City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone. You have made it to Tuesday, April 14th. It is 6 PM. We are here with two members from the Tom Water School District board and our city council meeting has not been called to order. We're going to do roll call and we're going to start with council and staff and then go to the school district. And so our thoughts were we all can see our name. So, if you can say your name and your title and for council, how long you have served the city of Tom Water and yeah, let's do it. Also, staff, how long you've served our community. So, we're going to start with acting chief Carlos.

Acting Chief Carlos Keith, police chief. Uh, been working for Tom Water for 25 years. Council member Angela Jefferson, position number two. I was appointed during COVID and then I ran for um elections I would say about five years now. Oh, I said that but not you're just right here. So why would I go all around the rules in I was going to follow the rules of mayor.

That's why I like to break my own rules. I'm Melissa Beard uh with Tomar School Board. I've been on the board since 2016, 10 years. Any further? Uh, council position four. I got appointed at what 2014?

So I am Peter Gabby and I believe I think I have been a counselor since uh this is my fifth year. Yeah, you're on your second. Yes. My thank you. My name is Lea Dhov and I'm fresh to this role. Uh though I have served on council since 2018. My name is Paul Simmons, city administrator and Thursday will be the end of three months. Uh Brandon Ween City Council position one. I have been here for almost three months. in January.

I'm a park recreation director. Uh 31 years. How many days is that? Megan Sullivan. She her position five come water city council. Um I have served for four months and what day is it today? 14 days. Um newly elected this year and have served water in other capacities for 20 years. I'm Julie Watts, um, school board director for, uh, to school district, director, district one, and, um, I have been serving the school board for a whole four months. We're all looking at you, Joe, happy.

Yes, I've been here a while. I mean, not just tonight, but um, I, uh, been here I think that it it's 18 years. Um, I started in 2008. Um, so I've been here a while, been through a few things and even done some things right and uh contributed to the community. But that's because that's because the Fleta, even before she was mayor, she would kick me under the table, look at me, raise her eyebrow, um let me know that um maybe we'll talk about that later. So, I still still I still feel at home uh under her leadership, and I'm glad to be with this this council and these new people. It's a It's a good feeling to watch all these good things happen. So, I'm happy to be here. Glad to work with the school district. I've served on a school board before, so I know how exciting it is.

Thank you, J. We look forward to your engagement with this meeting with a lot of the topics that I know are close to your heart. I'd also just because staff are here that aren't at the main table, I'd still like staff to identify themselves because they are taking time out of their day to be here and support this joint meeting. You want to start, Kelly? I don't know if the microphone is on. I'm Kelly Adams. I'm the assistant city administrator. Um, and I have been here for over a year. IT director. I've been here first, deputy city clerk. I've been here for a year and a half. Jen Cole who set up the police department and J will be 26 years communications director city for 19 years and my two best

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so with that roll call being established. I do have one question for council and our guest. We have a guest who we are waiting for to join in the discussion with the school resource officer update. Do you all feel comfortable just pushing that down a little bit as we wait for that guest? And we're going to start with Chuck regarding shared facility usage and he's going to time the Tomlin fresh program. Can you use your microphone for just a second regarding council member? Has she been officially?

Thank you, Tracy. That's why such a great team. She is excused and we have a statement from her that administrator Simmons will read. Thank you. So for our guests that are here, Julia and Melissa, for the council work sessions, council is comfortable being more informal and using first names if you feel comfortable. And also the expectation is we lead with curiosity and we have questions and we engage with each other. So if that's comfortable with you too, we like to model that by with these subject items to feel free to engage and ask questions with the intention for me as facilitating is building the relationship and the rapport with you two who are present with the current council and our staff. Does that sound okay to everyone?

Okay, before Chuck starts, I do have a question. Who who is missing from this room? So, we know Ty, board member Tai is in Montana. We know that Rob made mention at one of your schoolboard meetings that he would also be out of town. So, I would like not expecting Melissa or Julie to answer anything, but I would like a followup or circle back of why Tomwater School District staff are not here, why the superintendent is not here, and the board president is not here. I would like an update. So Paul, could you make a note that I'd like to understand from a meeting that we have been scheduling been working on since January why no staff are present and why the superintendent is not here?

Thank you. Now with that awkward transition, Chuck, would you like to talk about shared facility usage and the water brush program? Yeah. Um, this issue came up um for president November, December last year, I met with uh Mel Murray from the school district u exactly a title facility director

um to talk about uh some of the things the school board was talking about uh and things that they would like to possibly see happen. Uh most of that revolved around water parks doing more maintenance uh on school district property because we use the property um and although we we pay fees to use the property, they were hoping that we could come to an agreement where um similar to what Olympia does and maybe Paul you can jump in if there's questions on that. um where Olympia takes care of a lot of Olympia school, Olympia parks takes care of a lot of Olympia school district grounds and in exchange for that they get uh use of the facilities after school hours. They schedule groups on school district property.

So obviously whether whether the school district does that or the city does that there's cost involved in that. Uh that was really my my discussion with Mel.

We don't have the capacity to do that right now. Uh we would have to add staff. we'd have to add equipment that the school district is currently occurring uh to take care of those those grounds mostly their playgrounds for right big grass open space u so we we kind of left it at that that we were in a position to to make a new agreement similar to Olympia's financially make sense for us usewise it doesn't really make sense for us because we don't use a lot of outdoor school employees and maybe to to outline that the kind of the money back and forth between the the city and the school district. As far as the parks department goes, we spend about $62,000 a year renting school district facilities. Uh probably 95% or more of that is indoor. So it's, you know, it's day camps and team camps and sports camps, basketball league, PYP, the water program. Those those are the big ones. We do a few classes and small events, but mostly it's it's almost all youth programming and it's almost side. I think we spend about $1600 a year renting uh baseball. This is the eighth city that I've had the opportunity to work for and every single one of them and I've worked in primarily in the parks and recreation world. Every single other city had a joint use agreement that formally established how the city and the school district would share facilities. Recognizing that we're both taxpayer funded. We're both supporting communities. there's benefits to the school district to have communities in the schools because it increases the value when you all need to pursue ballot measures and other things. Um when we have an opportunity to have kids and

adults and families in the schools, it also increases kids health and and activeness and and the level of activities that's happening in the community. So there's there's benefits across the board and and so I you know where everything I've seen it from department of health um to best practices there's always formal standards of how the you know facilities are shared and each city that I've worked in they've looked a little bit different and there are different nuances of how um each one's used. So it would be I don't think we need to go out mimic anything that's happening in any particular place. We need to come up with something that works for us. But in talking to Chucks, I I was surprised to learn that we don't have an interlocal agreement between the school district and the city that talk that speaks to facility use. And it would be great to to as a whether it be a one or a two or threeear goal to talk about what a process might look like to develop such a thing. Uh the reality is, you know, when we um when those fees get passed on to us, we then pass those on to the participants in the programs. And so it's now we're we're basically charging the people that are paying the taxes to support both our entities another fee on top of that which for most kids is probably fine, but for some kids does create barriers in their ability to participate in that sort of thing. So I just I think there's an opportunity to serve the community better. Um, and I think if we put our heads together, there's maybe some things that we could do that maybe could increase and support maintenance operations or other things and vice versa, there may be some some things that could improve our ability to serve the community from a programmatic standpoint. So, we wanted to get this on here as more of a conversation starter to say, hey, is the school district interested in starting a dialogue around what a joint use agreement might look? So the way it is now, what we just go up is is your facility use fee schedule and I think you probably there last time

that was redone um parks and recreation and the YMCA are a category on the fee schedule and we paid less than you know other nonprofits or community groups that just want to use it for whatever whatever purpose. So, if I was stay on the flip side, the city does um receive some money from the school district. Um at the golf course, we charge $1,500 a team uh for the season. So, uh boys and girls, two teams each high school. So, you're paying $6,000 a year for golf. That's about a 75% discount on what we would see in revenue if we didn't have schools. Um it's it's a certainly a money loser for us, but something that we're committed to uh and serving youth in the community and getting getting people out there, getting families out there. Um so, uh that's that's our revenue about

thoughts from council and our guests. what Chuck has shared so far.

Um, I can speak to the fact that as a coach and a parent, it's been very frustrating to get field time, to get uh court time when you are trying to coach kids, especially in the younger kids that do not understand the game yet and when you have a game a week and you only have a practice a week or there's breaks in between and you don't even have any time trying to work with Charlie and been like, "Hey, what do you have this week? What what's available?" and there's nothing. And yet you go into a facility and it's somewhat empty or you look around like this gym. You have to also build like some relationships too. It's like the handshake deal is sometimes valuable. It's like how do I get more gym time, you know, and those have not worked out for me, but I have heard of other coaches being able to use facilities in that way. Um, and it it's frustrating when there should be a process and it doesn't always seem like there there is a working well process to it. Um, before I was appointed here too, I was talking to um, Melissa about the fire versus ice game and how hard it was for um, our facilities we use for giving back to our community and that there was no real way of working that out to where there wasn't a financial cost back when they're providing such a great service back to our community. So,

I mean to add to that, Melissa and I shared the cost of that and we sponsored them, right?

Yeah. A total cost of Yeah. And it it was one of those things where I said it's not really even a cost. That's not what the problem was. It was the whole entire principle of the idea behind it was that they are providing a service back. They're giving back to a set of children that wouldn't otherwise have access to these. And it's I I would just love to go ahead and be able to work on something together to make it more inclusive, more a better process that we're not having barriers for kids to get into facilities. You know, the more we keep our children and our youth into programs like this, the less trouble they can get into. And it's about building the community. We have playgrounds that are not used all summer long that are just sitting there when you have, you know, grandparents that could walk to some of these elementary schools and be able to use an open field. They don't have a playground. So,

so Brandon, you are open have an ongoing conversation with the school district regarding shared facility usage.

Yeah, absolutely. I'm totally committed to that process. I I think what we would be interest what the school district would be interested in is providing more opportunities, you know, or after school or weekend, you know, just more extracurricular activities, which is not our expertise. We're great with them in the school and we need more partnerships with the community, with the city, with others about giving extracurricular activities and not just, you know, not not just athletic. Yeah. opportunities, but uh opportunities in other areas, opportunities for our elementary, opportunities for our middle schools. And so in in terms of the you know shared facilities use, I think what we would be looking for is what can we increase the offerings to students as we work on shared facility usage what you know what more opportunities can we provide kids? I think that is a great partnership.

Absolutely. Yeah. And then like you said, it's not just about the sports. It's about all extracurricular activities. If it's music, if it's art, if it's sports, it doesn't matter more than we keep our youth involved. It builds community and it keeps everybody engaged and it brings not only the kids, but it also brings in the parents and grandparents and they're actually building a fundamental community where they're all going. We already pay for it as our tax dollar. So why is there such a barrier to being able to use these? And that aligns with your strategic goals and priorities that you developed and said that are priorities. Exactly. Y difficulties, you know, with budgets. I mean, are right.

Um and and your difficulties with budgets and and the new janitorial contract where, you know, they're not being paid overtime, so their hours are set. That hasn't been the case in the past. Um and they don't work on Sundays. So that takes you know half our week into whatever we're doing out of the possibility for scheduling. So so really it's a shortage of you know gyms in particular because you can so many things in that space that that we're trying to address. I think as as we move towards, you know, designing a community center, that's going to that's going to help and solve some of that need, but still parents be able to take their kids to an activity, whatever it is, at the school where they go most convenient and them with the people that they go to school with. So, it's comfortable and and probably most enjoyable. So, we try to do that. do want to make sure too, I know we're talking about places we want to go. There is a good foundation to start from. Without the partnership with the school district, our programs would be severely lacking. So, our ability to do TYP, our ability to do the youth basketball and the access to the schools that we have as a speaking as a parent, uh, with kids who have grown up in these programs, uh, it's it's incredible. So, I think we have a strong foundation to work from. So, I don't want to make it sound like we're complaining or that we're not happy. I think what I would love is I think there's an opportunity if we work together to serve the community even better. And that's really I I want to make sure that we kind of get that tone.

Back in the olden days, Ter Hill used to do some classes after school. Um because there's that gentleman that um not writing and they did like a foreign language and they did some art classes and stuff and that um parents paid like a nominal fee and I remember that they had I remember my little guys in that so yeah because we didn't have I don't think we had care at the time so that was a precursor to I walk just an opportunity to write something when you're talking some other offerings that they had, things like that. The schools that it allowed um some opportunity opportunities for some artists in town to be able

that um and then I was just so can is a you know, can you go play on your playground at during the summertime? If I wanted to take my grandkids to Water Hill Elementary to go play during the summer, you can't do that. I don't know. Well, I know what like for sure it's so yeah, anything that off I mean again that goes back to like there's there's going to be issues and there's going to be yeah something yeah that's for me to go. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

We used to know that Peter G. But Black Lake like the only way in for again olden days since I take my kids up to play on the playground. So in that neighborhood while Peter G is not locked on the weekends during the school year. I have taken my child to Peter G. I think Peter G is located on that one. I'm just gonna acknowledge it. East Olympia, there's a fence all the way around it. Yeah.

But but there is a gate that you can access to get in. It's just not friendly or welcome. So, you can actually get onto the playground and into the field, but you have to know you have to know where the gate is. I'm not supporting that.

I don't know. advocating because I understand but if you wanted to go

it but the gate is not locked um and I'm a town water resident that has Olympia schools for my school district and they have a whole key card system and like an application process so advocating that we go in that direction but I think there are more the calls that you get But all valid, right? So ongoing conversation that those things that unintended consequences, physical barriers. That's great. Before Chad moves on to this home water fresh program, can I do a temperature check with Julie and the rest of council? Do you feel comfortable moving forward with ongoing conversations about shared facility usage? Absolutely.

I could have some budget invocations. So heads up to council when we start we're starting our budget process to think about that line item potentially. Yeah. Yeah. That's just more access to the community, healthy environment, healthy community. Especially with all this digital generation, we need to get them out the house and just get them out in the fields and running and just jumping because it makes them healthy.

Break it into parks. Yeah, Angela support. And what I wanted to add is that my background is in public health and there's like public health science that supports pretty much everything that most of you have said here tonight about you know connection to schools um mental health physical health um pro-social like building community um parent and family connection to schools. So um big big support

definitely interested in continuing the conversation. I think really the benefit of our having like a joint meeting between council and the school board is the I just really appreciate the opportunity to have this conversation and be able to explore but definitely interested in continuing. Thank you. I see Joan Cathy has her head available to Eileen and then we our guest is here. So we're going to pause the fresh program. So Chuck, you have to stay a little bit longer. So Joan, you have the floor. You're talking to me. Yes, I'm talking to you.

Oh, okay. I thought you said we'd wait until after. Um I just had a quick question. is uh the school the the school board know that some of the hesitancy that over time they've had about us using things and having to sneak into the things as our city administrator has shown us how to do how to get into the property. I'm just wondering if the school district has some issues with insurance with people using school facilities is some of the hesitancy of uh being more liberal if you will uh about having activities on their campus. We definitely have had people using our facilities that we have to we have to be careful. Uh and so there's there's there there's insurance issues. There's there's like a fee schedule that you know Chuck talks about like like group one. I I don't know exactly what they're called, but you know, the the fee schedule is such that we're going to prioritize programs that serve our students, and that's why there's a there's a lower rate. Um, so, so we've had lots of convers I think that's probably how I first met Brandon was talking about this basketball game. And, um, I think it's trying to make sure that it's not who it's not based on who, you know, but we're trying to be fair. So then we're not caught in, you know, try trying to either say yes or no based on who we said yes or no to before. So I think the continuous talks is what you know about you know if we're creating a program that serves our students I can

see that as an avenue to talk about this but we are especially recently with our facilities have been used in a in a way that communicates something about our community and that is what we are hesitant about and that is what we are always we are always thinking about in terms of fairness and first amendment rights and all of those things. But I I I think we get there by having the conversation and figuring out how how things benefit our students, our community. That was a really long answer without

the reason I the reason I asked the question is because this is not a new conversation for council. uh over the years and that is an answer that we always get. And so if we know we're going to get an answer similar to that each time, maybe there's something we could do as the council, as the city to enter the conversation with some suggestions. And I just want to make sure I hear what you're saying that it it depends on who it is who's going to use it, what it is they're going to use the facilities for that they would be allowed to do it. I'm just trying to understand the gate here for allowing

right to use the facilities. Great point, John. Thank you. Right. Eileen, did you wanna you had your hand? Do you want to wrap this up and then we'll go to the school resource officer? I just wanted to follow up on on Paul's comment about the interlocal agreement that we don't have an interlocal agreement on facility use. I just found that kind of a surprise that would be something that would be nice to talk to

yeah a lot of this if we had something in place with their administration. or one one model I I'd love to throw out there as we talk about a joint use agreement when I worked for Parks Tacoma there is a whole child initiative which is this concept that the park district the city the county the school district everyone's coming together and the idea that kids are a third of the day they're in the school a third of the day they're with the community and a third of the day they're with the family and how can we inter interweb our resources from a capital perspective from an oper operating perspective to best sure serve the whole child and develop healthy kids and healthy communities. And so we can talk about some highle premise to start the joint use agreement conversation that could set the stage for the types of things we would love to see to get out of it.

Yeah, thank you for that followup. So Chuck, do you have enough direction to then take this the support and then come up with some perspective options and ongoing conversations? Yeah, thank you. Thank you. So, now we're going to go back to item number three for the school resource officer update. And with us tonight, we have our acting chief Carlos Kilz and Thirsten County Sheriff Derek Sanders who are going to talk to us about where we're at the current state. Chief, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, first I would like to thank Director Watts and Director Beard for being here and Sheriff Sanders um busy schedule and taking the time to show up for me um this evening. And I I asked Derek to be here because I think it's important that people see the relationship that Tom Water has with the sheriff's office. It's an important relationship. We work closely together. We support one one another. And certainly we would reciprocate anything the sheriff's office does for us, we do for them as well. Um I'd also like to acknowledge uh Lieutenant Cole is in the audience tonight. She runs our school resource program. So she's attending to answer any questions that I may not be able to. So thank you. Thank you for being here. I want to just start to really start this talk about um perception versus reality on the school resource officer and what has happened since uh officer bowling was reassigned on February uh 23rd. Um so the perception was that reassigning the SRO was going to cause major problems for Tomwater School District. Since the temporary reassignment, Officer Staer has been delivering outstanding level of service. And to date, um, I have not been notified of any calls, issues, or investigations that have not been handled by our SRO andor with support of our patrol staff. And if school district staff were here, I would confirm that and making sure I'm getting that accurate information. But as of right now, we are still performing and delivering um a high level of school resource officer service to all of the Tom Water schools. So in the interim, while we're um waiting to get staffing so that we can reassign a second SRO, what have we done? Our officers are frequencying the schools on a higher um frequency basis. Um we've increased school zone enforcement so that we have visibility um in the schools so people see us out there. pattern that was done in conjunction with the sheriff's office

for uh helping us um with that, showing what collab being collaborative and working together looks like. Um we've identified um four pretty big events that school resource officer should attend. And so we've asked officer bowling to attend both graduations for Tomwater High School and Black Hills High School as well as a car show that's happening at Tomwater High School that he started and as well as the Tomwater High School prom. So the same SRO that um these uh kids have seen will still be present for them there even though he is temporarily working uh patrol right now. Um going forward what does this look like you know as we reach the end of this school year and we look forward to the one that's going to be starting here um in September is we in Twater firmly believe that Tumbwater cops should still be in Twater schools. um understanding that if in September we are still unable to fill a second SRO, what do we do in the interim? Um we have one SRO and he is doing just fine. I do believe that he is capable of handling all of water schools um by himself with our patrol staff. Um, but I also know that the the sheriff has u mentioned that if patrol staffing is available or he has staffing available, that might be something the sheriff's office would be willing to talk about or consider. Um, and I won't speak for the sheriff. I'll I'll let him um speak at the at the end um there. But certainly if that's the direction that the council and the school board wanted to go, um we're very comfortable working with the sheriff's office. Um, like I said, we we work hand in hand, support each other. I would just make want to make it um clear that our intention is to staff a second SRO and when we have that ability, we would like to make sure that that opportunity is still there so

that Tomwater officers are in Twater schools. Um, that's our number one um goal. Uh, we only used to have one SRO for a really long time and it it worked just fine. Um, is it ideal? No. Is it the worst case scenario? No. Right. Uh, one SRO can handle the schools. Having two is great. It frees up more time, allows the officers to create a little bit more relationships and have more free time. Um, and that certainly is important. But reason why I say that is I want to make it very clear like we are not in a worst case scenario in Tom Water schools. And certainly uh if I thought we were, I would be on the phone with Sheriff Sanders saying, "I need your help right now." And I know that he would do everything in his power to help Tom Water and the Tom Water Police Department. Um in closing before I turn it over to Sheriff Sanders is, uh it's important to people to know that there are many people at this table who are invested in Tumbwater and the Tumb Water School Districts. Um Mayor Dhof is a Tumwater kid. Uh, council member Sullivan is a Tom Water kid, graduated from Tumbwater. Director uh, Beard has a child in the Twater School Director or in the Tumbwater School District. Council member Oh, Watts, I'm sorry. Director, my apologies. Um, Director Watts has a child in the Twater School District. Um, Director Beard is a Tomwater kid. Um, graduated Tom Water. Council Member Brandon graduated from Black Hills High School and has kids in the Tom Water School District. Um, and I myself am a Tom Water kid, graduated from Twater High School. And the reason why I say that is to put emphasis that everyone at this table wants the same thing and cares about Tumbwater and Tumbwater schools just as much as everyone else. And certainly I firmly believe that if anyone in this room thought that we were in a dire position where we really

needed to do something drastic now we absolutely would. So with that I'll turn it over to Sheriff Sanders. Oh good evening. Uh also Tom Waterrad go ahead and drop that little truth bomb on you there. Um 11. Sorry. Sorry, we don't want to hear. Um, but uh, nonetheless, nonetheless,

just here to uh, support the city of Tom Water in the school district and I help answer any questions if we have to. Uh, I will tell you right now that like police staffing is one of the most challenging jobs in the entire country, managing a police department. Hardest thing I've ever done. Um, about a month ago, I think we were at the Tom Water School Board. Since then, I had two, three abrupt resignations um, from the sheriff's office. So, we're also back in like the how do we get this thing ramped back up and I've got 10 waiting go waiting to go to the academy right now. So, we're we're not too dissimilar from the rest of our um rest of our counterparts. Uh for me, the SRO program is extremely important. Uh as a county elected, like I see it across the entire spectrum. So, all the way from Yelm to Tumbwater, North Thirsten, Olympia, um I really truly believe in the SRO program. And so, really my only role here is just to support the city however we need to. Uh, I have no hostile takeover, not here to take the SRO contract or anything like that. I want to make it really clear though, uh, some different options came up at the last meeting with the school district and I I kind of leaned over uh to Paul and was like, "Hey, like they need to be kind of educated on this a little bit." Um, putting patrol cops in schools is not an SRO program. That's not what that is. Um, an SRO program is very specifically built around selecting competitively the right person to be around kids and do a job that is no longer about law enforcement, mostly about social services. It's really social work. Um, and so simply having more presence around the school is is a security issue. That's not a school resource officer issue. Like school resource officers do provide more security, but that's that's almost like an ancillary duty. Uh really what they're there to do is resolve problems at the lowest level and build relationships with kids. Um the coolest thing in my opinion about the school resource officer program and I know this is true in Tumbwater is what kids will disclose to SRO's they trust. Uh the party where there's going to be hard drugs, the party where there's no

coordinated uh designated drivers and everyone's going to be drinking. Like those are the kind of things that are preventative in nature and it's one of the few areas in law enforcement where we really get to claim the preventative side of things. uh most of what we're do is just reacting to crime. SRO's are truly there to prevent crime, not just walk hallways, you know, with a big stick. So, I want to be really clear about like that model of just getting more cops at the school. If there's a security problem, well, we can always throw more patrol deputies at that problem, but that's not an SRO. SRO's have a lot more training. They're handpicked and it's it's a very very specific program if you want it to succeed. So, just wanted to add that feedback in there. I guess unsolicited feedback. Um, and again, however I can help. Sure. Thanks.

Can we hear from Jen since she's been running this program? Can you come up to the table and join us?

Sure. And just tell us, you know, you've been going through this and part of this. What are your thoughts? What What would you like council to know? Um, first and foremost, I'd like to say that um, our SRO program, I think, leads the county in how we handle um, situations. The mo the natural model that we follow, our SRO's follow um, I think was brought up at the the last meeting, which I really appreciate. Yeah, I really appreciate, you know, the education factor that you have on that because not a lot of people understand the model that we follow, which is the educator, the law enforcement officer and well, the informal counselor, right? And our SRO's have done a phenomenal job of really living that model and providing a service to this community that I mean really has set the bar, you know, has set the bar for a lot of counties. And I think the fact that so many people have come out and you know spoken positive things about the program says a lot about the officers that we've select. I mean, um, Sheriff, you you you're very eloquent in what you just said, and I really appreciate that because it it's not just a security thing, and it's really how they live and do the work. And the support that we've had from the school district, staff, the students, um, the board, you know, over the years, um, has been phenomenal and we want to keep that going. you know, you've you've heard me over the years, we want to continue to build the program, right? You know, the fact that this is a setback and this is a temporary setback um is unfortunate and we want to keep building this program because the service that our SRO's provide is invaluable. And so, um you know, I I when I say that it's a

temporary setback, I firmly believe that. I think uh Esther Staer is doing an incredible job. um and you know getting good feedback from the schools, getting good feedback from uh some of the district member members at the district level um since he's you know been doing it by himself and you know I've heard from my my own team what an excellent singing voice he was I was like you know it's like do you know the SRO at your school?

Well he has a great sing and I mean you see most of the evidence you know the case that or just finger, right? But, you know, with that said is that he also has the backing of our detectives division because um our SRO program is run through our investigations division. And so, you know, he has that support where it's needed. It's not just him out there doing it by himself because there is patrol, there is investigation all the way up to me, the chief, you know, we step in where, you know, the work needs to be done. That's never been a problem. So, you know, I continue to support, you know, to water cost and to motor schools, whether it's one or it's, you know, the four that I wanted the last the last budget cycle. So, um I I like I said, I can't say it any more than than that. So, hope that really, you know, impresses upon you guys how important that somewhere cost somewhere in school. And the reason why this was an agenda item is to have school board members and staff from the school district to connect with council regarding the current state and expectations we have moving forward. I just want to note again for the record there are no staff from the Tom Water School District. And Tracy, can you verify that there's no one from the school district participating? Does the name people don't

uh do you all want to hear who's watching online? Yeah.

I have Jerome Call. I have a Sarah W. I have Ty Vincent from the Olympian and Ty Machi. No staff again. So, it's hard for us to be here today to come up with some perspective options, right, to go and mull over when we have the opportunity to have our sheriff here and our chief and Jenny who's been running this program. So, looking to Melissa and Julie, not putting the pressure on you, but we've been trying to put this meeting together since January to come together. So, where do we go from here tonight knowing that we don't have school district staff here? Um, I I know that our our staff appreciate the partnership with the city of Tom Waters.

Can you say that again?

I know that our staff appreciate the partnership with the city of Tom Waters. I know that SRO um staffer was really busy right before spring break. Um and I I also I I want to this this has been a long this has been a long partnership and even when other districts were dropping their astro that was never a question in Tumblr never a question. So I I just we all know what has happened you know in the in the short you know past um in which a lot of districts uh let go of their esro program and that was that never came up uh for the school board. So I just I I want that I think that's really important never had an agenda item on it. So I I I just want to that um reinforcement of we know how important they are to our kids and to the to the community. Uh the I how we move forward is is a great question since not I'm I'm here as a board member but I can't represent the board. Um, but I'm I'm speaking for myself. So, I will always support this partnership. Oh gosh, getting to four would be amazing.

I support that goal, too. And that's good feedback for council, right? Because we're starting the budget cycle next. So, this is good feedback for council.

Yeah. And especially with what I can say is the concern from our other school board members make it sound like they would also want more uh since this was such a such a surprise and um so uh disruptive to a few of our school board members when Officer Bowling had to go back to patrol. It you know if I can extrapolate like it sounds like they want more support in our schools since they are so upset about losing one. So, you know, I just following the following the logic of the actions and the conversations we've had recently, it seems like that would be supportive. Uh the don't know how to move forward without staff here other than to say that I that I personally will be supportive of increasing. So, I guess I'd like to send give it this space back to the chief and the sheriff and Jen since we don't have staff here from the school district. What do you three I mean, what does that look like for you three? Because we've talked about staffing until September and the sheriff's like we don't have participants here willing to talk to us and work through this. How can we model the way and set expectations? That's difficult when you get when you don't have anyone you can have a conversation with. Um that's really hard. Um I personally think um just like just like I stated earlier is I personally think that we are okay with one SRO until we can get a second SRO in in the schools. I think in September if we can't staff that position how we're handling the school now we are delivering a high level of service still to the schools that one SRO can handle uh the workload and do what is needed. I firmly believe that and just like I said earlier, if I didn't believe that, I

would be on the phone to the sheriff saying, "I need help. Um, please help us." And I don't think that's the case, mayor. Um, that my recommendation is that we keep the one Tom Water cop in the Tumb Water Schools. He's doing amazing work. He has a lot of support. He's making the connections with the kids that he needs to uh make. He's wellreceived um and extremely well-liked. Um, and so right now, you know, I I think we're okay. Um, like I said, is it ideal? No. But is it the worst case scenario? Absolutely not. We're still we're still delivering a great service and Twater School District is still getting what they getting what they need. So are their students. I just wanted to um acknowledge and uh just that there was I think it was very unfortunate the way uh the last school board meeting um the agenda item was placed on the agenda. Um, I think it it doesn't reflect um how the um superintendent or other members of the school board feel that the relationship is going. And so I just wanted to I apologize that that occurred. Um because I think that that was not an ideal way for us to have this conversation and not the way we should be having this conversation. I deeply appreciate the opportunity to have it now with with all of you. Um, I also wanted to just reiterate something I said in the meeting and I think is extremely important, which is that our schools will be safer when the Twater Police Department is able to deploy its officers where they are most needed. When our community is safer, our schools are safer. Right? And this is so much more like that. We've already talked and

I'll just reiterate the SRO program is about so much more than security in the schools. There's that counseling element as you mentioned um that that social work element to it and um I think that you know it's it's going great. So would I just want to you we're committed to the program. I think that I can speak for the for all of us to say how committed we are to the program. We're committed to to Tom Water um and Tom Water Police in the program. I think that that is something I heard from other board members as well and I know that it's a commitment on the part of the superintendent and the staff to continue um a positive relationship there and I hope we can go forward from this meeting to have further conversations. I do know we have discussed um at the Twater School Board some concepts, some ideas and want to talk with uh council about ways that we can continue to the conversation. Right. Um the we have a proposal around you know two members of council two members of uh the school board the city administrator and the superintendent having some kind of regular way that we are meeting that wouldn't replace I think a meeting like this this is something that's important as well but you know would really love to you know continue so that we can have these kinds of conversations and tap in

uh to to to have a better better tone going forward. I want to hear from council. I know Peter, before the meeting started, you had asked a question of like, well, if the timing didn't work for some people to attend, should council go to a schoolboard meeting? Peter, do you want to talk about that?

Yes. So, um, I used to live in Gen. I came here in 2006. iPhone set it up. um finish at high school is now over at um my and Jonathan al high school and um that's so before that back in 2003 my wife sister lived in live in London asked two two sons. One of the sons Sam was getting in trouble that if you live in certain extent that you're going to get in trouble. That's just what it is. So the mom wanted him to come to a school in America where being a British citizen to leave the visa. So I called the high school. I went to high school and I said, "Well, here's my issue. I have this um boy who went to attend high school here. is now a US citizen. What should we do? The person on the phone said to me, "Well, you know, um that's not good because they used to allow minority student here at the school. They don't do that no more. That's not I never met this guy. I didn't know what he looked like. I didn't prompt you. That's why he took me on the phone. I swear to God." Well, anyhow, I said to myself, I hope to God when my kids go to that school, that's not going to be the case. But it has been the case. And I'm not alone. I had hoped that all along I've been hearing when we walk

with the scriptures. I say, you know what? I have my runs running with them. Not my kids, not me. It has not always worked. Kids will be kids. So when kids have issues, you expect the adult to the adult and moderate. But when the adults start to shoot one person based upon certain preconceived notion, then we have the issue of racism. It would have been nice to see if they were here, but they're not here. So, I think if they're not here, maybe we could go to them because the uh this conversation is very very very important. It goes beyond this all and goes beyond discrepancy. You said we live in the city of what 30 28 2200

it's not the place if men know for oh that is a woman can be doing this we're only 26 people that's not what we should be known for but that's who we are some People in their mind have assumed that I look at those pictures of the world. I kept looking, I kept smiling, right? They want but they are fighting a loose loose battle. As soon as they I satisfied that people like me are going to live here are going to come here and we all live together as friends or fight all the time and to live together as one we have to start from here. So,

hey, I have an addition. um in uh day job work in public health um at the intersection of public health and education. I've had the privilege of sitting in on joint meetings and joint sessions of Twater City Council and Twater School Board um over a long arc and there is precedent for it wasn't called whole child but for for joint efforts between the city and the school board centering kids and centering families and centering public health and so I'm really hopeful that we can grow from here. This has been kind of a rough start as a new member of council and I'm not making it personal about me, but it's been like kind of a bumpy few months I think people would call it. But I'm I'm optimistic that whether it is we work with the superintendent and the school board to find a time and a place where we can come to you um when it's convenient to you to continue these conversations. I think the will is there and the genuine commitment is here for doing right by kids and building community and there's a lot of opportunity. I mean council doesn't request joint meetings very often. So for council to request a meeting with the school district and the board members that that's important and I think I think we need to continue moving forward and I want this meeting you all to feel comfortable sharing your expectations. We've heard from Peter and Megan some of their expectations. Any other council member like to share?

I want to thank everyone who has made the effort to be here tonight for the ongoing commitment to our community. The absence of individuals this evening speaks clearly to where their true priorities lie. I would also like to acknowledge that Mr. Ke and his regrets he's currently out of state uh for work. He's expressed a strong willingness to cooperate with the city to improve access to school facilities. I hope that we can continue this work in the near future at a time that works for his schedule. As a new member of this council and a lifelong member of this community, I've made it a priority to listen closely to our concerns of our neighbors to try to see topics not from one point of view, but from many over the past several months. One issue has come up again and again from parents, from educators, and community members. They lack the leadership within our local school district. Let me be clear. This is not about a disagreement. Healthy disagreement is a part of good governance. This is about conduct, accountability, and erosion of trust. While the city does not govern the school district, we do represent the whole community. And when concerns rise to this level, it is our responsibility as council to speak. Specifically, I want to address the actions of the current uh school board. At recent schoolboard meetings, we have seen limitations placed on fellow board members ability to ask questions, agendas changed and published with little to no notice, public comment restricted in ways that make it difficult for community members to participate unless they sign up well in advance. These are not small procedural choices. These are decisions that are directly impact transparency and public trust. It doesn't stop there. We are also seeing positions and rhetoric that exclude and marginalize transgender students, students who deserve safety, dignity, and support in their schools. At the same time, a current board member is suing the very district he was elected to serve.

And perhaps most concerning to many in our community is he has chosen to remove his own children from the public school system and enrolled them in a private school. That raises a very real and very fair question. If you do not believe in the system you are leading, why are you leading? At what point do we acknowledge that leadership is not just about holding a title? It's about showing up with integrity, consistency, and genuine commitment to the community you serve. Because for where many of this community stand, that commitment is being called into question. Why has he not stepped aside and allowed someone else, someone who is invested in this district and believes in its future to lead? Our community deserves leadership that is transparent, inclusive, and accountable. Our educators deserve to feel supported, not caught in the middle of dysfunction. And our students, all of them, deserve to feel safe, valued, and prioritized. This is not about politics. This is about people. This is about trust. And this is about the kind of community we are choosing to be. I remain committed in my role on this council and as part of this community to advocate for those values and to stand with the families, educators, and students were asking for better. I've been lucky enough went ahead and set up a walkalong ride along with our SRO program so I can speak directly to that. I got a ride along with Officer Stalker for the whole day. And his commitment to these children that are in our schools is invaluable. His relationship that he brings in there every single day, makes those commitment, goes around and sees kids that are struggling either in their home life, um, in school, and he's making a commitment. So I strongly will go ahead and support our pro program and I truly believe that some of our police need some

um mayor is is this still about SRO's? Um, so I want to talk about welcoming and belonging culture because this is public health and safety. And um I'm going to give you some background information when we were selecting um the newest council um and it was the interview process and there was one council member I'm looking at her now who asked me a question and this question I was just doing so well you know she was just saying she just came out the air you know and she said what do you think about race relations and how things are going. So, I had to stop for a minute and I said, "Talking about race is hard because it makes people feel uncomfortable and we bring different lenses to looking at race, but we have to talk about it as a community. We can't continue to ignore it. And it's uncomfortable. So, what I'm about to say is uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable for me. But as an elected leader in this community and the first black leader to be appointed, I owe it to the community. So ladies and gentlemen present here today and in the community, the city of Tumbart has not always been welcoming to people who look like me, a member of the minority community. This includes our

schoolage children. Since this is a public health and safety issue, the question is, how do we solve this problem? Here is what Tomwater leadership has done. At several planning meetings conducted during the past two years, we made a decision collectively to make welcoming and belonging a priority. This was intentional. We carefully chose every word in our strategic plan because words matter. Our city values in our strategic plan is the acronym people. P E O P L E. people, environment, opportunity, partnership, learning, and excellence. Palm Water has taken concrete steps to make these values known. Number two, we passed a resolution designating Turwater a Purple Heart city, honoring the sacrifice and service of veterans, active, and retired. This makes a positive statements to military families and children moving into our community. It makes them feel safe and have a sense of belonging. Number three, we established a racial equity committee for the first time, creating a structure for listening to marginalized voices. These are not just symbolic gestures. They are public commitments about who we are. Number four, we passed a law to reject hate and for the civil rights of all people living and working in Tumb. It is now official that we value inclusion and belonging. And I'm proud to clearly say that hate, bias, and intimidation have no place here. As elected leaders, we understand that a welcoming and inclusive culture is set, created, and begins at the top.

These individuals seated here today, us, the mayor, and seven council members along with the city administrator and department heads at the school board. It starts with all five school board directors and the superintendent to create welcoming and inclusive policies to care for all students, including the most vulnerable. I want to end with thanking these two school board directors who came to visit us, who respected us enough to come to talk to us about these difficult conversations that we must have. I look forward to engaging with you two as well as the other uh school directors. This way we can have the march in the July 4th parade with us. We always had school board members join us in the parade. What happened? We don't know. It's all about communication. It's all about leadership and we are looking forward to engage as we move ahead. Thank you. That's all I have.

Angela likes to bundle. So she has bundled item number seven to item number three. So I want to wrap up the they are connected. They are connected which is why this is a more informal meeting and how it all ties. So what we've heard from Chief Keilles is he is comfortable with plan A being one SRO. We've also heard from Sheriff Sanders plan B is that the county partners with water school district. Is that what I'm hearing from you two? We got a plan A and a plan B. Yeah. I I will follow Tom Waters's lead on this. So

So we know you two have a great relationship and communicate. Can you two with Jen take the lead on circling back with the school district since they're not here? Abs. Absolutely. Does council and our board members, our guests feel comfortable with these three taking the lead and circling back with the Tomwater School District staff? Yes.

Anything else we'd like to add for school resource officers? One clarifying question. We had a a temporary that was supposed to carry us through August. That was we we were discussing that with district staff and having ongoing they actually were the ones that wrote it, drafted it and presented it to the city. It was in the process of being approved by our city council and board member Watts. So appreciate you acknowledging that board meeting which was quite challenging and and and frankly it's it's frustrating to get the degree of questions that we received at that board meeting from three members that aren't here tonight when you know we're trying to talk about very issue. But my question is is did the board ever approve that temporary policy on your end? Was that was that signed and sent back to us? Do we know? Um it's in terms of the the board as a group, no we have not we did not take action in the meeting and have not had not not had a subsequent action. However, I do believe that I articulate I believe Melissa articulated that we trust the superintendent to move forward um without the board's uh we have a signed temporary agreement that takes us through August. And so chief, I would just add as you look at what September beyond looks like, just know that our current to use to re-engage in discussions. And hopefully if we re-engage in it, we'll have a better outcome with with as it works through the board and approval process.

How many students do we have in our school district? 6,000. So I'm asking that question because if this one's true resource officer is doing 6,000, is there is there a way to to have a psych to see how psychologically to see how Seth is doing psychologically with that load?

I meet with officer stalker regularly. Um we talk about how he's doing in the schools regularly. Um so yes, I mean absolutely we have a robust officer wellness program that he's familiar with um in our department. But yes, there's frequent communication with officer stalker and follow room. So I appreciate um I I really appreciate that action. Thank you.

So do you three have what you need to move forward now that you have the support from council? Again, we're gonna push Paul down. Not physically, but we're gonna do five to six, six to five, and continue with truck. Oh, also, if this is a time that you'd like to Oh, Joe has her hand up, but if you'd also like to leave, we won't show you. Um,

thank you, Mayor. Mayor, I would ask when you made the statement at the very end there and talking about circling back and I I lost myself in the circles of who was circling with who and how it was coming back to us or where does our our discussion go without getting dizzy.

That is perfect because I didn't finish the circle. Uh chief, what are your thoughts? How do we finish the circle and how do you come back to council for an update? After I speak with the um superintendent, I'll just provide an update to you know how the conversation went and what happened. But we discussed and the direction that we think we need to keep moving in. Does everyone feel comfortable with the chief sending an email so we don't have to wait. Okay. Email. Sure. Thank you. Great question. Je circle now complete. We're gonna open the other circle and go back to truck and truck's going to talk about the T waterwater fresh program.

No, I'm I'm not finished with that. Um I'm wanting to know when you said also, mayor, that you were going to talk to somebody or do something and circle back. Who is that and what it what is it that you're bringing back to us? Yes, that is another circle. Thank you, Joan. That circle is with Paul to talk to find out why our superintendent and staff did not attend this meeting. So that will be another email update as well. Okay. Thank you. And school board president. Yes. Thank you. Fresh program. Fresh program.

Fresh.

Uh and Isabella Bush Park. Uh the fresh program. Little quick history. Uh we we had a piece of property with a big storm pond and a small park on it and an old barn uh that was had all kinds of nefarious things happening at it. Um and it was either tear it down or or do something with it. So 2015, uh, we started working with the school district and GRUP, uh, to to see if we could create a a program where, uh, kids who who weren't doing well in high school, didn't fit within that, uh, class system, needed some other kind of education route, um, some way to graduate high school could go through this program of and learn uh, a variety of skills, not just farming, um, through a school district program, both high schools, uh, and get enough credits to graduate. So that was that was the big the big picture. Um we worked on a contract in 2015 2016 freeway with GRA and the school district and the city um and agreed that we could do this. The city would provide the site and that included um access access through the park and the barn in which and the barn we invested about $120,000 in the barn. uh new roof, new sighting, new water light from Lynwood, new electrical system from Lynwood and a new electrical panel. Um just various things to fix the department and make it safe and access and we we agreed we paid for the utilities and handed over to the school district and to grub and said, "Hey, you know, you're the experts at education and working with these kids. Let's make this." So fantastic program. Uh can't say enough about what we saw come out of that and I you know internally I went into it is just going to work. But um year after

year just blown away um by the the kids that came uh kids came in and the way the kids came out. Kids that that were just off of the trust didn't want to be there on day one were talking to city council. Super cool. Um, so a program that had a ton of support. Grub GR went away. They're able to to work with the district and and get fresh money out. We've had we've had grow back um on their own out as part of the school. Do some farming there. Try to keep going. Just the moment we let that that facility go, it's going to go back to what it was. people will break in, they'll tag it, they'll do those various things. So, we want to keep activity there if we can. And I'm continuing to try to work with various groups to see if somebody um or a farmer wants to use that. So, hopefully someday we can get back to the fresh program. But I' I've gotten I've gotten mixed messages from from the superintendent at the district about, you know, maybe it's coming back or no there'll never be money for that forever. No, it's coming back next year. I'm not sure where it is. So I'm hoping that we continue that discussion to find a way to make that work. Again, you know, a lot of what I do is, you know, my personal belief and and just love of changing people's lives and doing it for the better. And that program just off the charts and and I'm sure you heard from a few people when it uh it has a lot of support. Lot of support. I'd like to start with Joan because Joan was like spearheaded this back in the day. Joan, you've known that the program has shut down. What expectations do you

have moving forward? Well, I'm uh I'm I'm really upset about the attitude of the school district toward this program over the last uh year or so, no longer maybe. Um school districts talk about graduation rates. They talk about uh the health, mental and physical and scholarly health of their of their students. And um I wish we had a list of the students that graduated and now are similar to some of you who have graduated from Tomwater High School because of the of the fresh program or students who were able to get off their medications or students who learned about gardening and who learned about a future career in agriculture. uh through this the attendance rates went up. Every single thing that a school district, not just Homewater, but school districts look at as success for their students happened through this program. And the nights that I sat here and listened to graduates or people who were involved in that program over the years, I'm like, Chuck, you know, it it just choked me up. It was it was so exciting. And of course, I'm an old high school teacher and I I know I know these things to be true. And so, how is it that through our school district having seeing the value of it and helping reshape or communicate in the in the school district and in the community at large because we had people from Olympia and Lacy in this program also. This is

something that educators should be touting and should be helping find uh some new ways to um to keep this program going. Uh whether it's the same burden that they're saying is on the school district, find other ways to do I don't know. This is this is just a heartbreaking thing for me to see the young people in this the high school people in this community whose lives were changed never to have those who follow them have the same opportunity and um I don't know how together we can as a as community leaders as city council school board what we should do what we should talk about how we can initiate Um, but sitting by and watching this disappear. And how about reading the letters that we've gotten recently and listening to young people. Anyway, um, that's my spiel. I was there with Chuck the very beginning sitting in the meetings and talking about things. We had people coming from all over the country, remember Chuck? to sit in on our discussions to see how they could do this in their schools in Ohio or wherever some of those people were from. It was new. It was exciting. And um I'd like to find out, Chuck, from some of those people if their programs still going. Probably some of those are and have expanded. But it's not a small deal. It's not a side project. And uh that's not when people's lives matter like this, it's a big deal.

Sorry to preaches. I apologize. Thank you, J. So, we've heard from Joan that she doesn't want to let this go. She doesn't want to drop this. So, can we hear from other council members and our guests? What your thoughts? You know, Chuck is looking for a little bit of direction or thumbs up, thumbs down, right? What are your thoughts, Eileen?

I'm a numbers person, so I was curious how much it really does cost to run this program as far as curriculum and, you know, how much it costs for the instructor and what the Tumblr water costs, the school district costs were. And uh because it sounds like our part was already covered. We've already done that as far as the city goes. But um and then just so we have something is we are you know no promises or anything else like that by any means but we are going into budgeting and know people they're like oh we should figure it over but that's something you want to look at to be realistic what are we looking at as far as real numbers and not going there Chuck but just having real well yeah

because we never thought we were going to do this in the first place you know and you know but we have and so anyway just wanted to ask something that's factual It's as I understand it's an educator and then there was what was that I don't know what is it like 80 bazillion dollars you know I don't know what the

number no but how much of Troy when we're presenting proposed bled that as an option for you all to see where it could fit right what that looks like. So D and Troy Paul well you talk about Yes.

So how does it even work though? Right? Because when we don't have the staff from here either right so we could go ahead and say hey yeah we're willing and not saying that saying hypothetically there is money and there is the budget to go ahead and put a grant or whatever it is together. How does that even work if school districts be on board? So yeah, you know, I would like to just say like I I was there in many of the schoolboard meetings where we heard from students about how transformative this program was for them. I mean, students who had been homeless, students who had been just never thought that they could,

you know, never thought that they could graduate. And it there was something about this program that their experience in this program gave them a new lease on life. Um, and nothing could be more important than being able to take our students who are furthest from opportunity and have our greatest barriers and challenges and be able to have a program that's targeted and meets their needs and is able to get them to the universal outcomes that we want for all of our kids. So, um, you know, I had the opportunity to talk with the superintendent yesterday and, you know, he assured me that there's nothing on this agenda here tonight that he's not interested in continuing the included fresh program. So I think you know it's like we face a really some really hard and horrible decisions with our budget our budget situation our fund balance situation just even being able to meet our fund balance. We had to borrow money

our payroll

from our from our capital budget in order to meet our payroll. We had to make some pretty awful decisions. And in our last board meeting, we had to make another awful decision about uh cutting staff and that did not the kind of board meeting that I liked to be in. It just didn't feel good. Um our number one priority is addressing our fund balance. Um, but you know, it's like I I'm committed to, you know, the conversation around the fresh program and how we can, you know, restore this program when we're looking at a better budget picture for the school district and would like to be personally like to be a part I I think also we think we can do the program better than what was happening. So that when we had to when we had to make this cut, it was never that it wasn't coming back. And we had a conversation. I go, it it's it's coming back, but we have to figure out how to make sure it's both Black Hills and Tower High School kids that get access to this program. We have to make sure that they can get to the program. You know, like like we want to be able to do it better. You see other schools in the district who have 150 students a part of a program like this. We had 15. So we have to figure out, you know, we have to figure out where more students get this opportunity because we know that it works. Like like Joan said, like Jul said, we know that it works, but it shouldn't just be for 15 kids. So we need to examine how it was set up. We think we can do it better. And that's what we're giving Kevin time to figure out as we fix the fund balance. He is trying to figure out how we can make this program.

Go ahead, Josh. You want me to go ahead? Yeah, go ahead.

Oh, um, also what about if we think about this beyond it being just the Tomwater School District? who who can our other partners be and start that way instead of starting from we don't have enough money to do this or we don't we can't hire another faculty person or that kind of thing. What could we start from? Well, how could we re build this program, reconstitute some of the the parts of it by um uh putting this out also out to the community. And there are there are retired folks out there who maybe this could be their their thing or something. I I just I to take some of the burden off of the school district and some of the questions that you've always had to answer about uh you know not enough money or or all all of the things I think we maybe should be concentrating on maybe some other partners or and let let the community know what this has been and that we we need new blood, new help new love that Joan there were conversations that Angela's having with Thirsten County and Commissioner Menser and Leonard were open to that discussion so that's perfect Joan thank you

I remember attending um we attended a meeting at the barn one time and there were uh quite a few people from the community that were there um because at that point we were trying to figure out a way to save it but um my question is so as far as like did has there really been like a forensic like a a study is like what what what was good you know because we already know like the positives about the program but the part like yeah I get it like 15 kids that's not enough to justify you know mathematically you know I get it so what were the barriers I mean has that has there been a deep dive into why you know what kept them from having more kiddos or what was the deal they've really done that kind of okay just curious

yes yeah got it just work has been done Yeah. Like does it fit better under Cascadia High School rather than Tomar High School, right? So there or New Market or or New Market, right? Yeah. There there there are lot that Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. They have been thinking about that. Yeah. Well, gosh, we started thinking about it right when we had to make the decision like how do we bring this back? Yeah. What are we What is the number 15 that we keep coming up with? Only 15 kids in all these years have gone through this program. No, at at the the time that we we cut the program, it was serving 15 kids.

Well, yeah. Because at it at its height and when the teacher from Tumbwater was there and everything was going there, they had to limit some of the the interest, right? Yeah. Waiting list in it. So, we have to be careful when we when we use that only 15 kids. We need to kind of Yeah, thanks for that. I didn't Well, and I and I struggle even saying that because 15 kids is worth it, right? So, I Yeah, exactly. We just can't afford it. But as a program, Yeah. a good steward of your funds and things like that when you got, you know, 30 over, you know, 30 kids in a classroom, how do you justify? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I get the math.

Yeah. So, I want to know the time. I want to move on to the the public facilities district 2, but I want to do a temperature check with everyone that we want to continue this conversation and identify potential options that council and the school district are going to have to discuss. So, more information to come. We don't want to drop this subject. Okay. Well, then thank you. So, more to come with that. Now we're gonna transition to Paul with public facilities district two which was item number five but I moved it to six. Thank you mayor. My pleasure.

Uh so a couple of weeks ago Superintendent Bogatan and I attended a meeting with the county and the city of Olympia and the Olympia school district and the Tumblr water school district to talk about the closure of Evergreen Pool. Oh yeah.

And the impact that that's having on our communities. Um, Evergreen Pool has been a great facility, particularly for our competitive swim teams at all the high schools. Um, but it hasn't all it hasn't ever really served the community as a community recreation facility. uh in 2020 or 2021 and 2022 uh the three cities uh the three school districts uh the YMCA several folks actually we have slides here about this uh lots of Evergreen Swim Club, Evergreen State College, YMCA, uh the BCB, the EDC, uh regional stakeholders came together to do an aquatic facility feasibility study and basically look at we know that there's a need for a public swimming facility in Thirstston County. There was a ballot measure in Olympia in the 80s that failed because the Olympia taxpayers didn't want to fund the region's pool. Another one also failed. There was an attempt during the first public facilities district to include a pool in Twater. That unfortunately was unable to materialize and here we are now many, many years later without a public swimming facility. which means that kids that can't afford a membership at a private club or even a YMCA don't have access to swimming and it's hard to it's very challenging for them to get swim lessons. So, this study um was looking at uh what would it look like to do an aquatic facility in the region knowing that if we work together uh we have a better chance of success. Also, we know that pools are expensive and if we look at the problem regionally, it lowers the burden on the taxpayers. This slide is we did a a very extensive market analysis and feasibility study. This was one of the survey results. There are few

times that we get a 90% um enthusiastic support from the community on very few issues. And when we did the question about when you hear about a regional aquatics facility, is this something that you would support? Of course. Are these your slides? Did you create these? These are slides that came from the feasibility study. Okay.

Um that have been screenshotted into this presentation. Here's another one. Uh uh which statement best represents how existing pools that you're currently using meet your household needs? Uh only 4.8% meeting all needs. Uh right at the time, 55% meeting some needs. This is when the evergreen pool is opening. So when that closes down, I bet if we were to ask that question today, we would get a very different answer to that that question. I could I'd be happy to meet with any of you to go into extensive detail about this process and study. We looked at different options like two pools and different locations, looked at, you know, competition versus recreation. We looked at just about every scenario um and used the market analysis and community stakeholders to to eventually land on this facility design which is a concept design. So again this is a concept design from a feasibility site. So we haven't and we haven't we haven't moved it past there. Um, what I want to note is the lap pool is recreational because at the time Evergreen had expressed to us as a as a group that they wanted to invest in their pool and they wanted to serve the competitive needs in the area which then allowed us to focus more on the recreational needs. Knowing now that Evergreen is closing down, if we want to restart these discussions, um we'll need to relook at this feasibility study and figure out what do we need to do to the SLAP pool. If we want a competition pool that's going to potentially serve four high schools and competitive swim clubs, we're probably going to need to maybe double the lane, the amount of lanes, uh increase depths with starting blocks, put deck space for bleachers and spectators and, you know, other things that we may need to do to make this. So, so this design will need to be tweaked if this uh as this conversation advances forward. Uh we did have some visuals that came out of what this facility could look like as part of this process.

Um and and the reason I bring this up is because when we were in the meeting, the superintendent actually spoke really eloquently about how he's passionate about having all of our kids in the Twater School District have an opportunity to have swim lessons. you know, every third grader goes and learns to swim or whatever whatever age is appropriate. And when he said that, I kind of perked up because this is a project I'm a I was a competitive swimmer in high school and water polo player and this is a project that I that I've been a part of even in previous roles for several years working with Chuck and many others from the community. So, when the superintendent spoke up of that and we see the school district struggling, uh we knew we had the council here and we knew we had some board members. So, we just wanted to raise awareness of this discussion. There's no action. This is more of a of an FYI, especially since the feasibility study happened during COVID. And so, I don't know if it got the same level of attention and and if people are as aware of it as uh they could have been if this happened at a time that wasn't during COVID. Um, but the next steps as we look forward, there's been new legislation that was passed in 2023 and then updated this year thanks to our local delegation, Senator Baitman, Representative Dolio, and uh, Representative Partially, to allow us to create a second public facilities district. It's structured slightly different than the current public facilities district, but that gives us an opportunity to bring regional partners from across cities and county together. Um and so that'll be the next step is is a process where we talk about what that looks like. If we can get the the local jurisdictions to come together and come to an agreement, then the next steps would be to look at a site selection for where will we place the aquatic facility study if we need to acquire it. What does that look like? And then from there it would be developing a financial strategy which would be a ballot measure to help with both capital construction as well as operations. and then the governor agree

governance agreement of what this looks like to to manage this facility. Um does it happen similar to how we manage lot or other facilities? So um anyways again uh this is mostly just an awareness tonight. I don't want to go I could I could go on and off. I'm not going to for all your sake. Uh, but if any of you ever want to do a deep dive into this, um, I'm happy to share more background and information and just know that there's more to come and we hope that as we continue these discussions that the school board can be a partner um, as they were. And I will say at the time, Superintendent Datson participated in almost all of the stakeholder meetings. He was actually very active in the process through the whole time. So, we appreciated the Twater School District's involvement as we did the study and we hope to continue to work with you moving forward.

So, more to come. Just a heads up, we have 25 minutes left of this meeting and I kind of want to I want to combine seven and eight. Knowing that council's priority is a community that is welcoming and belonging and it shows in your strategic goals and priorities. Tying that into eight, the opportunities for future collabor collaboration. I'd like to hear from all of you rounding out tonight right just hearing from each of you whoever wants to start then it's going to go in the direction of that person

I think if they're not going to come to us we should go together I don't see any oneonone stop here. Thank you any schol after watching the school board meeting that there's not a space for your meetings. So um sign up for comment and all I don't think there's a place for us. I don't know if you do it in that forum there's a place not to be scall

no that's there isn't a place you know we couldn't have we couldn't do this so I don't know what that would look like it would have to be another meeting I guess or and it obviously they don't want to show up to this one so I don't know what that would look like I I it would be nice to be able to get together because I think that the things that we talked about tonight are things we should talk about and they're not threatening for these are things we have common interest in or not. This is all, you know, this was a good meeting. I think that there are things that we should talk about because um schools and people consider moving here, you know, because we have things that really, you know, resonate people's heads that, you know, if you want a safe community, if you have great parks and and what kind of facilities you have and if schools, I mean, if you have kids, that's like the number one thing you look at when you're going to buy a house in this community, you know, you look at your schools and everything else like that. And if you can't get them to the table, I mean, like this is threatening. This isn't threatening. Like we should be having these kinds of conversations because we are, you know, this is what we do. You know, this is why I moved here because it was Tom Water. It was a safe place like the schools are all and that meeting was was awful. It was really really hard to watch and um I feel bad for you guys having to serve on that board um because it was very painful elected and then as a you know anybody else from the outside having to watch that meeting was very painful. Um so yeah

thank you for making that. Thank you Peter. Thank you Melissa. Um, in the vein of welcoming and belonging and teacher collaboration, I've said this a bunch of times and I've never done it, so I'm going to say it out loud in public and maybe you'll get me off uh my duff. I really think it's us going to the community. And I would love to partner with a council member to go to HLA meetings, go to, you know, I want to go to people. I don't want to invite them to us. I want to actually go to people and talk about what we're doing in the school districts and what we're doing and invite, you know, conversation. I came up with this that it really has been going on a long time. I I came up with this when we were talking about equity issues in Motor School District. And to uh Council Member Jefferson's point, the only way we get better as a community is if we talk about these tough issues and show each other that we can talk about these tough issues. I I am a tower kid. Um and I believe in this community. That's why I still live here. And I and I know every time I sit down with someone, I can find agreement with them no matter no matter what. I can It's always a fun thing to do when I'm doorbelling. I can always find agreement. And I can't do that by inviting them in because it's really intimidating. I can only do that if we go to them. So I would love to collaborate in the future with council members to go to go out into the community and talk to people. Not inviting them to the coffee shop because they don't show up, but actually they don't show to HA meetings either probably. But it is but it I think it's it's one place that we can start talking with people and showing them that we can have tough conversations and that we are all neighbors to Peter's point. We're all community members and to is a special

place and I just want everyone to know we believe it's a special I don't know I know that not everyone believes that and that makes me sad. Um, so I want to I want to demonstrate and show that we can do better. Yeah. Lea, could you restate the question you're asking? What a summary take home from tonight's meeting and knowing that creating a community of welcoming and belonging is important to council. What opportunities would you like for future collaboration? What do you want to see next? With the school board,

correct? Right. Peter and Eileen, sorry. We want to go We want to have we want to have a meeting with the school district. I want to thank Melissa wants a buddy system.

I want to thank Melissa for her comments just now. I was listening to those and thinking how many opportunities we've gone somewhere even, you know, during when we are running for office or whatever to take a school board member with us and just say, "I'd like to introduce you to someone else in our community." I mean, that that's easy. That's a uh and you know, we're proud of each other, so it it'll it'll show in the community. I think that's great. That's a great idea. Thank you, John. Great feedback, Angela.

There's two types of leadership culture in any organization, any city. Got positive leadership, you have negative toxic leadership. In a positive leadership, you got great communication, you have happy employees, you have happy citizens. negative, toxic leadership, you have dysfunction um and dissatisfied, unhappy employees who just complain because they're unhappy. They hate coming to work. They hate living in their city and and they're ready to move. Today was helpful. However, with two of five school board directors willing to meet and talk, I don't know if this is going to be fruitful going ahead and with no staff here, right? So my recommendation is when we have at least three who are willing to talk and then we can meet again semianually annually to talk. However, now after this I don't think it's but this first one I'm happy about it but this is about teamwork and right now less than half of the team is here. So, um, we're just wasting our time if the majority of the school board members don't want to talk to us.

Pro, I'd like to hear from you as well. Like your takehome for tonight. Well, I would hope uh going forward that the um the school board understands and trusts that the city of Tumbwater and the Twater Police Department are here for the schools, the kids. Trust in our decision- making and what our priorities are that we will not fail the schools. We will not fail the community. We will not fail the kids. and that if we thought that would be the case, we would be making different decisions. Um, and I would hope that the communication coming back from the board and school staff is open, honest, and transparent um, with us so we know exactly what the real issues are, what the concerns are are so that we can talk about them and we could address them, you know, an open dialogue and that there just aren't any hidden agendas because I do believe that we are all here for the same same reason, the same purpose. I do believe that the school board, the city of Tumblr water, Tomar police are here for the community and the kids and we have to do it together. Um, we're successful when we do it together. It works better when we do it together and I just don't see any reason why we can't do it together.

What's your what's your takehome for tonight? Well, I always appreciate u open conversation like this. I think it's important I think it's really important for us to see each other this way and uh even among staff. I mean, even among uh this the city council. Um, I I think that um well, let me just say I I was I was um an elected member of the school board in a a smaller probably city. Um and um it happened to be in Carmel, California. And um all we had to do was uh get Clint Eastwood to come and we would have a we would have everybody.

It wasn't a problem. Anyway, um that that there are some true stories in that. And so, um, what we did on that school board because there was a big big issues going on, uh, for the school board is that, uh, we had a representative from the city council and the school board on each other's board, not a voting member, but who came. So it would be like somebody on our city council, one of your assignments is to go to the go to a schoolboard meeting and then report back. So So it's not just now and then and then the school board uh would would choose someone who came to council meeting. So instead of forcing, you're just there to learn and what you want to take back and I don't know, be together.

That's such a great idea. Brandon has volunteered to do that. I'll I'll give you some uh Clint Eastwood Squid tricks. I will take all the advice you want. Okay, I'm gonna circle back with you on that one.

Thank you, Joe. That's perfect, Julie.

Yeah. Um well I just want to first of all just on the topic of creating a community of welcoming and belonging. Um you know I don't think I made it any secret when I ran for Tom Water School Board that this was the most important issue for me. I don't think that kids when they don't feel safe or feel like they belong or feel like their school is a welcoming um place for them to be where they feel accepted, I don't think they can really learn. And um I have personal experience of the barriers to that. Um I love Tom Water. I love the Tom Water School District, but we're not there yet. Um and um that's very personal for me. Um, so I also feel that our school district can't thrive unless we're deeply connected to the broader community that we're in. And um, it needs to be uh, we need to have this relationship between school board and council. school board not just having our meetings where we hear have people come to us and hear from us, but we need to be out in our community um hearing uh where people are and meeting them where they are. So, um, I would love to maybe do the flip side as well of what Joan just

to have a school board member on the council also. No, Brandon and I are going to need a lot of meeting. Thank you.

In advance of this meeting, I poked around on the internet to try to get a sense of how frequently these bodies have met. Um, while I didn't get a conclusive answer, I came across some interesting things that were not uh joint meetings that I was a part of. Um, there was a joint meeting around racial equity learning some years ago that a number of long- serving council members were a part of. And so, I just want to say again that there is a long rich history of having joint work sessions and joint meetings um to advance shared goals and I look forward to more of those. And one of the questions that I have, and I could have asked offline, but we'll just do it right here, is how do agendas get set for schoolboard? Does the schoolboard president set it unilaterally? Does the superintendent set it? Do board members go to board meetings and say, I would like to make sure that A and B are covered in future work sessions. That's sort of how it works here. If we have one or two of us say, we really want a work session on blank, then it goes into the hopper and then it comes on.

We make it happen. So, um, you don't have to answer right here on the spot, but that's something that I don't totally understand and have full visibility on. And I am hopeful that there are levers that are at our collective disposal to find a way to have another chance at us coming to you all and I don't know what that looks like, but thank you for being here.

I I I think we should should we should answer because we have had this conversation. So, the super the superintendent, you know, like, oh gosh, you guys have to approve this report. So, so the superintendent comes up with a list of things, the board president meets with the superintendent every week, but anytime two two board members ask for something on the agenda and it gets added to the So, do you two feel comfortable going back to your board and saying there's unanimous council request to have a joint meeting where council will go to you? Is that possible with council? Thank you. What's your take on message?

Well, I would like to just throw out that well, I will always tell my staff as strong um you know, a number of great people in the city and and the school district has just a ton of great people. Great to work with, people that truly care. Um people that we like to work with. Um so, as we talk about, you know, sometimes it gets doom and gloom and we're not there. There's really some great stuff going on and we need to celebrate that. Yeah, very true.

And then and then kind of what to you were talking about, we we kind of test piloted a program I think two years ago in our fall test where we had a booth for elected officials where we had like a dumping booth. Thank you very much. What? I was there. I think maybe Kelly was there. Oh. Um where we just put up a booth and or maybe you were there for different reasons. I know we did this. Uh where it was Hey, I'm on the city council.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, we did that. Yes. So a lot about if I could you know it was false terrace and what are we doing with the yeah question it was fun. Yes. Should we open it up to schoolboard members to join us? If you want if we want to talk about it was fun. You're right. Yeah. We do 11 major events a year from a couple hundred,000 people. Yeah. And Carlos may have to sit in the back of the tent at some point.

They were really nice. Yeah, they really did. It was, you know, Paul Harris was the biggest one. If you do anything about that event. Yeah. So, I you know, I think people really appreciated that. that words accessibility which is a theme school. Yeah, be great. Oh, it's my turn. Okay.

Um I think this is a great opening. I do understand the frustration. Um I I I agree with Angela that how how do we move forward if people are not willing and able? Um, but on that same aspect, Beth said, there there are some great things that are going on in our community. There are some things that we should be highlighting. Thank you both for being here. Um, it does speak to our integrity, who you are, not only elected officials, but people that are here in our community that have kids that are going here that went to our school, you know. So, ultimately, I think that's what we're all here for, that we care. We love this city. We want to do the best. And how do we do that? I I don't know exactly. Julie brought up the idea of having, you know, with two members from their board, two council members, Paul and Kevin coming together. I love that idea.

Yeah, it's I I However we can open up communications that is working better for everybody.

I'm in. This is a statement from Mayor Prom Von Holtz who's unable to be here. Starts with, "I'm sorry I'm unable to join tonight's meeting. These opportunities to come together matter and our community deserves strong collaboration between the city and our schools. I'm in Washington DC this week advocating to ensure our congressional delegation keeps thirst county and especially Tom Water front of mind as they work on the transportation reauthorization bill. This work is about bringing resources back to our community and supporting the systems our residents rely on every day. I want to thank board members Julie Watts and Melissa Beard along with the staff or not in this case who showed up tonight. I truly appreciate your time and your willingness to engage. Building a relationship between the city and the school board is essential. We have a real we have real opportunities to align our work and better serve our community when we are at the same table. I also want to say this candidly. These meetings only work when we are all willing to have important and sometimes hard conversations. Our residents expect and deserve that we are willing to come together, have conversations, and work through challenges collectively. I remain committed to that and I look forward to future joint meetings where we can continue to build that partnership. Thank you, Kelly. So my takehome I really I think this conversation tonight was extremely valuable. Um I've been in this role as I said it'll be three months on Thursday and one of the observations as a new person coming in that I've seen the most is one of the areas that we have had contention around has been the relationship between the city and the school district. And so it was a priority for us and the staff to really reach out to the school district and foster that relationship and build connections and communicate often and early. And so, uh, on the first week on the job, reached out to the

superintendent and we were able to get together, uh, arranged a meeting with the mayor and the superintendent, myself shortly after that, have a reoccurring meeting set up with the superintendent talking about issues that we I didn't know when I started that we were going to have a temporary adjustment to our SRO. So having that series set up allowed a platform for me to talk to the superintendent and allow and then create an avenue for the chief to go in and and start building his relationship as a new uh chief with the city and work through some of these challenges. And so uh it felt positive and it felt like we were making progress and then it didn't. Um, and so I'm not sure if the disconnect where that's at, but you know, leading up to this meeting, at first it was let's have a joint meeting together with the joint with the city council and the school board. And that was the plan all along. We offered a couple of dates. We didn't hear anything back. We reached out again, we didn't hear anything back. We reached out again with a couple more dates. We didn't hear anything back. And all this time, you know, we're working through the challenges of the SRO and the staff are working with us on theou. And then out of nowhere, we learn about an accusation that the city's breaching the contract and it shows up as an agenda item on a schoolboard agenda abruptly just 24 hours before without notice. All while we're working from an administrative level in good faith to work through solutions. Um, so we we responded and it's and I attended that meeting. You you both were there and took some really hard questions from all three board members who aren't here tonight and aren't present who seemed very concerned about the SRO program. And one of the things that I shared at the meeting in the response was half of the partnership is not in the room. The

city council was not with me. I was there to speak on behalf of the city as the city administrator, but the city council, which is half of the partnership of the SRO program, was not in the room. So, I implored and begged the school board and thank you both so much for being here to come to this meeting. What I heard after that and the message I received back was two of the board members were out of town. The other one was planning not to come. there was no reason, but that we would have two board members here and that there would be district staff to support it. So, we can we while we weren't excited about that, at least it was something that we could continue to look forward to. And so, we continued uh to plan this meeting, build the agenda, sent more versions and more drafts of what the agenda would look like uh to the superintendent. And until yesterday, there was still two board members and staff coming to support it. And then we learned late yesterday that in fact staff weren't coming. They were instructed not to come and that the agenda that we had been discussing for months and had sent over for review was not acceptable and that we shouldn't have had logos on there and that that this isn't an official discussion. And I guess for me, what's unfortunate about all of that is this is probably the one of the most productive discussions I've been a part of between a city and a school district and the thoughtfulness and the level of depth that we were able to get to in terms of partnership and how we can work together and how we can better serve the community. This is what government's supposed to be doing. Um, this is good government and this is good collaboration between government agencies that are serving the Tonguewater community, which is an incredible community. Uh, and so where

I'm at tonight is I am I it's it's been a rough ride to get to this point, but I'm optimistic about the relationships that are being developed in this room. And also, if we can hopefully we can re-engage with the staff. They were told not to be here tonight. Hopefully that's a one day instruction and not a not a disengage because that would be a complete disservice to our community if we were to go backwards from here. We need to go forward together. We're so much stronger together. So my hope is that we can reset coming out of this. Hopefully for the staff members and board members that aren't here, hopefully they're able to watch the recording of this. This will be recorded and online. So it's available if they want to hear the discussion and the ideas and even if they want to provide feedback we would welcome that because we do want to engage with the people who are in this room and the people who are not in this room because we are so much stronger if we move forward together. So that sorry mayor that is where

no apologize that was perfect.

Uh I'm just going to wrap us up. When Tom Water presented at the state of the community earlier this year, there was three things that we're focusing on in Tumb Water is turning up the energy, which means how we engage, doing some really cool stuff and moving forward together. And one thing I've learned from Eileen and Joan is optics and the messaging. So when people are present, that is a message. When people are not present, that is also a message. So my message is that I am setting expectations for those who are not here. that join us and let's work together. If not, it's going to be really uncomfortable for you because we're not stopping because we are focused on serving our community and what that looks like is the overlap of our youth and our families. So, I'm not going to stop and I'm not going to be bullied to remove a logo and change a title. That is a waste of my time. That is a waste of your time. And that's not how I serve. And that's not how I'm going to serve. And that's not how I lead. So, let's focus on where we overlap and let's move forward together. And I ask those who are not present to really consider the legacy that you're leaving. And I'm not going to stop with that meeting a jerk

here. Here. Can we do a group photo with the two board members that are here? Yeah. Let's make that a