we see that we're getting to capacity, I mean, unfortunately, we can only have so many people in that space. So, there is a possibility of selling out if we get to that.

Thank you, Council Member Selen. Council member Jeff, let me get back to you. Let me see if Council Member Weeden, Council Member S, do you have anything before I go to Council Member Jefferson? So, wait, do you two have anything before I go to Council Member Jefferson? She have

I I got just a little rundown. Um, first of all, thank you for being here. Um, long time no see. Um, just so everybody's clear on that one. She actually uh planned our wedding back in what, 2008. So, um, I I like the clarification of being um the nine days that people are going to be here in our area. Um, I did have concerns about why Tom Water in specific was going to be paying for this. Granted, it was coming from ELTAC um fees and everything, but it is good to know that people that are going to be coming to these matches and everything are going to be spending more time in the area. So, I appreciate that. Um I don't think I have anything else. I'm excited for it. Thanks.

Thank you, Council Member Wing. Council Member Sworthout. I'm good. I love soccer and I do remember um sitting in a bar in uh where's the story going council member watching a World Cup games um when it was I can't remember I think it was in the last time it was but it wasn't in the United States and it is really exciting so u soccer so um I'm a big soccer fan so I'm excited about Thank you council member we had I mean I'm learning a lot the love runs deep bars in Disneyland uh we're going to go Council member Jefferson and I would entertain a motion after your question, Angela.

So you're they're monitoring and you're monitoring current events. So worst case scenario, do you feel that energy is here that you know we're going to sell out and we're going to have lots of people coming to town and enjoying Tom Water Lacy Olympia. Do you feel it? Yeah, I definitely think the energy is here for sure. Um and and um I think that whether you are a you know diehard soccer fan or just a David Schaffer, you're going to come to the Those are the options, Jenny.

And you're going to come to the fan zone and you are going to um experience it. It's an experience, right? It is a once in a generation experience to be able to to have this here and I think that that is something that our community is really embracing of excitement around that. Um I I do feel are we going to sell out every match? I don't know and I'm not going to say yes to that. Um but I definitely know that we have uh a lot of excitement here. Um and I forgot to introduce Chad before we move on. So Chad here sitting in the crowd, the other scarf on, it's Chad Carpenter. Um Chad, some of you may know, um but he is helping me with planning for the zone as well.

Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Jefferson. Mayor Prom Von Holtz.

Um can I just ask because I've seen on Facebook some confusion about why the cities are investing in this and elac dollars have to be invested in something like this. like we couldn't take it and build some affordable housing. Um I've I've just seen some So can I just get a little bit of explanation about how the dollars are supposed to be used? Yeah. So um Eltech funding uh marketing and operations for um you know for instance uh booking talent for the entertainment that type of stuff. So Eltech dollars are used to market to get heads and beds. Um, and so you're going to see a greater reach. The nice thing about, um, the map of the zones, um, is that we actually have the ability to to market to a really big area because south and um, the coast, we have a really big um, market area that the other zones are sitting next to each other. you know, like we have a big footprint that we can go market um even all the way down to Portland for Washington visitors as well. Um and then beyond and that's where Experience Olympian beyond is coming in because they are taking care of doing a lot of that visitor marketing for us too. Um and so we're working with them to help get them involved with our marketing to be able to market to ex um outside of Washington state and internationally. I see Kelly just standing there. Do you have more slides, Kelly? Or

I have one more slide. Oh, okay. Yeah. Thank you. Any additional question? And I would appreciate you moving it out of Lakefair and doing it in June. So, that makes so much more sense. So, thank you. Yeah. And we had the ability to if we could afford to to be open for the finals, but that's Lakefair weekend, too. And so, we know the strain that that would put on the community. Yeah. Yeah. That was good. Thank you. Kelly Adams has put Melody has put up a slide uh based on Kelly Adams request. Thank you so much. Look at that teamwork. I would entertain a motion. I move we authorize the mayor to send theou with the city of Olympia, city of Lacy, Thirsten County, and Port of Olympia to plan, resource, and deliver a 2026 FIFA World Cup fan zone event. And I second

member Sullivan. A second from Council Member Jefferson. Uh before we have discussion, how many words are in this recommendation, Kelly Adams? Less than 30. Okay. Thank you. Any discussion on what you heard about and what we are asking for tonight of council hearing? None. All all those in favor, please say I oppose. Same sign. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you so much. Thank you. I lied. There's more than 30 38.

It does make a difference. Thank you, Kelly Adams. I appreciate that. Thank you all of you for coming. If you want to casually leave right now, you can and not listen to our reports. We'll continue doing the people's work while you go home and rest. Thank you so much, David, Chad, and Jenny, and Shannon. Thank you so much. We'll all watch you leave. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank Thank you. Thank you so much. We are now to the mayor, city administrator's report. I'm going to go first while Paul makes his way up. Oh, you want to do it there? You want to stretch? You want to do it? Oh, you want to sit? I'm not going to judge out loud. My report is the budget committee met and I have three highlights for you. One is that general fund is tracking steady. Revenues and expenditures remain aligned with our adopted budget. Saving and fund balance use is on plan. Two, sales tax are holding with eyes on the economy. Sales tax remains stable. Inflation is cooling and unemployment is low, but national and global risks remain and we're monitoring. Three, utilities and enterprise funds are stable. Water, sewer, storm water, and golf operations continue to track as expected, supporting long-term infrastructure sustainability. That is my budget summary. We will do this monthly. I will give you the highest and know that anytime in between if you have any comments, questions, concerns, we are always available to answer that. With that, administrator Simmons.

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, please judge away. Quite comfortable here. Uh, oh, I got loud. Sorry. Um, to add on to your budget comments, uh, we will continue to dive into the budget this Saturday in person at our city council retreat. And that will be at the parks and recreation office starting at 9:30. We're working on finalizing the agenda. Uh, we'll get it out to council members as soon as it's uh, ready. Uh, and it's it's very close. We're in kind of the final stages of that now. I I just wanted to acknowledge, you know, we've been in a state of transition. We have new leadership. We have new council members. We have new staff. Um, and the last few months have been hectic as we've all been getting settled, learning our roles, and getting our bearings underneath us. So, I just wanted to say that this retreat will be really to set the stage for how we move forward together as a group. So, we hope that you're um able to be there. Uh again, this is uh in person and um uh uh yeah, that'll be this Saturday. The the budget will also be a portion uh at the back half of the retreat. Troy will give an in-depth presentation on the budget. And then also we're starting our bannual budget process for the 2728 year. And to kick that off on March 24th, uh at the work session, we'll also have a 10-year forecast presented by Troy as well. So, um lots of budget this year. budget, budget, budget. Uh, brace yourselves. Um, the other item that I wanted to cover real quick is, as you may have seen, we've been receiving a few emails about the Evergreen pool and the college's decision to close the pool. As a former WER and captain of my high school swim team, this deeply saddens me. Uh, but I also know that um, we are in challenging times for our universities and college institutions and that they're having to make very hard decisions in order to sustain

themselves. Um, in the short term, I did reach out to the superintendent and they are working to make sure that they have a plan B and that there's places for their swim teams. He didn't have a firm plan yet, but he did assure me it's something that they're currently working on. So, as we learn more about that, I'll be happy to share or perhaps we can also revisit it when we have our shared joint meeting with the school board in April. Um long term, uh the city of Tumbwater participated with the city of Olympia, city of Lacy, the three school districts, the Evergreen State College, the YMCA, and several regional stakeholders on a regional aquatics feasibility study. This work happened in 2021 and 2022. Uh that work um really demonstrated that there is a need for a public swimming facility in this area. It also demonstrated that if we can work collectively regionally, we'll be much stronger as a group. Uh, one of the mechanisms in order to fund this feasibility study is a public district and there's legislation that's being considered by the state right now. Uh, and if it's approved uh and passed into law, that that gives us an opportunity to work with our partners regionally. So longterm, um, there has been some work and there's some ongoing work to look at how can we build a public swimming facility with regional partners. Short-term, we're working with the school district to make sure needs are met. But, um, just wanted to mention and highlight it since we're receiving some incoming and we'll be responding to folks as we hear from them. But if you have questions or want to talk further, uh, I was involved in the regional aquatics facility study in previous roles and would be happy to talk with any of you about some of that work. And I'll wrap up there. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We are going to start question. So the valley isn't the the indoor pool is non- Olympic is not regulation size right it's not um compet competition size for the if for the valley for the kids to use the valley pool. The valley is one of the options that I believe the school district is looking into. So that's one of the options. Yes. Okay. Let's continue with council member Sworth with your uh council member reports. Well, that smoothless. I mean smooth, not smoothless.

Okay. So, um on February 3rd, I chaired the Thirstston Climate Mitigation Collaborative Executive Committee meeting. Go. Wow. Right. So, um our own Alysa Jones Woods presented the 2024 TCMC progress report. It's very beautiful. It's very much work of art. Uh they won't be doing this every year because it takes a whole year to present to put this and she was finding out that not everybody reads it. So, um, and she was doing it. I know. Ouch. But it's, uh, so,

uh, but it's still available. You look at her work. It's on the thirst and climate mitigation website under reports and data. Um, they they've done it for the last four years. And so, their work is there, but there is a lot of other information there as well as like our regional initiatives and the things that we've been discussing. If you want to learn more about the home energy score and anything um like the climate and even like our climate plans that we did um all the information is there even the model ordinance is on that website as well. Um and then second item we discussed was the uh we had a briefing on the um the the jurisdictions on our um the shared expenses. is on the we we share the um the expenses as far as our the regional climate initiatives. We do the gas inventory. We do the admin we have an administrative um company or a gal that uh does the administrative portion for us and so we pay as the four jurisdictions we share those costs. Um uh but this year we did a new um interlocal agreement and I believe we've all signed we all signed on that one um after uh Olympia had some uh with their budget and also with the uh there's with the uh county having problems with their budget um they wrote it in there that um should any party have to be able to participate um we made some um some uh concessions in there in the the plan for that. So um anyway, but we do portion of the uh the plan is 90,000 which we've budgeted for and that includes the home energy score as well that she that Alyssa uh talked to us last week. And then I did do the budget and finance and general government will be meeting on March 11th at 11:00 a.m. and we're discussing ordinance number 02026-00001

93rd Avenue and Case Road annexation. And we'll be talking also about changing the schedule yet once again to the third Wednesday of the month to accommodate council member Kathy. you're showing how we adapt and we're flexible. So, thank you so much, Council Member Sworth. You're very welcome. Council member Sullivan, what is good and what do your seatmates need to know?

Um, since our date, I attended the regional housing um committee and also EDC. uh RHC has been working on a work plan and some budget transparency and some contingency planning uh so that we can keep moving forward and sustain um some operations that provide regional uh homeless response services housing. Um EDC uh did talk about a number of things at their meeting. Uh they elected Rousa Cassell to fill a vacancy. Um she will serve until 2027. There is one open seat on EDC um board. Uh we had a guest presentation from ECOS which is a company based out in Lacy that manufactures earth friendly products and there's an opportunity to tour the facility. They're lead certified which is pretty neat. So I'm going to try to attend a tour in the month to come. There was a presentation by Port of Olympia about uh development um seeking investors who are interested in developing a portion of Swantown Marina area um in the fan zone map. It would be the lower right. So this side of the um the boat area, but that was um enlightening to hear how the port is navigating that and um what might be possible for continued development of what is a brownfield there. Um, there was a conversation about Twater Brewery redevelopment. I see Kelly is still here, so maybe I'll leave that to her if she has anything she wants to say. Um, just to say that there's long-term processes of how we can work with the EDC um, as the city and other partners to keep moving forward on plans to redevelop the brewery in a in alignment with the community's vision. Um, and more to come on that. And I think those are the key updates that I have from EDC. Um, I'm grateful to Britney who is a member of the staff who's helping me get meetings set up with departments so that I can learn more about how I can be a good resource and partner to each

department and hear challenges and opportunities um, moving forward. So, that's my update. I dig that. Thank you. Mayor Prom Von Holtz, can your title be any longer and what is good? What do your seatmates need to know? Well, you and I and council member Weeden attended um the Black History Museum um at New Life Baptist and it was wonderful. There could have been um a little bit more Prince representation in the music parts and I am going to offer

offer up some of my collection for next year. Um, but it was wonderful and and we got good hugs from Dr. Jackson and got to see a lot of community members there. So, it was well attended and um, Council Member Weeden can talk about bringing his family, but it was a nice event. for the next set of meetings. Last inner city transit meeting um we got an update about a pilot project forers who have been writing on several routes and how that's going and that's going really really well and um I also attended the citizens committee um where they got a little update on FIFA kind of what we heard tonight. Um, next I also attended my very first budget and finance committee meeting and I will be attending my very first public works committee meeting next week. I have inner city transit tomorrow. It will be my final meeting and we're going to be um switching some things around. That will all be finalized on Saturday during our retreat. Um, public health and safety. I'm guessing we're going to be talking about Chief Keelis.

The agenda is posted. Body warn cameras. Body warn cameras. It wasn't posted. And the meeting time. And the meeting time for um new membership. And I also have lot coming up next week. So more to come on that. Thank you. Mayor Potan von Holtz, council member, what is good? What do your seatmates need to know? Um, I my meetings are next week and the week after. So, nothing to report.

Thank you so much, Council Member Agabi. Council member Jefferson, what do your seatmates need to know? Yes, at the public sorts committee on Thursday, February 19th, we discussed the service pro provider agreement with Gray and Osborne for well number 15, aation and design project. So this is well number 15 is our second biggest well one of 12 and it was a detailed discussion. We're going to talking about auxiliary power and looking at the pH balance. So, um I think there was a write up in the jolt about that. Also, we discussed final acceptance of work with A&D Enterprises for the Anson sewer project. also final acceptance of work with miles resources for the Israel road pedestrian and bike project and close the meeting with talking about the fiber optic cabling agreement with Washington State Department of Transportation amendment number 17. This Thursday, 11:00, we're going to discuss reimburseable agreement with Washington State Department of Transportation for the Tumblr Boulevard and I5 interchange project, acceptance of work with Northwest Cascade for the Lynwood Avenue sidewalk, uh, Second Avenue project, and it says committee meeting schedule, but I think we're squared away with the committee meeting schedule, right? So is

you'll find out at the meeting. Okay, we might not be. So more to follow.

Look at him. So we just got uh uh I also attended EMS council meeting um meet the operations committee report on 2016 projects new medic wagons and a raffle for unwanted vehicle a job vacancy for a part-time administrator position in the west region and the staff reported highlighting uh our EMT class with 28 students a training coordinator position oh and an update uh No new is needed because we're going to remain there in the county building. We're going to continue to rent that office space. So, that is off the table. I also had a meeting with our city administrator, our communication manager, and Brandon Weeden. Why? Uh looking at you Tom Motor been firing off all types of emails. We wanted to I wanted to discuss Tomata's business outreach and marketing and promotion. Um, one was let's host a business roundt and this all came about because I was with the mayor at a business event where I met and we just wanted to talk about you know how can we help our business owners how can we be more user friendly and one of the things of it was have a business roundt you know with the mayor listen to what our business owners have to say they might have ideas on how we can meet them where they are maybe an ebl Last um create a userfriendly business website. How can we open more new businesses? I'm I'm talking small micro business, homebased businesses. So just have a place on the website. This way people can know what they need. You need a permit, you need a small business license, you need a state license, EIN,

etc. Um, also talked about using Tomart's history as a guide to the future. What do I mean? Let's leverage and highlight the Dashuites River and brewery history because that's what Tumbwater is. That's what people want to see. They want to see Brewery Falls when they come to Tumbwater. Um, we should also create a Tumbit founders tour more detailed than the George W. Bush experience Olympian beyond that I had um proposed and was accepted on their website but I would like it to be more specific to Tom order. This way when people come to Tom order they can they can say you know what this is an exciting city. This is what I want to see. So envision walking, biking, driving tours of Tamorta, historic and modern sites for um residents, elementary and high school students as well as for nearby JBLM soldiers, airmen learning about our community. Um we also talked about creating a passport program for the tour. Now what does a passport program looks like? And it was like what um we were briefed on today. It's online and it's digital. Um, and cities use it to support small businesses, increase foot traffic, promote tourism, get residents to discover places they've never been, highlight our unique culture and neighborhoods. So again, it's going to be incentives. Uh, we talked about it. We talked about specifically an app for and also we can obtain funding for it. So we're going to talk more about that. I think I've said enough and thank you, mayor.

So that's all really good. Council member Jefferson, I dig it. And more to come. Council member Weeden, you have to go after Angela. So, uh, there you go.

I'll make it short and sweet. I did not have any committee assignments this week. I have them coming up. Um, what's good? I did attend uh the Black History Museum along with Mayor Dhof and Pro Tim Von Holtz. I was able to bring my wife and my youngest kiddo with us. Um, it was a great great museum setup. Um, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a big learning lesson. Um, I was able to talk to a lot of individuals that were there as well. Uh, it was just great to go ahead and see the impacts that everybody from the black community has made to our society. Uh, fast pitch season is officially here. With it being um, women's history month, it's definitely fast pitch season, not baseball season. So, we have that coming up. uh Tom Motor Baseball uh their practices officially start I believe the week of March 16th and I am fostering for um with Jazzcom. So uh if anybody would like a kitten, they will be up for adoption here.

This meeting has been full of amazing tidbits. If you don't come go away with a cat or learning about our council members, I don't know what's wrong with you. You give me part of the passport. I love it. Yeah. Passport program. Jazzcom. You go get a cat, a pet. I love that. Anything? I got to I got to end this meeting. Any other business? Not seeing none. Council member Sullivan, I was joking. I would like photos of the kittens, please. You know what? That's valid. Valid. Can we have photos next time and we incorporate them into the presentation? Thank you so much. Melanie, take note. Cat insert. Okay. Uh,