City Council - Regular Meeting

Hallelujah.

I also still Good evening everybody. We're going to get started. It is 6:02 p.m. I'm calling the meeting of April 6th of the Anacorta City Council to order. Would you all please join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We have one council member absent this morning, Mr. Courier. The clerk will note that absence.

Mayor Walters. Mr. Fantini. I move to excuse uh Mr. Courier's absence. He's on vacation.

Second motion and a second. If there's no objection, we will consider that excused. Thank you. Uh all right. Now, uh council, if there's no objection, it is my privilege to stand before you tonight to deliver the state of the city of Anacortis. Good evening, members of the council, distinguished guests, community partners, and fellow residents. Tonight we will reflect on the progress we've made in the last three months, the first three months of my administration, but also on the legacy of resilience, of adaptation and community that has characterized the city of Anacortis since its founding in 1879 and defined our country since its independence in 1776. In nearly 150 years, Anacortis has been defined by constant evolution, continuous improvement. Even if there was one step back, there were always two steps forward. And tonight, I'll share not only the state of the city, but our approach going forward, our key projects and initiatives, and our vision for the future. First, because I know it remains top of mind. Some hard truth upfront. The city's financial situation remains grim. Like most Washington cities and counties, the city's expenses are rising faster than our revenues. Now, I would love to be able to blame this on a previous administration or bad decisions in the past, but the true villain in this story is inflation. Inflation makes everything more expensive. Construction, fuel, labor, everything the city buys. Inflation has always been with us, but the amount of inflation since the pandemic has been extraordinary. Inflation has been a cumulative 26% since 2020 and it's been more than 2 and a half% over the past

year. And the problem is we don't have good tools to combat inflation. Our general fund expenses, that's police, that's fire, streets, library, museum, and parks, senior center, court, public defender, and prosecutor. We pay for these things principally with a combination of property tax, sales tax, and utility tax. And property tax is the biggest of these three. Now, we're fortunate here in Anacortis. Uh the city's property tax levy rate is a$127. It is the second lowest rate in Scadget County. It is only 6 cents higher than Burlington's, but it is a dollar less than Mount Vernon and Cedar Woolly. It's almost a dollar less than unincorporated Scadget County. But state law doesn't let us raise property tax revenue no matter what rate we are at. Under state law, our total property tax receipts can only grow by 1% each year. Now, that's not a 1% increase in the rate. That is a 1% increase in the total amount we take in. We can only increase that amount by 1%. And 1% is less than half of the current inflation rate. And over that period since the pandemic, 1% stacked on the top of each other is 6%. But as you just heard, it's been more than 26%. Which means every year the purchasing power of the property tax we bring in is less and less. At the same time, our sales tax revenue, which does increase with inflation, it's pegged to prices, has not grown quickly enough to make up for the decline in property tax, largely because interest rates are high. We have seen historically low rates of construction which typically is a big component of our sales tax revenue. So this inflationdriven decline means we have had to cut services and we have had

to cut people. You saw that last year when we laid off nearly 8% of our general fund staff. We absolutely do not want to repeat that. But our options are limited. And is inflation going to get better? It's hard to foresee. Inflation has persisted even since the end of the pandemic. It remains high. And now fuel prices are up dramatically. Nearly all goods depend on fuel for transport. Some analysts now forecast a global recession. A self-inflicted wound like we've never seen. And more than ever in recent history, our destiny is not driven by the decisions of people here in Washington state, but by the whim of people in Washington DC. I don't know for certain, and neither does anyone, what's going to happen with our economy. But whatever happens, we here at city council, here in the city of Anacortis, are not going to sit back and just let it happen to us. Now, you've heard this story before. When Anacortis was confronted with the decline of our lumber and fishing industries in the 1950s, the people of Anacortis stood up and embraced a massive city improvement program. They embraced change, fueled by new residents from the refineries. Anacortis built four new elementary schools, a hospital, and a storm drain system, and paved six miles of poor quality streets in 8 years. That's when Anacortis became an all-America city. And never has there been a more aptly named award. An award that rewards and rejoices in determination, ingenuity, and conviction to be the change that we need to see. So today, we sit on this fiscal precipice. When I took office 3 months ago, I immediately issued an executive order to all staff that directed specific, actionable, money-saving measures and

encourage staff to do three things: conserve, reform, and invest. Conserve money wherever we can. Hold off on expenses where we can. Reform our processes to make us more efficient and make our dollar go further. And invest where spending money will yield additional efficiencies or economic growth like our event center, like our investment in paving South Commercial Avenue. These efforts among staff are already paying off. And next week you'll hear from all departments as to where we've made progress in these areas. But preliminary analysis shows that we've had the lowest quarter 1 spend as a percentage of the budget that we've seen in 5 years. A big thank you to our staff for stepping up and making that happen. But we should be under no illusion that these measures by themselves will be enough. In the environment that that we're in with our single biggest revenue source shr shrinking every year, saving money buys us time, but it doesn't solve the problem. So instead, we must diversify our revenue streams to reduce our reliance on property tax as a percentage of the budget. And we must more than ever before support economic growth. And that's why tonight I'm announcing a renewed focus on supporting economic growth in Anacortis. And just as one example of this activity, uh together with the port, we are investing in a waterfront event center to support economic activity. We've invested in efforts to solicit funds from the state that have paid off and we'll continue that collaboration as the port of Anacortis and the Port of Scadget have now announced a joint initiative to bring new industry and commerce to our area. We'll support that any way we can. Now, economic development depends on permitting. And so tonight, you'll find a new permit and build tab on our website to both promote and facilitate building homes and building businesses in Anacortis. And tomorrow, I will issue

an executive order that sets new goals, including 14 days to first review of residential permit applications, that consolidates the roles of departments in our permitting system to reduce handoffs, and that creates an appointment system for meeting with planners so that we can free up their time to get more work done and provide better service to applicants. I'm announcing a 90-day sprint to focus on implementing those changes within the planning department. Our job has always been to make it easy to navigate our permit process, but now I'm issuing a new charge to city staff. We not only need to get permits issued when applications come in the door, but we need to get buildings built. And council will need your help with that as well, and I know you've been chomping at the bit to do so. To address deficiencies in the code and streamline processes, we have accomplished a lot in the last two years on that front. completing the comprehensive plan and development code update on time and under budget and just a few weeks ago adopting new timelines for processing permit applications. And while there have been many people who have contributed to that effort, including planning staff and including all of our planning commissioners, there's one particular person here tonight who's at almost all of our meetings to whom we owe thanks. Linda Martin, would you please stand up? As chair of our planning commission, Linda's steady hand, Linda's steady hand has guided its work throughout the comprehensive plan update and before and I've seen some of those meetings. So many meetings, so many documents, and so much time. Linda, thank you. We thank all of our planning commissioners and all of our planning staff for your work on the comprehensive plan update. But the work is not over. Our development code did not come down from the mountaintop on stone tablets. There's always more work to do to do to refine it and to fix it and adjust it and the urgency is proportional to the

moment we find ourselves in. So we expect to need to put in some more long hours this year. Uh so Linda, get ready. Just as one example, two weeks ago, the planning department released a code amendment proposal to enable more business in our industrial zone. A common sense measure to support our businesses where it makes sense to do so. Thank you to Council Member Fantini for bringing this need to my attention. My promise is this. We can and will do more. Putting the city on a strong financial footing is a preerequisite to everything else that we want to do here. I want to see us gather on our waterfront and in our in our downtown. I want to see us walk on clean streets and trails through safe neighborhoods to a completed Gimis Channel Trail. I want to see us live and work in the diverse community that we are invested in, that we have loyalty and commitment to. And while we're doing those things, there are three themes that I want in my administration that I want the city of Anacortis to be about. Community, collaboration, and communication. The city of Anacortis is more than just an organization that sweeps your streets and delivers clean water. As important as those things are, the city is also about building a community. Anacortis is a great place to retire, but Anacortis has never been and will not be a retirement community. Anacortis is a great place to come as a tourist, but we are not a tourist town. as has historically has been. We see Anacortis as a whole community of artists and architects, of shipwrites and school teachers, of families and ferry workers, people who work in Anacortis who also should be able to live here in Anacortis. And that means clearly supporting housing in our community. And there's one person here tonight who has done more than most others in helping build that community generally, in helping the least among us afford housing. one person who has not only

contributed to the city as an entity through his service on the city council, but also contributed to our community at large through his service to the family center, to his church, to the action club, and to the Kowanas Club and all that they do for our community. That person is, of course, former council member Eric Johnson. Eric, please stand up. In Eric's first life, he retired as a colonel after 30 years in the Air Force. Now, Eric has only lived in Anacortis for 25 years. But in that short time, he has contributed so much. He started the family center. He started the action club. He chairs the community health council. He serves on the board of the Salvation Army. My neighbor calls him a super volunteer. In his nine years on the city council, he was always the common calming voice of reason, not in the service of pacivity, but toward reasoned action for what he knew to be right. But now, it's time for him to take care of family. And we're losing him to another state uh where he and his wife can live closer to their daughter. Eric, you have our profound thanks for all the good you have done for our community at large. Thank you. Building a whole community also means supporting all the features of a whole community. And so we will support strong collaboration among our partners who are helping us build the community that we want to see. I'll give you some examples. The hospital is not the city's responsibility. Thank God. But the city needs a first rate hospital. The pool is not the city's responsibility, but here on an island, the city needs a functional pool. The schools are not the

city's responsibility, but the city needs excellent schools. And so, on behalf of the city, my commitment is to work with and always support these other local governments. After all, we support the same taxpayers and we provide services to the same residents. And while the city of Anacortis will celebrate our 150th birthday in three years, this year we're celebrating the 100th birthday of the Port of Anacortis. I'm very pleased to welcome a number of port commissioners and the port director here tonight because our collaboration with the port has never been stronger. Whether it's the event center or the working waterfront or the summer concert series and Fourth of July fireworks display, from the big to the small, we work together because we have a shared vision of Anacortis and because we know who our bosses are. There's no room in our organizations for those who don't share that spirit of collaboration. And that collaboration sets us up for success with supporting downtown with our joint projects and our working waterfront. And finally, while we're doing all this work, we will keep communication foremost on our minds. We've been hard at work improving the city website with new pages that describe the capital projects that are coming to your neighborhood, with new protocols for making sure the public is informed, with new interactive tools for staying in the loop. Starting today, you can log into a new resident portal on our website where you can sign up for citywide notices and alerts, city calendar events, uh find information that you might not have been able to keep track of before, you can bookmark on your own portal. We plan to build this out further. We also have new social media pages on Facebook and Instagram for the city as a whole, not just individual departments. And we're building a new internet to improve internal interdep departmental communication and coordination to actually break down the silos that are so prevalent in an organization of this breadth so that we can be more efficient

and effective in working for you. In closing, I want to express our deepest gratitude to our residents, to our businesses, to our volunteers, and to our partners, and to our employees, all of whom make Anacortis extraordinary. Despite our challenges, the state of our city is strong. There is much work to do. Show me a city that isn't working hard, that isn't evolving, and I'll show you a city that's dying. But importantly, we know where we've been and where we want to go and what we need to do. So as we move forward, let us remember that the state of our city is not measured by statistics or projects, but by the strength of our community, the trust we build, the care we show for one another, and the legacy that we leave behind for future generations. Together, we own our future. Thank you all very much. And now we'll get on with the rest of our meeting. We have some announcements and committee reports starting with the finance committee.

Mayor Walters,

Miss Hunt. Uh, so Miss Molton and myself met with finance director Steve Hogland and finance manager Rhonda Peek on March 26th and Miss Clea McGrath was on her way to an AWC event, so she wasn't able to join us. Uh, staff reported that the Planet Capital Facilities Program software was routing for signatures and should be set to begin engagement on April 1st. I'm assuming that's happened. Um, we anticipate using the new software for the annual CFP process this summer. Um, and the very modest annual cost for that program, I think it's under $6,500, will be aortioned among the various departments with facilities projects. So, it's a pretty small ask. Miss Pek also demonstrated a new tool, Excel tool she had just developed inhouse to allow analysis of our sales tax revenue by access code. That's the codes that the state uses to differentiate industries. Um you can this will allow a lot better datadriven decisions about how we can support industries that generate our sales tax. As mayor said that's that's what we need to focus on. Um construction stands out as a major driver as mayor said that ripples through many other industries both when it expands and when it contracts. the quarterly finance updates may begin to share some of that sales tax analysis as early as the first quarter report coming up on the 20th of April. And Mr. Hogland did also do a preview of the first quarter finance report um with the January and February data, but we didn't have March data at that point. So, we're all looking forward to that first quarter update on the 20th of April. Two points make a line, three points make a trend. So, we'll see.

Thanks, Thank you. Uh, public works committee, Mayor Walters, Mr. McNugal,

uh, public works committee met right before this meeting. Uh, Miss Cleveland McGrath, myself, and the public works leadership team were all there. Uh, first item we covered, uh, team is pursuing a federal grant of about 250K for design work. Uh, and they're looking at the intersection of 12th and K, which is one of the most challenging intersections in town, especially like after school as the high school empties out and people try to take a left onto 12th from K. So, um, discussing that challenge and, you know, the grant would be for design work and we went over ideas for basically or, you know, kind of comparing and contrasting what that uh, design could be, whether it could be a potential roundabout or an additional say turn lane uh, on 12th. And so more to come on that. Um but the also the team feels you know if grant is in place and design is in place then the ability to gain funding for the actual construction project increases significantly because we have a shovel ready project ready to go. So other items that we covered uh the Safeway kind of Q Avenue pedestrian crossing that broke ground I think either uh yes or today actually. Uh so they're they're getting started on that. Uh the Gimis Ferry is planning a two-week haul out in May and they're looking at basically the same kind of parking plan as as last year with perhaps some expanded ability to park out in the side roads in the neighborhood. And couple other items that basically were we got a preview of just what's coming later in the agenda tonight. Um, we briefly discussed the 29th Avenue water reservoir tank replacement and that that one's on the agenda tonight, but also just wanted to mention that the water tank res the reservoir in Skyline in the west side. We're probably looking at replacing that one uh in a couple years as well. And that's what I've got. Anything I miss?

Thank you, Mr. McDougall. Library and Museum Committee. Mayor Walters.

Miss Hunter. So on March 26th, uh, Councilman Courier and I met with library director Jeff Vogle, um, at the library and Mr. McDougall was valiantly trying to connect with us via Teams, but we failed to make that connection. That is not his fault. We missed him. Um, Mr. Vogle showed some sample staffing charts at the library. You all know the library lost a number of staff positions and everyone has manned up, woman up to make sure all three desks are staffed at all times without cutting any hours. But that means that everyone including management and administrative staff are staffing those desks. So some technical services jobs and management tasks are suffering. uh library visits and program attendance continue to grow and the library is focusing to meet that demand for human services, not just materials. Mr. Vogle pointed out that there were 65 applicants for the 10-hour a week page position that they have now filled. Um and this is again one more time a position that was due to a retirement not refilling a um staff cut. We discussed the new contract with Underwood and Associates to redesign and help implement new desks at the main library and the children's library um in order to allow management staff to do their management jobs while they're also backing up the desks. And that entire project is funded by the library foundation, not the city budget. And our thanks to the foundation for that. The library has reconfigured um much of its software um to save money. It's doing everything it can. The friends of the library and the library foundation supplement that budget by providing the only funds for programming for electronic resources and supplemental books budget money along with bigger projects like our newly redone teen area

which has been so very popular and I suspect is even more popular this week during spring break. Um, one last thing the library is exploring joining the countywide library consortium, which would mean a shared library catalog across county libraries, but each library would remain independent. The foundation would very likely have to fund the one-time conversion costs for that uh catalog, and staff is still researching the costs of moving materials around the county if we were to to go that route. So stay tuned. I'm sure that Mr. Vogel's report next week will um give you more information on all those topics. Thank you.

Thank you. Economic Development Committee report. Mayor Walters, Mr. Young. Um the Economic Development Committee met on the 24th. It was myself, Miss Cleland McGrath, as well as Mr. Courier and of course um John um the chief of staff the director of economic de development and planning as well as Stephanie. As always, it's an um vigorous discussion. As the mayor said in his state of the city, all options are on the table. And what we're really trying to do is figure out how can we best utilize the things that we have to our advantage to give us the things that we want and need and being cognizant of how and what we want our city to look like. Part of that in the discussion that is still being flushed out is that we uh felt that one of the ideas and I say one of the ideas because there are many um one of the ideas is that in targeting like I said before the 2 million people that pass downtown going to the Sanan Islands and the thought behind that is that given all of the things that are starting to happen whether it's FIFA whether it's other pieces the ports working together, whether it's all of the stakeholders, downtown alliance doing extraordinary things, the arts commission doing extraordinary things. The goal is to bring all of those things to the table and figure out how if we target some of those people, just some of them, what impact that would mean on our city. And one of the things that makes it so interesting is that it's it's lowhanging fruit, if you would. And so one of the things that came out of our discussion, I think Miss um Councilwoman Cleland McGrath said it best when she said um

we're trying to get to a yes. And I think that that really caps encapsulates our ideas and the urgency of what we are trying to do. And you know discussions are sometimes vigorous because again there are you know only so many ideas that you can implement at this moment and then everyone has to get behind that and give it a try. There are no guarantees as the mayor has said, our economic outlook, you know, given the possibilities of what may or may not happen. But our city truly does have some strong strengths and wonderful people with expert um experiences. And so what we're trying to do is bring all of those to bear for um our effort. And what that means is that uh all of the stakeholders we will begin reaching out to uh we I think the staff sent out to um the new members of the economic development committee. I mean one or two months u um um councilwoman Cleveland McGrath as well as Mr. Kura was that last year we did a informal survey. We just brought the stakeholders to the table. support the um of course uh the school district, downtown, hospital, all of the the refineries, all of those stakeholders to try to understand what is it that they see are the strengths but yet opportunities and then what their needs are. And the idea was to try to find out is there a a common thread that can weave them together. and we did find some things. And so, uh, part of that is that we brought that that data back for the, um, council members, uh, to review as we begin to

plan how we want to go and what we want to do to get there. It's some exciting things truly happening. But you know we are as we flush them out as we give greater detail it we will bring it to the mayor and council of course to decide which is the strategy we want to pursue. But part of the role our role I believe is to help flush out those pieces that we have to talk with our stakeholders and find the ideas and thoughts for how we get there. But again, I think that there are many cities that wish they had that 2 million people going. The question is how do we tap them and for what and that benefit that we get and on top of that, how do we also maintain the integrity of our beautiful city. So those are the questions that we are wrestling with in the economic development committee and we're beginning really to push some stuff forward. I personally being an MBA am very excited. I love love love ideas and I love love love flushing them out and I think that we have a beautiful city, a great mayor and a wonderful council in order to be able to push this forward. So, uh we ask for your patience but also we ask for your help. Thank you.

Thank you. A couple of other announcements uh tonight. Go ahead and advance the slides, please. Uh, I have appointed Nicole O'Hana to the housing authority board uh to a term effective immediately through 1231 of 2027. And actually, I think that that term is through 2026. We will double check that and it'll be updated on the website. Uh, the Anacortis Senior Activity Center is currently advertising its aging mastery program, which starts soon. The cost is $40. Experts, speakers, group discussions, and goal setting combined to help you make small, meaningful changes as you age. Uh, you can check that out at anacordiswa.gov556. The parks and recreation department is now hosting signups for all of their summer recreation programs, which are starting on April 20th. Uh so check out anacordiswa.gov/490 for that. And notably, there's kids fishing day at Hart Lake on May 30th. Our community development block grant annual planning process is still underway. The public comment period continues uh well and will conclude on April 23rd and then there will be a final public hearing on April 27th after which council will make a decision on the CDBG annual plan. You can find more information at anacordiswah.gov/1. /174. And as was mentioned earlier, the Gimis Ferry is going to be out of the water for maintenance uh May 4th through 17. We will be promulgating a parking plan and um some reminders about the rules which are not waved when the ferry is out of the water. Uh Scaja County will be providing passenger only service uh provided by Aerrow Launch. Um and if you

rely on that service, you should find out more at scajicount.net/ / uh publicworks fairy. As also I mentioned if you want information on our various capital projects you can find that at anacordiswah.gov/projects. And finally next week we have um an all department quarter 1 update on what departments have been working on. That'll be in a work session format for council. So there will be uh no other agenda items besides the consent agenda. Thank you. That concludes the announcements. Council, if there is anything else, there isn't anything else. I'll proceed to public comment. We have a couple of people signed up for public comment, but I get the impression that you want to comment on items that are later on on the agenda. So, if you want to hold your comments, we'll take them at the end. Uh, Mr. Canor, do you also want to wait till the end of the agenda for your comment? Yes. Okay. All right. Anybody else for public comment at this point? One. Yes. Come on up. Pat Gardner Anna Cortis. Good evening, Mayor and Council members. Anthony just brought something to my mind and that's why I'm impulse to come up in regards to the many uh people that come and take the ferry. Um they skirt around and they head out. They don't come down this way as we know. Um and I don't like billboards and signage and all that and looks kind of tacky. But I'm wondering on before they

come into town, a roller board or some sort of get the experts out on that one, but some sort of signage as you're heading to the ferry. Why don't you make a quick stop and drive through town and see what's what's there or the depot or a little FYI as to what's going on at that time or some information because people um from out of town come down, they don't they think we're just a bypass and go on out to the ferry. Well, we have a lot of wonderful things here and restaurants and activities for um out oftowners maybe to stop by or they think they can come again at some other time. But anyway, I thought I'd bring that up. Thank you, Anthony, for that. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Yes, Mr. Young. Yeah, ordinarily we don't comment after unless there's a direct question, but that's been part of our discussion. It is in really um deep discussion within the economic development committee about how and through the partners. So, just wanted to allay that. Yes. Thank you, Mayor Walters. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Then we'll move on from public comments to the consent agenda. Council Mayor Walters

Mr. Fantini I move approval of the consent agenda. Second. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. No discussion is taken on the consent agenda. So we'll go ahead and take a vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

All those opposed say no. The eyes have it and the consent agenda is approved. That brings us to item A under uh uh item seven, other business, which is the waste management contract. Mr. Ludman has already made his way to the podium, and he will introduce this item. Good evening, mayor, council, and members of the p public. Tonight, I bring before you the hopefully a new waste management contract for recycling and organics. I also have with me online hopefully Mr. Hans Van Dusen, who's a consultant we've been using to this process. So if he can uh back me up if I don't have the right answers for you. So first things first, let's get going here maybe. Okay. So currently our residential recycling and organics is weekly service. That's going to stay the same for both recycling and for uh yard waste. The yard waste is optional. It'll stay optional as well. And all of our services for these are build on our normal utility bill with our water, sewer, and garbage with everything else. Customer service should be staying the same. People can contact both us at the city and waste management for service changes or issues. Here's kind of a a current contract timeline we've been working on. This contract started in 2015. It was a 10-year contract. Had some amendments in the middle uh mostly to add multif family recycling, commercial waste added. um some updates to recycling list and then we've exercised a couple extensions which really helped us kind of keep it the same service we've had for quite some time but we used our last extension this last year. So we had a 10-year contract in the past. Um this year we've gone we've agreed to a 5-year contract with two two-year extensions. And once that's done for us, I think that's kept our rate increase down. Uh so there's no

openers later on to to increase rates. We decided since the um commodities market, you know, is very fluctuate and we don't really know what's going to happen in the future that the 5 years with two-year additionals would be the best option for us. So, we have initial rate increase with our um our fees from waste to 15%. And we found that seems to be pretty good compared to other jurisdictions we've seen around. Um we have down here 20 to 40% other jurisdictions. And the other thing to consider, some other rates you see from other jurisdictions, they don't have every week recycling or yard waste. Some have every other week. Some have a lot less items taken in the recycling. Um, we have pretty much all-inclusive services. We have all the recycle recyclables, including glass, which is a harder one to get rid of these days. So, I feel like we're all inclusive there at our 15% increase. And then we have a 6% per year annual cap as well. This is just kind of list of what stays the same and what is new. So like I said before, weekly residential recycling continues. No reduction in items. Optional residential organics continues. Commercial recycling will continue to be serviced by open market vendors. We don't do any commercial recycling and most service standards remain unchanged including this customer service, the holidays, the snow recovery and our performance monitoring we have built into our contract. Okay, what's new? This is the interesting part, right? So there is contamination fees being introduced. They've been talked about for quite some time. One of the hardest things for the recycling market is when um they get contaminants in the load and the load is get rejected or bigger fees result from that. So what's been agreed upon in this so far is um if there's a contamination of 10% or more of the cart, that's considered non-compliance. And on the third strike in in a calendar year, there will be contamination charges to the city. And then as well other new item here is extra recycling is now an extra charge.

You used to be able to set extra recycling out by your can. That's no longer going to be free. So there's new fees for for overfilled carts and organics for recycling and organics. Sorry. And the lid must be down is the big note there. And I'll note that we have until 2027 July to actually get these this word out that this is going to be changing. So, this seems like a big shock now, but we have some time for education. And they will be offering additional recycling organics carts available. Um, commercial organics we're going to be changing to be serviced by the open market vendor as well because there's a lot of new organics laws and that really only affects five accounts we have currently. So, there's not a huge impact to our current customers. And we're hoping to get some good expanded assistance and education out of waste management to help repeat contamination people and support multif family properties especially. And we'll be doing someformational flyers throughout the next year and a half before the new contract starts. With that, our recommendation is to approve this 5-year contract. And I'm open to have some questions if you have any.

Council, do you have any questions? Mayor Walters. Miss Molton. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ludman. Could you please go back to the slide before this one? Maybe. Thank you. So, you mentioned about Oh, sorry. There it is. Perfect. About the third strike contamination charge being charged to the city. that's not charged to the contaminator because we all pay the city rather than

correct. So all billing goes to the city. So it' be up for the city to bill the offender if we want to. Okay. So that's a that's a good reminder to not contaminate our recycling. And my understanding from the contract is there will be two warnings of contamination prior to the actual charge which I feel is generous. Correct.

Okay, great. And you also alluded to the new organics management laws by the state of Washington, and I just want to elaborate on that a little bit. Um, my day job is working for a local recycling company. So, I've learned that any business now, so any business that generates 96 gallons or more per week of organic waste needs to arrange for management of that other than sending it to the landfill. This is the new law and it's little known and I just wanted to call that out. But waste management is able to service businesses. So, if you have a business like a restaurant, um that 96gallon tote is the size of our blue recycling bins that we have at home or if you have a green organics bin that's 96 gallons and that adds up pretty fast. It applies to schools, restaurants, and all businesses. So, that's something that people should be aware of and look into. Um and thank you. Thanks for this presentation. I think it's great that um it's 5 years with two two years renewable contracts. Um and so thank you to the consultant and to staff for for working this out and thanks to Waste Management for allowing us to move forward in this way.

Thanks. Thank you, Mayor Walters. Mr. Fantini, um just a couple questions. So, we're going to get a 15% increase, but you said a lot of the other place, a lot of other municipalities get 20 to 40%. Do we know why we're lower? Is it something that we're doing that we can keep doing or do more of? Hans, you want to jump in on that one if you're here?

Yeah, good evening everyone. Um, thanks for making time for this. Uh, yeah, I mean, we had a good position on behalf of the city to negotiate with Mace Management. Um, they really want to keep serving here. Uh so we were able to leverage that opportunity um to ensure the city had the opportunity of going out and doing competitive procurement which they could choose to do in the future you know after this one um but will and our team was able to leverage that to get a good value for the city. So I think we just took advantage of the situation to deliver good value for the customers.

Great. And then just so um I can understand, so we're getting a 15% increase. Does that that gets that's going to be directly reflected in everyone's bills? I'm assuming. Is that correct? Mayor Walters, are you proposing to answer Mr. Fantin's question? I am.

Miss, go ahead. Um, a prior council several years ago made a very wise decision to invoke annual CPI increases for all of our utility rates. So, by the time the new rates go into effect in July of 2027, we will virtually not feel that because we will already be paying very close to that new rate. We council wisely chose to make it a gradual slope, not a big stair step. So you will not feel 15% in July of 2027. Great. Thank you. That was all I had. Thank you. That was better than I could explain it.

But we are in in charge of the rates, so we can set the rates however we might want, including the contamination uh charge component.

Uh Mr. Yeah. Um being very happy that we've reached a solution. Um I think that as uh Mr. Ludman has said that this is a great rate compared to the others and um and to our um consultant the um negotiation and the platform with which we negotiated from a position of strength. I have personally always struggled a little bit with um the charges of waste management. not well let's just say the recycling charge and I think that in the presentations that they've came to council and done before was um wonderful presentations but you know again being B school I tend to wonder about those costs as it keeps adding 15% is a big cost and an allowance of 6% for CPI possibly and the idea that the contamination fee for which they were at one point trying to um you know apply it to individual um customers here in Anacortis. And so my question to them was, if you have a camera that can take a picture of every single thing that comes in and you can identify the people that are doing the issue, why not start by using that very same camera and and educate the very people who are doing the contaminants? Because what really happens in that is that if if one of

their profit centers or strategies is not only to not have to wash out the items, but that item is being now washed out by the constituents, you know, so the cost is really being shifted to the constituents and water costs. And so, you know, I've always struggled a little bit with it, you know, and I know business is business. Uh, I've watched their stock go from I'm a stop watcher. I've watched the stock go from uh $92 to $2 and something dollars in the profits of multi-billion dollars. So, I'm I'm just saying it's not they're not hurting. But what I'm struggle a little bit with and I'm glad we have this contract and this is nothing to do with you, Mr. Lutderman at all because I am a fan.

But you know when we start shifting the responsibility to the constituents that same cost moves from them to the households. So what what really have we saved and even if that in the 15% that we are increasing plus the 6% CPI and if we can shift that cost of that water to the constituent it's still just a little bit higher you know and um but I still voice my concern I do think it's important that at some point in the future we really look hard at all of the options options that we have and whether or not the current structure is still suitable and serves us as a city. And so, but you know, again, I'm grateful for the quality of service that they have, but I just thought it would be remiss if I did not mention the fact of how this has moved forward in the eight years I've been on council. But I also wanted to say that I'm watching very closely. These are profit centers. corporations are to make money as everybody is. Um, waste management is an engine. But I do think though that there are things that we can do and if through leverage or partnerships or whatever the word is, you know, we have to find a better way. Costs will continue to rise. And so I'm just thankful that we do have the contract we do. But I thought it would be it I would be remiss if I didn't mention my concern as these items are continually brought to the public. Thank you.

And uh just to clarify, the annual increase is the CPI 6% circuit breaker, not a 6% floor. Correct. Anybody else? Mayor Walters. Miss Cleveland McGrath.

Yeah. as one of the members, new members of the public works committee, uh the contamination charge was thoroughly discussed at the committee level. Um and was an education to myself, I think along with the other council members who were all new to this committee. Um because yeah, cleaning out a a a peanut butter container seems like a lot of work, but what we learned was the fact that when you have contaminated materials that are going to the recycling bins that are soiled by food, they it often can lead to the whole load having to go to the landfill. So, when we're talking about something as simple as cleaning out, making sure we're following the directions um of the recycling of waste management, the the one thing that we if we're if we're putting something in without uh thought to how it is going to be incorporated into the entire truckload, I don't think we want to see that entire truckload get contaminated because of a lack of education um by the public. uh when we've talked to them, they've they've talked about the fact that uh they do give warnings. I've gotten a warning. It was a few years ago. Um and and the reason they can do warnings is because they have those cameras and those cameras can document everything and that that 10%. Um it can also damage the the um organization, how the machines work to organize the different materials. I think that yes, Waste Management puts on a great golf tournament, but in reality, like I I want to minimize the impact to landfills and after two warnings, maybe having some kind of a dollar incentive is important for the greater good of recycling across the country and the world.

I do want to clarify that um as far as the cameras go, uh Mr. young. They do provide the city with pictures of that contamination. Every time they give us a warning, we get a picture as well. Okay.

Um Mr. Fantain first. Um, kind of to Miss Cleland McGrath's point, I'm really interested in the education element of this because I think that there is a misconception that like most people know how to recycle well and I've been on public works now for three months. I don't know how to recycle well. So, I imagine that there's a lot of people that don't. So, I'm curious when these warnings go out, is it just like a warning on the bill or is it like kind of like a full rundown of like, hey, you can do this, you can't do this, and what do we have any plans around educating people on what might not be a change to waste management, but will definitely be a change to, I'd say, a fair number of our constituents.

Sure. I think there's lots of opportunity there. Like I said, we have until July of 27 till this all rolls out. I know you're speaking of all recycling currently as well. And so there's lots of great content on their website. We have links on our website as well. And we'll be developing some new I know um Shelley, our supervisor in Solid Waste, is developing a new flyer right now for the Earth Day booth the city has. So we're we're working on some of that currently. We're happy to take some input as well.

And Mr. Ludman, do you happen to know what the warnings look like? In my experience, they are warnings applied to the can itself. So that's something that's new is they're not likely going to be applied to the can because the can's being scanned by like AI camera as it's being dumped. So it's not being seen by the driver necessarily at all. So it's going to be um a letter or warning to the city that we can issue as we get weekly reports from waste. So we'll have to figure as a city how to send those warnings out. Okay. So we have some work to do there. Okay. Thank you, Mayor Walters.

Miss Molton. Um, I just wanted to mention I've been on a tour of Waste Management's um, facility in Woodenville. It's giant. It's like a big Rube Goldberg machine. It's insane. But I've seen what happens when loads are contaminated. I mean, people are at sort lines and they are literally physically removing Christmas lights, diapers, lamps, like the craziest things that most people you would think would never put in their recycling. And it's very costly to do that. And when there is a surfet of plastic bags, they literally get caught in the machinery

to the degree that they have to shut down the whole facility. And workers climb up into these machines with hook knives and they have to cut the plastic bags physically out of the machinery in order for it to operate again. So, it's dangerous to the workers. It's inefficient. It costs the company money. It costs us money. and it diminishes the efficacy of recycling. And I just looked up the fees for contamination and after your two warnings, a recycling contamination fee is $5.25. And if you contaminate your organics where plastic bags are just as bad, even if they say they're compostable, don't believe it. That's called greenwashing. Um, it's $7.15 for your third offense and your first fee. So, I I think that that's within reason and I think that's fair. There's a lot and recycling is confusing for sure. Um, but I just want to say I feel that that's reasonable. Thank you,

Walters. Mr. Young,

um, just in followup, I totally agree with my um, colleagues here. I really do. Uh again though uh when we speak about the uh contamination uh most of the products that we're purchasing even though there's a movement to try to purchase products in packaging that's recyclable. The ugly truth of the problem is so many things that we are in the grocery store are not in packaging that can actually be recycled. And I think on some of the things that you look at the bottom, it's got recyclable, but they're not recycling it some of it. And so, you know, the point that I'm trying to make is the illusion that much of the stuff that we're, you know, um, getting our packaging in is recyclable and that we're moving. I as I said to the industry when they were here two or three years ago, I said part of this the onus is on the industry to truly try to come up and work together with packaging that can be recycled and then to educate the public about it. uh to um council members Fentini point which was one of the points that I was originally going to make is the idea that um you know I I cons in my house we consider ourselves pretty savvy but the truth of the matter is how much do we really know about recycling? What packaging it really is recyclable? You know, we talk um Councilman Mimolton talked about the plastic bags. They are scourge. Vancouver does something a little bit different with the fibrous packaging. But the point that I'm really just saying in this process is that I don't want us to pretend that there's not further work that needs to be done to negotiate

with the reality of what's happening because again, you know, I I just don't think the public is educated enough about what is currently being recyclable or not. And I made that point to the industry twice of the last two times I've seen them come here. Who does that? So, uh, I'm not dumping down on the industry, but I I want to keep it very real in the sense that there are things that we would love to do for our planet and that we need to do, but we also need to be real about which items are recyclable. And then there needs to be a campaign just like political campaigns. campaigns for bonds. We need to do a campaign to help educate and I'm hoping that they um have grant dollars or we can find dollars in order to be able to help our public do that cuz I'd love to be better about it myself. Thank you.

I remember when council member Eric Johnson and I tried to work on plastic bags. Those were the days. Uh council, uh any other comments on this contract? Mayor Walters, Miss Hunt,

I did just want to follow up on Miss Molton's comment about the relatively low penalty that will be build by waste management to the city if an individual recycle bin is contaminated. The city can set its own rates to customers. We may choose to do something higher than that rate if we feel like there are reasons to keep our recycling purer. And I would be I would propose a graduated rate. After your second fee, you get a higher fee because we all benefit from a recycling stream that has value. If it doesn't have value in the marketplace, we're all going to pay more. Point is well taken. Um, what about the contract,

Mayor Walters? Mr. Vantini, I move that the city council authorize the mayor to sign contract 27001 s001 with waste management of Washington, Inc. to provide residential recyclables and residential organics collection from 2027 to 2032. Second. There's a motion in a second to approve the contract as presented. Is there any f further discussion? Hearing none, we'll proceed to the vote. The vote is on the motion to approve the contract as presented. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say no. The eyes have it and the contract is approved. Thank you, Mr. Ludman. Thank you.

Our next item is 7B, the 2026 end of legislative session recap from Emily Sheay of Gordon Thomas Honeywell. Miss Shay, please adjust the microphone. Yes. And bear with me. I'm going to get my presentation up if it is on here. Or do you guys have it sent to you? Is there any chance that anyone loaded the presentation on the podium computer? Would anyone like to load the presentation now on the podium computer? Maybe by bringing up the uh

This is my error uh by the way. um maybe by bringing up the meetings page and uh just displaying the PDF.

Yeah. And while he gets it, we can kind of start talking, but I don't know a lot about recycling, but I know a lot about the state legislature. Uh and there has been a lot proposed on recycling and food waste products, a lot from your senator, who is actually from the city of Anacortis. So, just a fun note there. And I'm assuming Waste Management along with the Washington Department has some information on those laws. And while he gets that pulled up, I'll kind of just do a brief introduction on who I am. It's great to be here with you all today. I'm new to a lot of you. Uh, but I did want to do a quick second to introduce myself. My name is Emily Sheay. I'm serving as your state lobbyist from Gordon Thomas Honeywell Government Relations. Um, I might be new to lobbying for the city, but I am not new to lobbying in Washington state. I actually grew up within council borders. My dad being a city administrator on the other side of Washington on the Aberdine Hokquam side. Um, so I grew up in chamber halls myself and carried that forward um with state and federal lobbying within my firm based out of Tacoma. My goal this year was to advocate uh for issues that you have identified as important to the city during the 2026 legislative session and really serving as your eyes, ears, and voice in Olympia. Uh it truly was a pleasure to advocate for the city of Anacortis throughout the 2026 legislative session. And once we get the PowerPoint up, I will explain that in further detail. And if you guys need my help, let me know. Okay, it's okay. to mayor.

So, council, by way of further introduction, uh I hired us a lobbyist at the beginning of this year so that we could make some progress on a couple of our capital projects. And so, we pursued uh funding for our event center and also for paving of South Commercial Avenue. And we had some successes there along with some policy successes that Emily will tell us about here in a moment. All right. But yeah, before I get started, I did want to remind you all that I will begin to forward end a session um or that I already have forwarded a comprehensive written report that should be in your materials or you have already received and this is more of an overarching of what you know issues affected from the city of Anacortis with Nexus to city function um and the city of Anacortis priorities. It's a very comprehensive report um that's kind of broadened out and I encourage you to reference it if needed or if you find that type of reading enjoyable, please feel free to read it in its entirety. But this evening, as Mayor Walter said, I'm going to provide an overview of the 2026 legislative session. Thank you. with a little bit more detail into what the legislative session includes since I'm new to you guys. uh and discuss the outcomes of the city's legislative priorities and wrap up about talking next steps. So it was the second year of the bienium um and it was a short session lasting 60 consecutive days in Washington state. We have a two-year cycle uh and this was the second year of the cycle which was 60 days the first year being 105 days. During the long session, the primary task is to adopt two new bianial budgets. The primary objective of a short session is to make supplementary

adjustments to the bianial budgets, which the legislature did do successfully. Democrats continue to hold strong majorities in both chambers and shape the policy agenda, including efforts to address federal funding and related policy concerns. The governor also developed his own budget proposal which serves mostly as the draft framework for what to be expected or reflected in the final legislative proposal and something we ultimately he will be willing to sign. During the legislative session, numerous lawmakers announced their intentions to not seek reelection as next year is a campaign session as the conclusion of session marks the beginning of that period in which all House members and some of the Senate members must run for office. Currently, over 20 members have publicly declared that they will not be seeing re reelection. The legislature finished at 8:30 p.m. on March 12th, not that long ago. After some concerns that members might not be coming to an agreement on a data setter tax exemption, transportation bonds, and a 24-hour long debate on the millionaire's tax, Democratic legislators were able to reach an agreement on all three budgets, which I will discuss based on the final day of session. Governor Ferguson now has 20 days from the passage of the budget to sign it as is, veto it altogether or line item veto certain aspects um that he does not approve of. In addition to adopting budgets, the legislature considers legislation this year. This year over 12,000 bills were introduced and ultimately only 267 passed. Since this was the bianium's second year, any bill that did not pass must be reintroduced with a new bill number in the next cycle.

What is that page down? There we go.

So, as a reminder, the primary objective of a short 60-day session is not to rebuild the budget from scratch, but to adopt supplemental changes to the budgets that were passed last year. This includes adjustments to all three budgets, the operating, the transportation, and the capital budgets, largely based on updated revenue forecast, policy decisions, and emerging priorities. Heading into session, there was significant discussion on the impacts of last year's tax package, including increases to the BNO tax, capital gains tax, and estate tax. Democratic leadership also showed interest in exploring a millionaire's tax, both to address unintended con consequences of prior tax changes and a possible step toward an income tax framework in the future. Despite these discussions, the state's economic and revenue forecast, showed relatively flat growth, which constrained how much additional spending could realistically be added this year. the operating budget, which is the largest circle you see on the screen here. Um, it funds day-to-day state government operations, most notably K12 education, higher education, behavioral health, and social services. For the 2527 bienium, the operating budget totals 80.2 billion, which represents a roughly 2.5 billion increase over the prior budget. Notably, this budget assumes a repeal of the increase in estate taxes enacted during last year. The rainy day funds are backfilled with revenue from the left one retirement account. The final operating budget leaves 1.3 billion in total reserves, which is roughly half of what the state treasurer recommends as a pertinent reserve level. It also relies on 2.2 billion in new taxes and fees, including closing tax exemptions on data centers, prescription drug wholesalers, and insurer taxes. To put this into perspective, the operating budget is roughly five times larger than the transportation budget, which is why you see such a difference on the screen. The

transportation budget totals 16.6 billion, roughly roughly reflecting um about 1.2 billion increase over the last bianium. The budget funds highway preservation, ferry operations, transit, and major infrastructure projects. While it's significantly smaller than the operating budget, it's still about twice the size of the capital budget. The final, but the not the smallest of the three, totaling 8.5 billion, which is about a 1 million increase from the previous budget, is the capital. This is your brickandmortar budget, funding public and nonprofit construction projects that are non-transportation related. It's primarily funded through the sale of bonds, and a portion of that operating budget is dedicated to paying that back over time. The capital budget also supports several important grant programs, including housing and homelessness projects, local fish culbert replacements, and backfilling the public works assistance account. See if I can do this again. Uh, there we go. And why I'm truly here is to discuss Anna Cortis' priorities. Um, so moving on, the city worked with me, GTHgov, to identify priorities for the 2026 session. The city first requested 500,000 in the capital budget to begin construction on the 12,000qt marina community and tourism event facility, a joint project with the port of Anacortis. While transportation and operating budgets face significant constraints, the capital budget always remained the most stable due to the bonding capacity allowing for strategic advocacy. We worked with budget leadership as well as the for 40th legislators, more specifically Senator Lovelet and Representative Lannov to sponsor the request. During session, city leaders made multiple trips to Olympia to provide updates and reinforce the urgency of that request. At Senator Lovelet's request, the city and GTH gov

coordinated a regional letter of support signed by eight regional partners, strengthening the project's visibility with budget writers. Despite being absent from both chambers original budget plans, persistent efforts and lastminute advocacy persisted right up to the conclusion of negotiations. Ultimately, the final budget included 515,000 for the project, a big one for the city and port partners. For reference, the typical capital appropriation for local community projects during a supplemental session is half. So it's about 250,000 which means that the city of Anacortis project received twice that amount. Regarding the transportation budget, the city requested 500,000 in the 2026 supplemental transportation budget per preservation and maintenance on some part of state route 20 on Commercial Avenue from the Ferry Terminal to Commercial Avenue. During the session, meetings were conducted with transportation leaders to highlight the project's emphasis on maintenance and preservation um for completion. This approach aligned strategically with the current year's transportation budget, which prioritized addressing maintenance and preservation backlogs that are increasingly significant for cities. Senator Lovelet and Representative Raml, both on the transportation budget team, sponsored the city's funding proposals and made the request a priority. The city's proposal included the 500,000 request while the house proposal did not. Unfortunately, the enacted transportation budget did not include the city's project list or any other revenue project. However, discussions with budget leaders, including Senator Leas, chair of that committee, indicated that this project remains a top priority for consideration when new revenue discussions occur. The city and GTH will continue to work with budget leadership and the delegation to push for future investments along SR20 and Anacortis and continue the conversation if we so

choose in the 2027 session with a new transportation budget is introduced. In the area of behavioral health, the city continued to actively support efforts to expand its partnership with the Northstar initiative. Although the current budget does not include funding for this partnership and nor no formal request was made, the city anticipates the opportunity to pursue funding again in 2027, making it a potential focus for future conversations. However, 48 million was allocated statewide to address housing and stabilization needs of individuals with behavioral health. Additionally, it is worth noting the passage of Senate Bill 5923 sponsored by Senator Ron Mazal, another Islander. This legislature expands eligibility for critical access hospital payments to include a hospital located on the island in Scadget County operating within public hospital districts and certified for centers for medical Medicare and Medicaid services at a critical access hospital. Both GTH gov and the mayor supported and advocated for the bill throughout session, helping it ensure its successful passage. While not among the city's priorities this year, is important to briefly mention ongoing housing efforts being undertaken as well by the city. Housing continued to be a primary focus for the legislature with several bills aimed at streamlining the permitting process and trying to offer relief to cities. Although House Bill 1717 did not pass, which would have established a voluntary local option for sales and use tax reminiscent program to reduce affordability housing development cost. The city of Anacortis and the Association of Washington Cities continue to advocate for its adoption. The mayor frequently testified in support of the bill and championed its pass passage. Given how close the bill came to approval this session, it's expected to be reintroduced next year. The second bill, House Bill 2418, was enacted this year and introduced several

modest changes to local permitting requirements. These include clarifying when an application is considered complete and requiring jurisdictions to establish a permit review office or designate a certain point of contact. The final version of the bill incorporated numerous amendments uh sponsored by Senator Lovelet and developed through a collaboration between the city and GTH gov. And then just briefly I wanted to discuss some additional legislative issues that were going on in Olympia this year. So during session the city supported legislative priorities from the association Washington cities. Beyond Anacortis' specific budget outcome, several broader issues emerged that were important to cities statewide. First is public defense. This was a major issue this session and priority for the city following in a 2025 Washington Supreme Court decision that significantly reduces public defender case load limits over the next decade by roughly twothird by 2036. Throughout the session, lawmakers continued discussing the impacts of cities and how public defense would be funded going forward. That conversation, however, intersected with the proposed millionaires tax. Early versions of that proposal included 150 million per year for local governments, but only about 15 million would have gone to cities, far short of offsetting those losses. Unfortunately, the bill did not include any funding for public defense. Compounding that issue, the millionaire's tax proposal included substantial revenue loss for cities, an estimated hundred million annually in local sales tax losses, increasing by 2030. In response, AWC and GTH gov successfully advocated for the creation of a local government mitigation account, which intended to reimburse cities for that actual sales loss tax revenue starting in 2030. The bill does include legislative intent to set aside

200 million for that mitigation on a bianual basis. Looking ahead, we expect a trailer bill next year to address technical fixes and unintended consequences, especially since the tax itself will not take effect until 2028. Some, but very few, public safety legislation moved forward this year. The first establishes minimum qualifications for elected sheriffs, including background check requirements. The second regulates the use of automated license plate readers, so ALPR, also referred to as fault cameras, which are increasingly used by local law enforcement agencies to investigate and prevent crime. Land use remains a major focus for the legislature. While the state continued its trend of adopting housing legislation, cities had more opportunity this year to provide input during bill development as for 2418. For example, another significant bill that passed requiring cities and planning counties to allow indoor emergency shelters and housing in additional zoning C categories which needed to meet comprehensive plan housing targets. Finally, I wanted to note a few developments related to revenue flexibility and state shared revenues. The state largely maintained its commitment to state shared revenues, though it did not fully offset the long-term fiscal impacts in expected from tax exemptions adopted alongside the millionaire's tax. Finally, the capital budget allocates 375 million in bonds to the public works assistance account to backfill the transfer made from that operating budget to maintain financing for infrastructure projects for cities. That approach also preserves funding for our model toxin control accounts, avoiding any reductions, which I know are probably important to the port. And my favorite part, what's next? Now that the legislative session has officially concluded, the focus comes to what comes next. First, I encourage the city to consider ways to express

appreciation to your legislative delegation, not only for advocating on behalf of Anna Cortis, but also for their time and commitment to public service. As you all know, being an elected official can often feel thankless, and genuine recognition from local leaders is meaningful. I'm also happy to help brainstorm ideas for outreach or recognition. Looking ahead, the association Washington cities will begin discussing its annual legislative priorities on May 1st. A key part of that conversation will in focus on enhancing local government funding, including identifying what new funding elements or structures may be needed to better support cities and moving forward. So, when you're thinking about different resources and investments, think about funding and how the state can help you do that as well. This time of year also moves quickly, particularly as we enter election season. Several legislative seats are up for reelection and significant changes are on the horizon, including both the House seats in the 40th. Finally, it's never too early to begin thinking about priorities for the 2729 legislative bienium. This fall, um, the city will update and develop the city's legislative agenda to reflect completed items and identify new priority priorities, recognizing that the next session will be a budget year and a long session. Lobbying is a year-round effort, and I will continue working with the city's legislative delegation, other lawmakers, and city staff to advance Ana Cortis' priorities. And with that, thank you for your time and attention. representing the city of Anacortis uh was a priv privilege this year and I hope to continue as such. I now hang on the conversation back to you and remind everyone that I will begin sending those monthly reports in the beginning of May, probably one briefly after this as well along with regular updates as we work through the interim period. Finally, please see my contact information if you don't want to bug the mayor. Um, and as you want to get in

touch with me about other issues or have follow-up questions regarding my presentation or the end of session report materials. Thank you and happy to answer any questions while I'm here.

Uh, thank you, Miss Shay. I think that um, uh, we were very fortunate this year uh, by virtue of the fact that we had assistance with this effort to get that $515,000 for the event center because it was on no one's list. at the and we started this contract on January 5th. Um hopefully next year we will be better positioned for both additional funding on that project but also on South Commercial Avenue. Um and we'll be working hard to get ready for that over the next year. Um but uh definitely next year being a a longer session and the beginning of the session and having a year's worth of preparation for that session uh will certainly pay off. We thought we were so close this past year. I mean, it was in the House budget proposal, uh, just didn't make it through all the way. So, um, still this effort paid off and we're hoping to continue it in the future. Council, do you have any questions about the presentation or about anything that you uh saw here tonight?

Guess I'm not as exciting as recycling. Mayor Walters. Uh I saw Mr. Young's light come on uh first. Go ahead, Mr. Young. No, I just want to say thank you for the hard work. I I know it's not easy. There are um any number of um people walking that hall, working it. Um you know, for me, I'm biased. Anacortis is um you know, favorite place and you know, but I'm just thankful. So, I'm looking forward to the future of working with you and our um legislative delegation in order to um get those things that we need. Desperately we do. And uh so, thank you. I look forward to working with you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Young, Mr. Fantini.

Walter, thank you. Um, yes. I just wanted to say, uh, thank you also, um, for I really appreciate the reports that get sent out and thank you to the mayor for sending those out to all of us as as they come in. um you know, having gone down uh twice now to to advocate. Um it was different this time with a lobbyist. I know that can be a bad word, but I I I wanted to say I really appreciated um the effort that you put forward and I'm really excited with the result that we have and I thought that we made it pretty clear in our meetings that if we didn't get funded the 500,000 for South Commercial, we would probably be coming with a bigger ask uh in the next session. So hopefully we as a council can figure that out. But thank you.

Yeah, in a longer session more money is is is doable. So, I would open up your guys' conversation regarding SR20 for that request next year. Well, and the project certainly isn't getting cheaper. Uh, not with inflation.

Yeah. And and it is it is quite amazing because um you know, we we go down to Olympia every year. Uh I I'm not sure how we find even what building to be in. you know, when you're when you're there for one day, uh you're not getting the sense of how these things work and how and how to make um how to achieve change and how to achieve the outcomes that we want. But that's why you have a professional figure it out for you. Uh and Emily is down there every day. So, it makes a big difference. Any other questions? Thanks, guys.

No. All right, seeing none, we'll move on to our next item. Thank you, Miss Shay. Uh, Mr. Coleman will present item 7C, which is uh, contract and appointment for our hearing exam. Mr. Coleman.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, council, members of the public. So, tonight we have a um two-part motion, and I'll get to that in a moment, but uh what we're looking for is uh uh a approval of a contract with Laminer Law for hearing examiner services and uh concurring with the mayor's appointment of Laminer Law uh as our hearing examiner. So, uh, the city uses our hearing examiner to, uh, make decisions on land use proposals such as variances, conditional use permits, and long plats. So, these are project permits, uh, that uh, are specific to land use. These are not legislative actions. U,, so the hearing examiner will make the decision on the ones specified in uh, our code. Uh we've been searching for a new hearing examiner service for well over a year um since our last hearing examiner company um faced some issues and lost some personnel and and kind of has reformed and moved around. So um there's only a few companies and individuals that provide hearing examiner service throughout the state and all of cities and counties use hearing examiner services. So there is a lot of demand. We also have in our code in section 2.3 230408 that require a hearing examiner to uh be an attorney. So uh little bit li little bit little bit of limitation there as well. So between the um the the competition for services and uh also the different types of hearing examiners, some require a large retainer. Uh that um frankly is a lot more than our city

uses in any given year. Uh so those uh weren't good uh contracts for us. So, we were fortunate to find uh Laminer Law who is willing to uh do a per uh per project fee. Um, as you can see from the materials, they're willing to, and this is this is a this is not common, and it's actually a huge benefit to the city and to applicants, is to actually specify how much it is for each type of hearing. Um, you know, so that makes some assumptions that some will be easier, some will be harder, and and they chose a flat rate. That that's a that's a great that's a a great thing for the city for uh that's for decisions on land use uh applications when it comes to appeals of um of type one or two administrative decisions. Um, so somebody appeals the building permit or something like that, it would go to the hearings examiner. It's very rare. Uh, also, um, appeals of, uh, code enforcement violations. Somebody's issued a notice and order of code enforcement, you know, on their property and they they can appeal that. That will go to the hearings examiner as well. In those cases, it can be much uh much longer and more complicated. So, they weren't willing to do a piece by piece, you know, specific every appeal is going to cost this. Um, we the last two that we've had two appeals in the past five years and they were both about $3,500. So, that's just randomly. They just happen to be about the same. Um, so we're very fortunate to find this contract and uh that appeals rate is

$275 an hour. Uh that is typical industry rate from what we our research has shown and as I mentioned the the if you have any questions they're happy to answer but the motion is written to capture both approving the contract and uh concurring with the mayor's appointment of laminer law as the hearing examiner council any questions. Mayor Walters Mr. see a lot of shaking heads which tells me no questions. So I move that the city council approve the motion as presented. Second.

I don't know about that. Mayor Walters. Mr. Fantini. I move that the city council authorize the mayor to sign contract 26-134-LED-00001 with Laminer Law to provide hearing examiner services and that council concurs with the mayor's appointment of Laminer Law. Much better. Thank you. Uh is there a second? Yes. Second.

Second. There's a motion and a second to approve both the contract and to approve the appointment of the contractor as hearing examiner. Any discussion? If there's no discussion, I'll call for a vote. The vote is on the motion to approve the contract and uh the mayor's appointment of the hearing examiner. Uh four members are required to vote affirmatively. So, we will call a roll call vote on this item. Mr. Franc, please take the role. Miss Cleland McGrath, yes. Miss Molton, yes. Mr. McDougall, yes. Mr. Fantini. I Miss Hunt. Yes. Mr. Young. Yes.

Mayor, the eyes are six. The nays are zero. Sounds like the eyes have it. And the motion is approved. Thank you, Mr. Coleman. Thank you. Our next item is a contract award uh for the water treatment plant high service pump number one. Yes, sir. Go ahead, Terry. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm Terry. I'm the water system manager. And I guess I could get this slide up here. That would help give you guys a little visual. I was told you had some photos that were worth seeing. I'm sorry.

I was told that you had some photos here that were worth seeing. Okay. So, some of you may be aware or recall that last year I brought a similar contract for Could you move your mic down down? Is that better? That's better.

Okay. And some of you may be aware or recall that I did bring one um a contract very similar contract last year for um the variable frequency drive number four. Well, this one is replacing the variable frequency drive number one. And as we see here, the high service pump station is located in the compound of the water treatment plant. The picture on the left is one of five 1000 horsepower pumps. Marcia, you remember you were there. Um, and uh, pump number one and pump number four are the only ones that are VFDs. So, the rest of them are what they call a constant soft start. Uh, picture on the right is the drive control center which houses the inverter. The inverter is what we want to replace. The left picture and the center picture are of the VFD number four which was uh it's encapsulated in a gel and it was actually um overheating and creating miscommunications. So uh it was getting uh intermittent communication failures. So we were having problems with it. And the photo on the right is actually a photo of the new inverter that was placed in his place. Oh, 29th Street. Um, but I can give you a little bit of insight. Uh, so pump number one actually has 100,000 hours on it. And to put that into perspective, that'd be like putting in putting maybe anywhere from a million to 2 million miles on your car. So, it's been in service since 2013. the uh drives need to be replaced and now is a proactive

time for us to replace number one VFD drive. So, I guess in closing, I'm requesting that the city council consent the award or consent to award the contract in the amount of $353,275 to Vea Electric and Technologies. Thank you, Mr. Neoth. Council, do you have any questions? Mayor Walters, Mr. Fantini.

Um, I don't have any problem with this contract or anything. I'm just kind of curious. Um, we have been in a time where we see lots of bids coming in for different things. If there's a reason why we only had one for this particular I'm not sure. It's a It is a specialy drive. So, um, it can only be made by a specific company. So maybe they were the only general that actually picked up that company. I'm not exactly sure. Great. Thank you, Mayor Walters. Mr. Young, and from your experience, you know, following up on Mr. Fantini's question, from your experience, is this price point within the range? I mean, it's not asking an arm and a leg and

Yeah, it takes about 24 weeks. They have to custom build these just for a specific application. Um, the last one came in at I believe it was 320,000. Okay. Yeah. So, you're you're Okay. Thank you,

Mayor Walters. Miss Molton, I move that city council authorize the mayor to sign contract 26069 WTR00001 with Vea Electric and Technologies in the amount of $353,275 even to perform the WTP high service pump number one VFD retrofit project. Second. Uh, we have a motion and a second to approve the contract as presented in the amount of $353,275. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. The vote is on the motion to approve the contract as presented. All those in favor say I. I.

All those opposed say no. The eyes have it and the contract is approved. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Neoth. We only have one more multi-million dollar contract to do before we move on to our main event that everybody else has been waiting for. Mr. Lee. Uh good evening, mayor, council, and members of the public. Uh tonight, I bring before you a contract in the amount of $580,851 with Wilson Engineering, and this is for the design of the 29th Street Reservoir replacement project. So, uh, as a reminder, the 29th Street Reservoir is located on 29th Street, uh, at the west end there, just, uh, just east of Cranberry Lake. So, the reason we're doing this project is because the existing steel water reservoir has reached the end of its expected service life, which compromised its long-term reliability and decreases system resilience. Uh the proposed project includes demolition and removal of the existing reservoir and foundation and construction of a new 2 million gallon steel reservoir in this in the exact same location as the current reservoir and along with electrical and instrumentation upgrades, various side upgrades and some hydraulic modeling uh as well to to ensure that the system still functions the same without the tank in service while we construct the new one. Um, this project is funded by the water water utility user fees. Uh, currently for 2026, we have $500,000 budgeted. Um, there's the additional $80,000 for the contract is available as previous capital projects in the water fund have come in under um what has been expected. So, that's all I have and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Council, any questions? Mayor Walters. Mr. Fantini, I know we are not voting on the construction phase today. Um, but this is probably like a five maybe $10 million project or what Can you give me an idea of what our total project cost is estimated to be for this?

It it's tough to say right now, but um I think we were looking at three and a half to$4 million. the the the 10 the general 10% uh design cost to construction h has hasn't really held in the recent years in my opinion. Um, also we're paying them for additional uh modeling outside of what you normally see in a a uh typical design contract. So there's I think there's a little additional work there and so I'd say we're probably about 20% of the construction cost. Um but it with with material prices and and things are as just in the the last 3 months we've seen a wild uh shift in prices. So it's it estimates are very difficult at this time.

Right. Thank you. Yeah. Council, any other questions? Mayor Walters. Miss Hunt. I thank staff for being proactive to keep our water system functional before things break. Um, and this project is in the CFP and the budget for this year. So, I move that city council authorize the mayor to sign contract 23238 WTR2 with Wilson Engineering LLC in the amount of $580,851 to perform the 29th Street Reservoir Replacement Design. Second.

We have a motion and a second to approve the contract for the 29th Street reservoir replacement as presented. Any further discussion on this motion? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. No further discussion. Uh, all right. The vote is on the motion to approve the contract for the 29th Street reservoir replacement. All those in favor say I. I.

All those opposed say no. The eyes have it and the contract is approved. Thank you, Mr. Lee. City Attorney Darcy Swatnham is on her way to the podium to present our next item, which is a proposed ordinance that would prohibit the feeding of wild animals. This is a first read on this ordinance, and I will not forget to ask for public comment after the presentation. Miss Swatnam, take it away at your leisure.

Thank you, Mayor Walters. Pulling up here. Uh, okay. So, in your packet tonight, as the mayor said, is a first read of ordinance 5026, which prohibits feeding wild animals in the city of Anacortis. Cute deer pictures. So, the key provisions of this ordinance are that it creates a new chapter in the Anacortis municipal code at in title 6 615 feeding of wild animals. And the and the recital in the ordinance talk about the challenges of feeding wild animals including spread of diseases. Uh impacts on the those animals natural diet uh a decreased aversion to human contact which can lead to aggressiveness and also drawing deer in that have negative interactions with traffic and and can lead to accidents and and deer being hit. Uh the ordinance defines wild animals as non-domemestic animals. Uh it does not include domestic animals that are lawfully owned. So not dogs, not cats, other pets that are lawfully owned. And the the ordinance as drafted uh specifically references deer, raccoons, seagulls, and pigeons. Um there was a good recommendation from council member Hunt to include squirrels in that definition. So that's certainly something if council would like to see that added, we can incorporate that into the next draft.

And the definition captures all those animals but specifically calls them out. Correct. Inclusions

included but not limited to. There may be other wild animals that wander through that we don't want to feed either. So uh so the ordinance generally prohibits intentionally feeding wild animals or making food available. Um, there is a presumption of violation if food is left outside on the ground for animals to eat. Uh, but the ordinance specifically does not apply to bird feeders, including hummingbird feeders, which makes me very happy cuz I have bird feeders at my house, or food that is derived from landscaping or gardening that has fallen on the ground. So, if you have an apple tree, apples fall on the ground, you're not going to have the the code enforcement or officer show up and write you a ticket for not getting your apples on time. Uh, but the penalties for violation, uh, for the first violation, it's a a class 4 civil infraction, which is a fine of $25, and a second and any subsequent violations are class three civil infractions, which are $50 plus statutory assessments. Uh, so those those are all the comments that I have on this ordinance. I'm happy to answer any questions or get out of the way for public comment.

AI. Although if you do if you do have an apple tree, we would appreciate it if you picked up the apples because among the uh the cute animals, uh, rats also like to eat false apples. Uh, council, do you have any questions at this point before we take public comment? Mayor Walters, Miss Molton, I'd like to thank Council Member Hunt for adding squirrels to the list. As someone who just picked a few peanuts out of my garden beds and have had so many things dug up by squirrels, um I'm in favor of that and thank you, Miss Swedenham, for your presentation. Always informative and entertaining, too. Thank you,

Mayor Walters. Mr. Fantini,

I want to be the third voice to say yes. No, no feeding the squirrels. I think that's a great great thing. Um, question. Is this uh obviously we're not going to have someone patrolling around looking for people feeding animals. So, is this a complaintbased system? And if so, how does that get I mean, I think it's great that we're putting this down and that we're creating something here. Um, but what happens if somebody does it? Generally, uh, yes, it will be complaintbased and the police department is really excited about that. Uh, but, um, the police department will also use its discretion and figuring out how to educate before enforce. Um, however, for egregious situations, there may not be other options.

Perfect. And just one other question, and I know this might sound silly, but it is serious. Um, does there need to be language? I know we have language that says bird feeders, but what if people put like their apples or their carrots or their food on top of their bird baths or bird feeders? Would do we need language that says it needs to be only bird seed or

if if council would like to get that detailed in what they want to prohibit, that's that's certainly an option. Originally the language as it was drafted talked about bird feeders being accepted if they include kind of antis squirrel technology. Um but we kind of stepped it back a little bit because people have different types of bird feeders. You know they have sew it feeders or feeders with cameras or you know different kinds of bird food mix. And I I don't know that we necessarily have the expertise in house to identify what birds should eat and shouldn't eat, but if council would like to go down that path, we could always add those things later if we see that there are issues that are coming up that people are kind of circumventing the rules by creating things that look like bird feeders, but they're putting cheeseburgers out there or whatever. Um,

that would be my advice.

And the language does say bird food in a bird feeder is all right. So, apples in a bird feeder would probably be a a stretch too far. Council, any other questions before we go to public comment? Uh, all right. Uh, Mr. Canor, were you signed up for public comment on this item? Nope. Any other comments on this item? No. Nobody. Okay. Well, this is our first read on this uh ordinance. So, council, if you would like to direct any changes to the text at this point, uh we can make that happen. Uh otherwise, we anticipate bringing this back at the next meeting. Uh well, not the next meeting, the meeting after next. Uh because next week is the quarter one director update. Um, councel,

mayor Walters, Miss Hunt, I'm glad that we will have another opportunity to hear from the public on this once it comes to their attention because I suspect many people were not aware of it. And I would have presumed this to be largely uncontested, but I heard from two Ward One constituents today who are vehemently opposed to this legislation. So, I think we do owe it to the public to hear all sides of the story before we make an action. Mayor Walters, Mr. Fantini,

to that point, I also heard from a couple constituents um today for the same thing. Um I think it might be wise to not necessarily throw this back on the consent agenda, but offer a second opportunity um for that comment and it's not on the consent. You won't can't appear on the consent agenda unless you direct it to be placed on the consent agenda. Uh, council, are we through with this item? Then we'll move on to the next one. Yes. Okay. So, our next item is also Miss Swenham. It's ordinance 5027 prohibiting virtual currency kiosks.

This one's got less cute pictures than the animals, but no less important. Okay. So the the ordinance in your packet 5027 would prohibit virtual currency kiosks within the city of Anacortis. And I think this ordinance came about because of concerns about vulnerable individuals being taken advantage of by scammers who convince them uh to try to transact business through these virtual currency kiosks. And these transactions on these kiosks are are not able to be undone. There's less oversight. There's less uh protections built in for potential victims of exploitation. And particularly as it relates to older residents of Anacortis. And so, uh, my understanding is that other communities have also, uh, prohibited these kiosks in places that are open to the general public, like grocery stores or or other types of stores that, um, are very convenient for scammers to convince people to go in and give them money. So without background uh so this ordinance would create a new chapter 542 of the Anacortis municipal code uh regarding virtual currency kiosks. So virtual currency is defined in the ordinance and it includes uh Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Zcash, others I've never heard of. I'm sure there's all kinds of them out there. Uh, and the kiosks themselves are electronic terminals in an area accessible to the general public. Uh, think of like an ATM or one of those coin star stations uh,

with a screen to be able to purchase these virtual currencies. So the uh the ordinance in the packet would make it unlawful to host, allow, operate, permit, locate or place virtual currency kiosks within the city of Anacortis. So this this restriction is not only on the operators of the kiosks, but those businesses that are giving them space in their establishment and and prohibits from both ends. It also includes language that the existing kiosks have to be removed within 60 days of effectiveness of the ordinance. Uh it does notably restrict virtual currency transfers other than at these kiosks. So if you want to trade Bitcoin at home on your computer, go for it. Uh this ordinance doesn't restrict that. It just it just restricts the kiosks. So, the penalties in this ordinance uh are there there are a number of tools that the city has to ensure compliance. Um first of all, it's a it's a class one civil infraction uh which I believe is $250. Um it also allows for sim civil penalties of up to $500 a a day for somebody that's in violation. So, if um you know the the ordinance becomes effective, uh somebody doesn't remove the kiosk from their establishment, the city has the ability to assess penalties of $500 a day until that violation is cured. And it also allows for the city to terminate the business license for virtual kiosk or virtual currency kiosk operators who are violating the chapter. So, there's there's some real teeth in this one to compel compliance. So th those are my comments. I'm happy to answer questions or get out of the way for the public.

Council, any questions at this point? Mayor Walters, go ahead. Mr. Pantini.

Um, first of all, I just think this is a great ordinance. As someone who works at a bank and sees people get frauded for this exact scam just about every day, I think it's great that we're getting ahead of it in in Anacortis. and also just a special shout out and thank you to Dan Maul who I know brought this um to our to our attention. So, thank you very much for that. Um with that being said, there's a lot of language in here about seniors and I agree that seniors are the a very vulnerable population, but there is another group of folks that these kiosks prey on as well and that are people who really need money, the ones that are living paycheck to paycheck. So, I know a lot of times these scams are thought of as specifically targeted towards um seniors, of which they are, but they are also targeted towards many other people um as well. My question for you is, do we have any current I think we might have a couple current operating um kiosks currently in Anacortis?

I believe so. I think I've heard that there's one at Safeway and maybe that's it. Maybe maybe at the market. One more. There's two. It's It's at Safeway and at the market. That's right. Thank you. Um are is this ordinance going to make it so that those businesses have to remove those kiosks? It is. Yeah. There's language in it as written that they have to be removed within 60 days of the ordinance. That's great. Um thank you Walters. Mr. Y

Walters. Thank you. And you know, sort of piggybacking on um uh Mr. Fentini's point and thankfulness to uh Dan for um you know making the rounds and pushing forward aka better known sometimes affectionately as Lor's husband. He always says that whatever he calls it, you know, he always says that in such an endearing thing. Um quite honestly, you know, with the increased use of AI, um and um the in my opinion lack of true regulation as to accountability, tracking, everything about it, you know, u you scams are truly on the rise in a big big big way. I like to consider myself pretty savvy. I um you know I watch the market daily. I um you know look at all of the um whether it's routers, Bloomberg, CNBC, um Treasuries um you know in and those iterations in between. You know I found that you know this is really it's a big deal. And you know, and what I'm so grateful about is that we're beginning to have these conversations about how do we protect people as a whole. You know, you many of us are kind-hearted, so we get a Saab story that comes on the phone or uh you know, even in some cases there were GoFundMes that were set up, but they weren't authentic. So, you know, in this case, I I really appreciate that we're beginning to take a stronger emphasis on these methods that people are being ripped off. And for my beloved city of

Anacortis, I'm glad that this is the first step and I'm hoping additional steps in order to try to safeguard as much as we can um people and um from you know the crim criminal element. So, thank you and I'm very much supportive. Mayor Walters, Mr. McDougall, uh, just had a quick question on definitions. We have virtual currency defined. Do do we believe that virtual currency covers NFTts, non-f fungeible tokens, as well as AI tokens? That's a really good question and I don't know the answer to that, but I will certainly look into that before we bring it back next time. Okay, great. Thank you.

Yeah, great question. Council, are you ready to take public comment on this issue? Yes. Uh, all right. We have a couple of people signed up for public comment uh particularly on this issue. Uh, we can take them in any order or the order that is listed here. Shall we begin with uh Kathy Feler? Go ahead and adjust the microphone down for yourself. And you have three minutes. How's that?

Perfect. My first time here. All right. Good evening, Mayor Walters. Council members. My name is Kathleen Feler and I live on 37th Street Nana Cortis. I'm 74 years old and a business owner. I am here tonight to strongly urge your support for the co the ordinance to ban crypto ATMs in Anacortis. I'm not speaking just as a concerned residents. I'm speaking as a victim. Soon after the last election, I fell prey to one of these scams, usually known as the jury duty scam, claiming I had missed a jury duty obligation. He sent me a fake subpoena with my name on it along with a document that gave reason for why we'd be putting the bail money or whatever it was. I don't I don't remember what they called it, but um the reason for putting it into the crypto ATM. Why do we have to use that? The scammer stayed on the phone with me directing me to withdraw cash from my bank then to go to where there was a crypto ATM. the same as these and purchase Bitcoin with the scammer's account which the guy on the phone gave me as I carried my phone everywhere or it was as though I was hypnotized there. There's no doubt it was fast and high pressure. I didn't just lose money. I lost my sense of security and questioned my own competence. Directing victims to these machines is easy. They're listed on every map,

including the ones in Anorps. There are no safeguards like there are with traditional banks. No amount of warning signs near the machine can convince the victim that this is a scam. As stupid as it sounds, I was hypnotized by his voice and the very real fear of being put in jail. More than 85% of these crimes happen to seniors and these machines are silent participants in the crimes. They allow scammers easy access to your funds immediately anywhere in the world and these transactions are untraceable. Regulation or transaction limits will not work. Scammers simply tell victims to make multiple smaller deposits to avoid detection. We must ban these machines from our city. We will not be the first Washington city to do so. With the power that we have right here in this room, let us ban these crypto ATMs. Thank you.

Perfect timing. That was That must be a professional public commenter there. Uh Dan Maul, you're up next. Thank you very much. Um, I admire this woman's courage to have gone through what she has gone through and stand up in front of everybody and admit to I mean roughly 70% of the people that get scammed do not report it for reasons embarrassment, shame, you name it. So, thank you Kathy. Thank you. So, back to my speech. Um, good evening, Mayor Walters, members of the city council. Thank you for having me, letting me talk like uh to you. My name is Dan Maul. Um as many of you know, my wife and I own my wife owns the two businesses in Oldtown and uh the building at 7-Eleven commercial. I have um been a volunteer with the AARP fraud watch network for the past three years. This is a call center in Denver that takes calls from people all over the country and we the volunteers return those calls and help people understand uh what's happened, how to protect themselves. Um and I like I say three years I've done it. I I take roughly a dozen dozen calls a day, twice a week. Um, so if it's a scam, I mean, jury duty scam is one of the ones that's going around right now, but whether it's romance scams or technical support scams or the grandparent kidnapping scams, these things are are rampant as, as Anthony was saying, um, what I've been seeing is, and this is supported by FBI reports, cryptocurrency and particularly

crypto kiosks, the industry calls them kiosks. I would refer to them as crypto ATMs. Kiosk is kind of a vanilla term. Um are taking the place of gift cards. People have figured out and this is my public service announcement here. Gift cards are not a legitimate transaction and neither is cryptocurrency for solving a problem, paying a fine, whatever it might be. Uh what's interesting is that and people I know are saying, "Well, that wouldn't happen to me. I'm smarter than that. I cannot tell you how many times I've heard that from lawyers, pilots, financial advisors. We vulnerable as if you've got a phone or you're checking your email. Okay. Um, imagine this for a second. People like Kathy are are being contacted um by scammers on the other side of the globe. Okay? They are locating and convincing us that we have a problem that they can solve it. They are directing you in this case to a crypto ATM of which we have two in Anacortis and getting them to deposit thousands tens of thousands of dollars which instantly disappears and goes into the scammer's dig digital wallet. they are not able to retrieve it and it's gone. That's pretty sophisticated. Um Spokane led the led last summer by banning these machines and subsequently Indiana has banned them. St. Paul, Minnesota, a couple other cities um have banned them entirely. They're banned in the UK for simply because they're are primarily being used by scammers

defrauding people and it's a pipeline for fraud. So I absolutely appreciate you guys uh putting this up and being and propo you know and going through this process to protect the citizens of Anacortis. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh Mr. Cannor, did you want to offer? No. Okay. But your name is on the sheet here, right? Okay. Uh again, like the previous ordinance, this is our first read. Is there any other public comment on this ordinance at this time? Um so this is our first read. So we are not scheduled to take action on it at this point and uh it would not appear on next week's agenda unless you put it on consent. Otherwise, it would appear two weeks from now for further consideration. Council, do you have uh questions, comments, edits, or motions? All right. Are we done with this item at this point then? Sounds like probably we are. That's our last item of the night. So, we'll go ahead and conclude our meeting. Thank you. We're adjourned. Thank