City Council - Regular Meeting

At this time, I would like to call the August 13th, 2026 Des Moines City Council meeting to order. Council Member Pierre Blas will lead us in the pledge. Please stand if you are able.

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.

Thank you. We do have one council member who is with us. Okay, we have a council member who will be joining us remotely as soon as he can. So we will note that he is in the process of getting signed in. But other than that, we have our other six council members here in person. Is there any correspondence not previously received by the council? No, Mayor. Thank you. Now it's time for comments from the public. We ask that you keep your comments respectful. When I call your name, please come up to the podium. You'll have three minutes to speak. Please state your name and your city of residence. Now, if they want to speak about the public hearing, they should do that when we open the public hearing. Is that correct? Okay. So if you are here to speak just on that issue, feel free to skip this part and then make sure you enter your comments during the public hearing. So I have first, is it Melanie Barlow?

Thank you, Mayor and Council Members. I'd like to speak in regard to the parking overflow situation at Redondo. We residents are concerned that needed additional parking at Redondo is not being currently developed. The boat launch and other street designated parking is often full. As we residents walk about, we often see cars driving around and around hoping to secure a parking spot. We do appreciate this points to the number of families and visitors enjoying the Redondo Boardwalk for all the right reasons, the pier, the beach, boating, mass center, dog walking, and for all of the other wonderful reasons people come down. However, on most pleasant nights and evenings, some visitors feel forced to park illegally in spaces clearly marked no parking. and some even illegally park in our neighborhood condo parking lots, which are marked violators will be towed. Again, we should all be happy to welcome the number of these visitors, but how can the city partner in planning for Redondo's growing parking needs? Redondo hosted roughly 2,000 visitors for the Shark in the Park recently. VOLUNTEER PARKING ATTENDANTS DIRECTED CARS TO DIAGNAL PARKING UP THE RODONDA WAY SOUTH HILL. COULD THE CITY PERMANENTLY PAINT DIAGONAL PARKING LINES ON RODONDA WAY SOUTH HILL TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL PARKING? THAT'S JUST SOMETHING I JUST THOUGHT OF OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD, BUT I BELIEVE IF WE PUT THINKING CAPS TOGETHER AND LOOK AT THE SPACES THAT ARE DOWN THERE, HOW CAN WE REDESIGNATE THAT PARKING, GET THE MOST OUT OF THE SPACE THAT IS THERE. SO WE'RE ASKING WHAT OTHER CREATIVE IDEAS CAN THE COUNCIL PLAN AND PRESENT AND IMPLEMENT FOR RODONDO. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. JUDY GRANDE.

Hi, my name's Judy Grandy and I'm a Des Moines resident. When you're in a park or on a sidewalk or some other public space and someone you don't know wants to take your picture or video you, do you want them to ask permission before doing so? I think it is safe to answer that most people's answer to this question would be yes, I want them to ask permission. And if your answer to them is no, you don't want them to take your picture or video, that they honor your response and don't take a picture. I was thinking about this when people say, I'm not committing a crime, so I don't mind flock cameras recording my car. My first thought is, did you give them permission to record you? The answer is no. No one even asked you if it was okay before the cameras were put in place and activated. My next thought is, is flock making money off of your data? The answer is yes. My third thought is, Should you be paid because they are making money off of recording you? This is all about making money and tracking movements without individual's permission. Today we are told the targets are thieves and kidnappers, which is confusing because the flock data is also being used to kidnap our immigrant neighbors. Who will be the targets tomorrow? Will it be you because of your religion? Or you because of someone you associate with? Or you because of your political leanings? THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS THE LAND OF THE FREE. MASS SURVEILLANCE IN THE FORM OF FLOCK CAMERAS TAKES AWAY THIS FREEDOM. THE RITTEN CITY COUNCIL IN MAY VOTED TO TURN OFF THEIR FLOCK CAMERAS. IN JULY THEY VOTED TO COVER THE CAMERAS SO THAT THEIR RESIDENTS CAN ENSURE THAT NOBODY IS RECORDING THEM. THE REDMOND CITY COUNCIL RECENTLY VOTED IN JULY TO TERMINATE THEIR FLOCK SAFETY CONTRACT. I'M URGING THE CITY COUNCIL TO VOTE to deactivate and cover the 14 flock cameras in Des Moines and to terminate the flock safety contract. Thank you.

Thank you. Victoria Andrews.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. For the record, I'm Victoria Andrews, a resident of Des Moines since 2004. The council got used to seeing me speak a few years ago around the need for better communication between the city and its residents. Well, I'm here tonight to speak on the issue again, but it's not what you think. I'M SO IMPRESSED WITH THE TREMENDOUS CHANGE IN THE WAYS AND FREQUENCY THAT THE CITY IS COMMUNICATING WITH RESIDENTS. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE CITY MANAGER'S REPORT, SO KUDOS TO CATHERINE CAFFREY, TO DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES BONNIE WILKINS, AND TO THOSE IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS WHO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS WEEKLY GEM OF TIMELY, INTERESTING READING. You've also found a way to keep the much-loved Currents magazine, which is far less costly now that much of the content comes directly to us weekly. The council's budget discussion on August 6th pitted putting resources into better communication with the public against buttressing the reserves. Believe it or not, I agree with council members Steinmetz, Bloss, and Nutting that we finally have a good level of communication, and it is more important to balance the fund reserves. I will be attending the budget town hall on the 18th and look forward to its outcomes. On another topic. Although it was a few weeks ago, I want to commend the Waterland Parade organizers and the first ever block party that followed, which I did not attend but heard was a huge success. It brought people of all ages to downtown, the area the strategic plan ranked as number one in need of revitalization. This, plus the brand new third Thursday night market at the theater, will create a hub for making people want to spend time in Des Moines. Council Member Desimone said that the restaurants around the theater were jammed after the night market let out. This is the best news we could hope for, and I'm proud of how quickly the focus areas are being implemented. Congrats to you all. Thank you. Bill Linscott.

That wasn't for me. I was for her. Well, hey, I'd like to say I appreciate what you guys are also doing on the budget this year. A different process, but I've got to say the study session I thought was just outstanding. It gave us some priorities for what you guys are looking at. And then the public things coming up on the 18th. So I'm really excited about it. It's a new council. It's a new You know, city management, this is the first new budget, really. So congratulations, and let's keep it going. The other topic I had tonight that was on the agenda, and that's 223rd Street improvements. And we're going to hear about it for the first time, actually, so you get to participate. For the public, we ought to catch up and pass on comments, and we've got about a week to do it if we do it. And then I've followed it for quite some time, and... So not too long ago, but long ago could be in years, three, four years ago, it was in the CIP, and it had a $20 million eye-popping number to it. And so when I looked at the charts, you know, you're going to go through tonight, that's substantially different. And I say that's great, but I sure hope we get into kind of the details on what took those numbers to that case. The option one, which is kind of don't do anything and keep it going, I'm afraid – We're going to have to do a little bit of something just to direct people off the steps up to town and vice versa. So I think it feels more like actually option two. But option two doesn't have any landscaping or putting things underground. It's kind of minimalist. And I kept feeling like there should be something between the option two and option three. that might produce a more pleasing presentation that might be permanent, maybe 20 years' worth, but it buys us some time and at a different price. Option three, I'm assuming, is kind of the full-up thing, and maybe that's got the bioswales in it and that kind of stuff, but I'm thinking we're going to hear there's a lot of grant money we're going to have to count on, and that may drive the time out. We do need to do something to complete the mission, which was connect the marina with the downtown. And I think the sooner we do that, the better. And one of these options, pick the best one that will work for all of us. Thank you.

Thank you. I have Susan Iger. Okay, thank you. Patrice Thorell.

Good evening, my name is Patrice Thorell and I live in Des Moines. Mayor Matsui, Deputy Mayor Oxiger, Council Members, City Manager Caffrey, and staff, I want to thank you tonight for all of your hard work this past year listening to our community, responding to our needs, and adopting the city's first strategic plan. It is impressive. and it's going to be a big step forward, and Des Moines' future stability are going to be closer to us than we've ever seen before. So thank you, thank you, thank you. I also want to comment on what Bill Linscott said. I agree with a lot of what he said, and I would vote for the minimalist plan, but get a sidewalk in between the field, or I'm sorry, within the marina and Greenview Drive. But I'm here tonight to follow up on the policy direction Council gave staff at the April 20, I'm sorry, April 2, 2026 meeting. At that meeting, Council said that we should prioritize protecting and maintaining our existing critical infrastructure, such as Cliff Avenue and the Redondo Seawall, and other important public safety and environmental assets. LAST WEEK, COUNCIL CONFIRMED THIS PRIORITY BY MAKING BOTH CLIFF AVENUE AND REDONDO SEA WALL LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES. THANK YOU FOR THAT. I APPRECIATE IT. THE REDONDO SEA WALL IS FAILING. IT PROTECTS MAJOR SEWER PUMP STATION, AND IF IT FAILS, THE IMPACT ON PUBLIC SAFETY, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND THE CITY'S BUDGET WOULD BE VERY SERIOUS. CLIFF AVENUE IS ALSO A CRITICAL ASSET. IT'S THE MAIN WAY TO GET DOWN TO THE BEACH PARK AND THE MARINA. RIGHT NOW IT'S THE ONLY EMERGENCY ACCESS ROUTE TO THE BEACH PARK AND THE NORTH MARINA PARKING LOT SINCE THE STEPS ALONG DOCK AVENUE HAVE MADE IT HARD TO GET THROUGH FROM THE SOUTH. THESE ARE REAL AND URGENT RISKS. THEY NEED OUR FULL ATTENTION. AS YOUR FORMER PARKS AND RECREATION DIRECTOR I KNOW STAFF IS OFTEN STRETCHED VERY THIN ESPECIALLY NOW WHEN RESOURCES ARE LIMITED SETTING CLEAR PRIORITIES IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT. The city should focus its staff time and funding on our most urgent needs, not an optional beautification project such as the proposed bioswale on South 223rd Street. It's not essential at this point. Maintaining our failing critical infrastructure, Cliff Avenue and Redondo Seawall, are essential. I'm asking council to clearly and publicly reaffirm that maintaining and repairing our existing infrastructure should come before new construction projects that complete that compete for funding and staff. I also asked the city manager to direct staff to follow this priority as well. Let's protect what we already have. Let's take care of the infrastructure that keeps our community safe. If these assets fail, it will cost much more to fix them later. Thank you for your time and for continuing to focus on these important issues. Thank you very much. Thank you. And I appreciate you all.

Barb Houston-Shimizu.

Thank you, Mayor and Council Members. I am a resident of Des Moines, and I'm just here tonight on behalf of the final item on your agenda, the Memorandum of Understanding with the Des Moines Area Food Bank. I work for the Food Bank. Chris Van Gaskin, our Executive Director, is also here. And we just, as people are just starting to learn, we're having to kind of revision our future. And so one of the possibilities is that the city is hoping to look for a small parcel that we might be able to build new food bank on. And so we're just here to express our appreciation for the city's efforts to help and encourage your support of this MOU which sets forth like a short period of time where we can look at the possibilities and assess the property and so forth and assess whether this is a good direction to move forward. So thank you for your work. Appreciate your help with this.

Thank you. So as an update, we're trying to connect with Councilmember Steinmetz and we're going to need to use the phone. And so if you can give me a quick moment, I have to learn how to use this phone because I don't know that I ever have used it. Hold on. Hello, is this Council Member Simons?

All right. I'm hearing you.

Oh, good. Great. Well, you are on speakerphone, so the rest of the room and audience can hear you as well.

Great.

Thank you. Okay. Thanks for joining us. We just finished our public comment, and so we're going to move on to our... REGIONAL AND COMMITTEE REPORTS. SO, AS YOU KNOW, MANY OF YOU KNOW, WE'RE CURRENTLY RUNNING UNDER A COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING MODEL. HOWEVER, COUNCIL MEMBERS DO SERVE REGIONALLY ON MANY OTHER COMMITTEES. DO ANY COUNCIL MEMBERS HAVE ANY ITEMS OF INTEREST TO THE PUBLIC OR THE COUNCIL? COUNCIL MEMBER HARRIS.

THANK YOU. I SERVE ON THE FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND Essentially, our entire task is to provide a budget letter to the King County Council, which doubles as a flood control district board. And it is a funny thing in terms of process in that we're required to, over time things have shifted, we're required to provide this budget guidance by the end of this month, but we don't actually get the budget until after. There have been a number of problems in terms of process since the Flood Control District was created in 2007 and it now faces a $300 million shortfall and The reason that people in Des Moines should take an interest is that my thing is I want to defend the small slice of it that concerns things like the beach park and urban flooding things. They're a rounding error in the billions of dollars in the budget, but it is significant for us. The funny thing about it is that they are now dealing with property buyouts and having some experience with it here in the airport. They are doing some good work. Well, it's bad for them, but as they buy out properties, as you permanently surrender land to the sea, the wetlands, and so forth, they are seeing a permanent decline in their various city budgets that they did not anticipate many years ago. So in addition to dealing with climate change and so forth, there is a lot of economics involved. And the choices are either bonding or another one of those little add-on to your King County property tax bill which are becoming so popular with transit, and you're getting 12, 13 different little doodads because they can do that councilmanically. It doesn't require a vote of the public. But that's the shortfall now, and so stay tuned. But for those of you who actually do track your property tax or your various tax bills, you'll be seeing another one of those little dealies that we all find so delightful probably next year.

Thank you. Council Member Blass.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm a member of the WIA 9 Watershed Ecosystem Forum. It's a group of 17 local and tribal governments, state and federal agencies, and nonprofits focused on salmon habitat recovery in the Puget Sound and our local rivers. We had our meeting today right before this in Burien. We talked about the preliminary numbers coming in for the salmon in our rivers. Looking pretty good this year. The forecast for the whole year for Chinook will be about 25,000 in our rivers. For coho salmon, it's over 100,000, which is really good numbers. 50% increase from last year, so good news. We'll have final numbers at the end of the season, but that was good.

We also voted on the budget for next year.

The budget is a little over a million dollars. Then one share is $17,000. The bulk of the funding comes from the City of Seattle, King County, and King County Flood Control District. Thank you.

All right. Council Member Simons, did you have anything you'd like to report?

No, not at this time.

Okay, thank you. Now, thank you very much. We'll move to the City Manager's report, and I will turn the meeting over to City Manager Catherine Caffrey.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. We have four items tonight. The first one is a representative from King County Metro is here to give a presentation about some service changes that will enhance, honestly, services here in South King County and in Des Moines. So we'll turn it over to him. Thanks.

Thank you very much, City Manager Caffrey and Madam Mayor, Council Members, and residents of Des Moines. My name is Nathaniel Wong. I'm a government relations administrator for King County Metro in the jurisdictions and interagency partnerships unit, specifically South King County and rural King County. This is my first time in Des Moines. I just moved here from Las Vegas in January, so I'm happy to join all of you. And I'm joined by my colleague virtually, Jeremy Fichter. He's a senior transportation planner. So we're excited to share some user data that we have as far as transit use in Des Moines. as well as some updates around the Southlink connection service change, which will take place on August 29th. So I will turn it over to Jeremy, and the wonderful city clerk will run our slides for us.

I'M NOT ABLE TO SEE THE SLIDES.

IS IT POSSIBLE YOU CAN TURN ON YOUR CAMERA SO WE CAN SEE YOU? OH, YEAH. GREAT. And then we'll look at the slides, and you can direct us how you want to move forward.

Oh, OK. Great. Thanks very much. Can you all hear me OK?

Hopefully, yes. Yes.

OK. Very good. Well, thank you very much. Great to be with you this evening. Again, my name's Jeremy Fichter. I'm the South King County team lead in the service planning group at Metro. And yeah, as Nathaniel indicated, just want to share some information with you about ridership patterns and some of the changes that will be coming very soon to the city of Des Moines. And with that, we can take it into the next slide. And so just starting off with some information on current ridership patterns in the city. Next slide, please. So current ridership patterns, we've got about 1,200 boardings a day that happen within the city of Des Moines. And so I've broken this down a couple of different ways for you here by route and sort of also identifying some of the top ridership locations. So the top ridership route within the city of Des Moines is the Rapid Ride A Line on the Pacific Highway State Route 99 corridor with a little over 500 boardings a day. Next is the Route 156 that goes from Kent-Des Moines Station over to Tukwila. and South Center. And then lastly is the Route 165 that currently goes between Burien and Auburn. In terms of high ridership locations, You can see that, on the map that I've included here, the dark red and orange color are the heavier concentrations of boardings. And those are, as you can see here, really occurring along the Pacific Highway corridor, along the A-line corridor, at Kent-Des Moines Station, the new light rail station, and near Highline College. Next slide, please. With that, just wanted to provide a little bit of context about the recent project in South King County, the South Link Connections project, and then we'll get into the associated changes that are coming later this month. Next slide, please. So just a little bit of background. The South Link Connections project is a service restructure in South King County that responds to the opening of the Federal Way Link Extension. And as you all probably know, link service began in December of 2025. The changes that we're implementing reflect a very robust public engagement process, a three-phase engagement process, and that culminated in the approval of the associated changes by the King County Council in March of 2026. Full implementation will occur with this upcoming service change, but we did actually implement some minor service changes associated with the project earlier this year as part of the spring 2026 service change in March.

Next slide, please.

The project scope included 10 jurisdictions, including of course Des Moines, as well as portions of unincorporated King county over 23 routes, including some suspended routes that were suspended during the COVID pandemic. We are restoring a lot of the service hours that were suspended during the COVID pandemic as part of this project consistent with the adopted service recovery plan. And overall, this would be a 28% increase in service hours compared to fall 2025. Next slide, please. Just some overall highlights for the project as a whole. We're maintaining transit access where it exists today, but also expanding to serve some new areas. So there'll be a 7% increase in households with access to transit, and then a 70% increase in households that have access to frequent all-day service or service where routes are operating every 15 minutes or better. We're adding earlier or later trips on eight different routes, including several in the city. 11 of the 14 routes that are part of the project connects to link light rail station and we're also improving connections to rapid ride a line and other rapid ride lines. we're really dramatically increasing the amount of service operating as part of this project with over 51% more trips on weekdays and 72% more on weekends. We're implementing new frequent service on two important east-west corridors, including one that connects to Kent Des Moines Station that I'll be mentioning here shortly. And then we're also adding new days of service on routes. So we've got a couple of routes that don't operate on weekends or on Sundays, and we are addressing those gaps as part of this project. Next slide, please. yeah with that i'm going to get into a little bit of detail on the routes that are within the city of Des Moines and let's start off with the rapid ride a line. Again, this is the highest ridership route in the city of Des Moines it's a route that currently operates every 24 hours or sorry it operates 24 hours a day. And it's got some times late at night when it's currently operating only every hour well we're going to be improving that to operate every half an hour. So this route will continue to provide 24 hours a day and serve riders a little bit better that are making trips late at night. Next slide, please. The next route I'll talk about is Route 156. So this is a route that currently connects Tukwila with the Kent-Des Moines Light Rail Station. We extended the route from Highline College over to the new Light Rail Station as part of our spring service change. Added some service as part of that service change as well. And we're adding more service with this upcoming service change in August. later this month. So you can see here we're showing in green in the frequency table that you see on this slide where we're making improvements. So we're improving frequency on weekdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and we're also operating service earlier and later than it was operating before the project.

Next slide, please. There we go.

So Route 164 will serve a portion of the corridor that's currently served by the Route 165. So the 165, the current route, currently goes all the way from Burien all the way into Kent and down to Green River College in Auburn. So we are splitting that route into two new routes, the 164 and the 166. So I'll talk about the 164 first. The 164 will serve the portion of the Route 165 corridor between Green River College in Kent, Des Moines Light Rail Station. This is where we're seeing the majority of ridership on the Route 165 today. And we are adding quite a lot of service in this portion of the corridor. So the Route 164 will provide 15-minute service seven days a week and will operate earlier and later than the current Route 165.

Next slide, please.

The 166 will start where the 164 left off at Kent-Des Moines Station and then connect all the way through Des Moines and to the Burien Park and Ride. So this route will operate for every 30 minutes for much of the day, but we will have some 15-minute service during peak periods as well. Like with the other routes that are part of the project, we're going to be operating earlier in the day and later in the day relative to the service that the 165 is providing today. I think that's the last of the detailed slides that I have. So with that, I will turn it over to Nathaniel to share a little bit more information on how we're communicating with riders about these changes.

Thank you, Jeremy. So if you've been out in the community, you will see these rider alert signs posted on the bus flags. We're going to have a lot of street teams out at Kent Des Moines Station and around the community to provide information for riders. Obviously, with the two lines replacing the 160, the 163, we'll be able to, or 164, I forget already, but to just make sure that we're getting information to people to help them with their commute and their access. We'll be doing tabling events around the community. I want to give a huge thank you to City Manager Caffrey. Our team had a desire to be at the Des Moines Farmer's Market. There was some mix-up in communication, but City Manager Caffrey is going to help us get through that, and you'll see some of our folks at the Farmer's Market We'll be putting out new timetable brochures on the buses and in public locations. We have a dedicated web page, southlinkconnections.com, which is translated into five languages, but then also utilizes the online translation. We already put our blog post news release out. We're holding three regional information sessions for writers. transit alerts, if you're subscribed to our texts and email, you'll get those. And then in the coming days, we'll put out a toolkit to our jurisdictional and community partners to just push that information out on their social channels, newsletters, things like that. Next slide, please. Okay. And so one question that I received ahead of time that I do want to answer is there was a question about stops that are currently hooded and suspended. As our teams go through and deal with the service change, those will be on a schedule to be removed and taken away because they're no longer useful. So with that, I'm happy to turn it over to questions to the council.

Questions or discussion? Deputy Mayor Oxiger.

Is part of your outreach going to include working through the schools?

Off the top of my, so we will be, and I don't have it in my head, but we will have some events at schools, some of the back-to-school events. We have with the kind of added service that we're doing at the Metro Flex Zones, around the community and some other areas we're going to be trying to get some of those back-to-school events.

Thank you. Council Member Harris.

Thank you. I didn't think I had any because, you know, my little speech about the flood control thing, I'm also on the RTC advisory. First of all, thank you for the connectivity, better connectivity to RTC. at KDM Light Station that's really good. We argue over moving things around, but that's a really good step. The late night step thing is good. My ongoing nag is if you could just hand out Orca cards or some kind of thing at the senior centers, City Hall, just pass them out like candy. And because people here were blessed to have the 635 shuttle, and it's a really good thing. I'm always struck that more people don't use it. And other than that, I would be remiss because people, do you have any comments on safety? I hate to mention that, but I hear from people just that kind of thing.

Yeah. Obviously, safety is extremely important to Metro. Our Regional Transit Safety Task Force is really pursuing its work right now, and they'll be working on their recommendations in the coming months. We just had a really big kind of roundtable exercise in the last month or so to kind of divide up. I think there were 30 different kind of categories to think about in terms of safety, and so they'll be working through those and developing some kind of short-term, well, immediate term, I should say, safety improvements, and then kind of longer term, you know, so things about youth safety, having conversations with students about being safe on the bus and at bus stops and things like that. And then, of course, any physical improvements that we can do as well. So that work is currently ongoing. I don't have an update with me today. I'm happy to get a summary from our folks and share it with you.

I was trying to give you a softball. I'm a big fan and, you know, especially adding the later. To me, it's not like 10 o'clock. It's not like super late. I mean, that added service is really good. So thank you so much for that. Thank you.

Council Member Simons, did you have any questions?

No, thank you. Sure.

Well, thank you very much. I've been asking for this presentation for quite some while, as Catherine knows, but I'm really glad that you could be here with us today. Thank you. Thank you. Looking forward to coming back next time.

Thank you.

All right. Our next item, Eric Matthews is here from King County Library System. We are very lucky in Des Moines to have not one but two branches, including one we share a parking lot with, which is very convenient for me, which is important. BUT ERIC AND FELICIA ARE HERE FROM KING COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM TO TALK A LITTLE ABOUT SOME PROGRAMMING COMING UP.

OKAY. GOOD EVENING. I'M MAYOR MATSUI AND MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL. MY NAME IS FELICIA WILSON, AND I'M THE SOUND VIEW REGION LIBRARY MANAGER FOR THE SOUND VIEW REGION, WHICH INCLUDES ONE OF NINE REGIONS OF THE KING COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM. and the Soundview region includes Federal Way, Federal Way 320th, Woodmont, Des Moines, and Valley View, which is located in SeaTac. We are proud to serve the diverse community in Des Moines. The programs and services provided by our librarians and staff at both local libraries testify to their dedication and commitment to inspiring people to succeed through ideas, INTERACTIONS AND INFORMATION. AT THIS TIME, I WILL TURN THE PRESENTATION OVER TO ERIC MATTHEWS, LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES MANAGER, WHICH YOU ALL KNOW VERY WELL, TO GIVE YOU AN OVERVIEW OF THE EXCELLENT PROGRAMS AND SERVICES HAPPENING AT THE WOODMA AND THE MOORE LIBRARIES. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, VALICIA. MAYOR, DEPUTY MAYOR, Council members, members of the public, and city staff, thank you again for having us. As Felicia said, my name is Eric Matthews, and I'm the Librarian and Information Services Manager for the Des Moines and Woodmont libraries, as well as a few others. But my job in short is to help our librarians deliver great programs and services and to build the kind of partnerships that let us co-create responsive programs and services with our community partners. Like Felicia said, to start off, the mission of the King County Library System is simple. It's to inspire the people of King County to succeed through ideas, interaction, and information. So everything else I'm about to share traces back to this one sentence. So zooming out a little bit, KCLS operates 50 locations and circulated over 23 million items last year. 12 million of those were digital. which put us at number two in the country and four in the world for digital checkouts. Fun fact, the single most checked out digital title system-wide was a Diary of a Wimpy Kid novel, so they might not just be on YouTube on those devices, they're probably reading, which is what I think. We also reach about 42.8% of households across the county with a library card, so there's a fair number of you in this room today with us who's got a card on their keychain and they're in the wallet or hopefully not in a drawer somewhere. So bringing it back to Woodmont and Des Moines, our libraries are busy places. That circulation figure represents everything that's physically checked out or renewed at either location. The active patron account reflects everyone whose card lists Woodmont or Des Moines as a home library and has used their card within their last two years. If you're curious about our digital side of things, our two branches checked out over 250,000 digital items last year, which puts us at close to a 51% 49 split between physical materials and digital materials. With over 154,000 visits, we'd like to think that's the equivalent of every person in Des Moines coming five times, so thank you for doing your part if you contributed. Our service area is actually close to 78,000 because we do reach out to the federal way and some areas of Kent as well, but that's still people coming twice, so I like that too. And behind the scenes, our computer sessions, both of our branches total over 33,000, 35,000, sorry, so I think that's really a testament to still that need of access to technology and internet that's in our community. All right, so talking about programming, between our two branches, we ran close to 500 programs this year with over 5,000 people attending. And everything that we do rolls under our four service directions, which I'll talk about a little bit. So engaging with books and readings, that's really the heartbeat of what we do at every age. Storytime is really the anchor to that. Our weekly STEAM storytime at Woodmont and our baby and preschool storytimes at Des Moines University. REGULARLY DRAW 30 TO 40 FAMILIES ON A WEEKLY BASIS.

OFTENTIMES THERE'S STANDING ROOM ONLY.

OUR TEAM LIBRARIANS HOST COZY READ-INS AND READ-ALOUDS. WE'VE GOT OUR MONTHLY KNIT-LIT GROUP AT WOODMONT AND OUR EVENING BOOK GROUP AT DES MOINES TO GIVE FOLKS SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT OTHER THAN THE WEATHER. AS A SIDE NOTE, OUR KNIT-LIT GROUP JUST PARTICIPATED IN THE TRIVIA NIGHT AT THE FEDERAL WAY LIBRARY LAST NIGHT AND WON THE WHOLE THING, SO KUDOS TO THEM. We also run our annual summer reading program, which we're right in the middle of at the moment for ages 0 to 17. At the beginning of August, we had over 31,000 youth across the country, country, county, sign up for our Curious Creatures themed program. And yes, we are having Jim Missy themed story times. We've got one on Friday, August 21st from 11 to 1130 at the Des Moines Library. And then we'll also have one on Wednesday, August 26th at the Woodmont Library. And we've also been bringing back reading initiatives for grownups, though not Jimisey-themed yet. This year, our KCLS Rewind Reading Challenge saw our most successful system-wide adult engagement in programming. And then we're also in, right now we're doing our second annual Book Bingo, which is done in partnership with the Seattle Public Library and the Seattle Arts and Lecture Series. That goes through September 8th. Anybody who gets a bingo will win a prize. If you achieve a blackout, you'll get entered into a drawing to a four-event series from the Seattle Arts and Lectures.

Student success and lifelong learning.

This direction covers a lot of ground. During the school year, Des Moines runs weekly tutoring. This year, our volunteers supported over 100 scholars working towards their goals in math, reading, and writing. This summer, we partnered with the Federal Way School District again for their Fred Buss Summer Program, doing summer meals at the Woodmont Library, which saw over 400 meals served. Our generous friends of the Woodmont Library were also there to hand out free books to families. We have programs such as our Handwriting Lab at the Woodmont Library, where learners 3 to 11 can work on strengthening their fine motor skills. We've got improv classes and workshops with young adult authors for teens. We've got a writing club in Des Moines. And also, our ELL and talk time classes support English language learners in our communities. And also, it gives an opportunity for our librarians to share our world language collection, of which you can find over 26 languages throughout the system. And then the Woodmont Library is also home to our Community Learning Garden and Seed Library, which last year gave out over 2,100 seed packets, which is a number that we are projecting to exceed this year. We pair that with a monthly garden club and regular programming on sustainable gardening and food resiliency, programs such as how to use native plants and preserve food. And then a library card also grants you access to museum and state parks passes. On Tuesday, August 26, it's going to be KCLS Day at the Pacific Science Center, where you can show your library card for two free adult entries, and any dependents under 18 will be free. Making meaningful connections. This is a category, if I'm honest, that we get a lot most direct feedback from patrons about, and it really kind of threads through everything that we do. Making meaningful connections happens outside of our building with our librarians and mobile services department, making monthly visits to child care centers. We also go to some of the senior care facilities, such as Wesley Gardens, Wesley Terrace, and Judson Park. We've been thrilled to continue to contribute and grow in partnership with Russ and the folks at the MAST Center and participate in Squid-O-Rama and Shark in the Park, also with Patrice, who left with the Waterlands Kids Festival, which was great. And then in our buildings, it's programs like our Daytime Playtime, which give parents opportunities to connect with each other and support their kids' social and emotional growth. It's our tween zones and after-school hangouts for teens to connect. We've got monthly craft and chat at the Des Moines Library. We've had family game nights, and we've got a community of creator program at Woodmont where local artists gather to work alongside each other, share what they're making, and lean on each other in feedback. People clearly want to be together in the same room doing something real, and our libraries are proud to be a place where that can happen.

Obtaining trustworthy information.

This is where we help people navigate parts of life that don't come with an instruction manual. So we've had like AARP tax help. We've had some legal aid pop-ups in partnership with Tacoma Pro Bono. We've had Sheba Medicare counselors help. We've worked with the Alzheimer's Association, King County Public's House. We just held an accessible voting event down at Des Moines with King County Elections. These are things that people deserve real support with, and that's exactly the point of our work. Our libraries also offer one-on-one help by appointment, where our information staff can help patrons use our library services, find credible information, and connect with resources that meet their needs. That can range anything from genealogy assistance, or if you're thinking about starting a new business and wanting to do some market research, we can help you with that, or we can help you find experts in an organization that specializes in that. So as we keep continuing on with our programming, those will always be kind of the four directions that we're working around again. But what I'm really excited to talk to you about tonight are two opportunities that are coming to the Woodmont Library. The first is our Peer Navigator Program. This is supported by a grant from the King County Library Foundation in partnership with Peer Kent. So peer specialists, sometimes called peer counselors or navigators, are people with a variety of lived experience who are now on the path forward and use that experience to help others set and reach wellness goals. So our navigators will be on site five days a week starting next Monday, the 17th. HELPING COMMUNITY MEMBERS CONNECT TO HOUSING NAVIGATION, COURT ADVOCACY, GOVERNMENT BENEFITS, EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT SYSTEMS AND SUCH SYSTEMWIDE ACROSS ALL SEVEN PEER NAVIGATOR LOCATIONS. OUR PEERS MADE MORE THAN 1,500 RESOURCE REFERRALS LAST YEAR. THE NEXT PROGRAM IS THE WELCOMING CENTER, WHICH IS ANOTHER GRANT-FUNDED SERVICE SUPPORTED BY THE KING COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM. We currently have six welcoming centers across the system. Our welcoming ambassadors, again, are those with lived experience as immigrants or refugees, and their work is to help support new arrivals in our communities with connection to a variety of services, essentially whatever a new arrival needs to get their footing. Our ambassadors provide that support in 12 languages across the system. They can do it in person or online. Our ambassadors use a trauma-informed, one-on-one approach that builds real community and belonging along the way. Last year, our ambassadors connected more than 700 patrons to resources and services that reflected who they are and where they came from. So our ambassadors, Sheba and Fisa, will be at the library on Tuesdays and Wednesdays beginning September 1st, and they'll be able to support Dari Pashto and Arabic languages. And so that's really a brief overview of only some of the services and programs and resources that we are offering at the Woodmont and Des Moines libraries, as well as throughout KCLS. We really are busy. We're growing, and we're always building towards something even better in support of our community. Having two libraries, as was mentioned, is an incredible value in terms of both services and building connections. And we're excited to work towards fulfilling our mission. So we hope to see you at the library. Please stop by. Tell us what you'd like to see. Tell us what we can do for you. And thank you all. for your time and we're happy to take any questions.

Councilmembers, questions or discussion? Councilmember Harris.

I get choked up every time you guys show up. I mean, literally, you're like the community centers and I just I don't like to do these little things like that, but you're it, and I can't say enough good things about, you know, with my kids and so forth. I can't think of a website or a communication system that would make people understand how much stuff you guys offer. I mean, it sounds like a late-night infomercial, but no, I mean, when I go down the list of stuff, that I've seen people do in events. You mentioned the museums. People learn to sew tools. I mean, it never stops. And the biggest thing that I hear from seniors and parents and stuff is that they aren't aware of it. I don't know how to do anything about that, but that's not a bad problem to have. And yeah, I mean, seriously, you guys are the greatest.

Yeah, thank you. Absolutely. And thank you for the city manager for offering us 10 minutes to talk about instead of three minutes, because it's really hard to narrow down so many things and the value that we provide. And on that communication piece, which was kind of mentioned earlier, I just want to really thank the city and Bonnie in particular for helping get the word out on the events that are going on in the library.

Other questions or discussion? Councilmember Simons, do you have any questions?

Yeah, so that role is through the Peer Kent organization down in Kent. So they are actually, we were contracted, we contract through them for that program.

So folks, if they wanted to learn more, they could go to Pierre Kent, and I presume they have a website.

Yes. OK. Great. Thank you.

Well, thank you very much, Felicia, Eric, and always great to see you. Thank you. OK.

OUR NEXT ITEM, WE HAVE A NEW COMMUNITY SERVICES OFFICER AS PART OF DES MOINES PD. I'M SURE MANY OF YOU HAVE MET HIM. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO SAY JUNIOR'S NAME, SO YOU ARE REALLY JUST JUNIOR, BUT I'LL LET CHIEF BO SAY IT. JUST JUNIOR? JUST JUNIOR? ALL RIGHT, TAKE IT AWAY.

EXPLAIN THE FULL NAME, SAY. HI, HOW ARE YOU ALL DOING TONIGHT? MANY PEOPLE KNOW COMMUNITY SERVICE OFFICER IS A VERY SPECIAL POSITION. THE COUNCIL HAS BEEN VERY INVOLVED OVER THE YEARS WITH THIS POSITION. When Tanya retired, we spent a lot of time looking for the perfect fit. Our state needs somebody who has just the right combination of that engagement and that knowledge. And really, we're looking at different ways to engage with our entire community, that broad spectrum and not have gaps. And frankly, there are some gaps. There are some communities in Des Moines that we can do a better job connecting with. So I am going to say Junior. I will let Junior introduce himself in its fullest... Full touch, but very unique background he brings to our community. History from an athletic standpoint, a history from working for the NFL Players Association, doing community outreach, working for the mayor of Anchorage, and working with the DEA. So he has this broad spectrum knowledge, really doing community outreach on multiple fronts and engaging a broad spectrum community. So without stealing too much of your thunder, I will introduce him just as Junior. And with that, Junior, the stage is yours.

Although I did realize when I was trying to email you, your actual name is the one in the email system, and I was like, oh, this is going to be tough.

Well, first I just want to say thank you to Chief for giving me the opportunity to serve the city of Des Moines. Thank you for trusting me to be able to make the vision here come alive with a community engagement with the department. I also want to thank the leadership here, the city manager, as well, to be able to give me the opportunity to serve the city of Des Moines. My first name is Uluau, and my middle name is Junior. Last name is Aumalvai. So if you want to say my name, Junior works. Oh, sorry about that.

No worries.

TODAY WE'LL GO THROUGH A SHORT PRESENTATION FOR THE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 2026 WORK PLAN FOR DES MOINES POLICE DEPARTMENT. IT'S BEEN A PLEASURE TO BE ABLE TO MEET WITH SOME OF THE FOLKS THAT ARE IN THIS ROOM. I KNOW LIBRARY WE JUST MET LAST WEEK. ALSO OTHER INDIVIDUALS THAT'S IN THIS ROOM. WE'LL KIND OF TALK ABOUT SOME OF THAT AS WE GO THROUGH THE PLAN HERE. SO SEE IF I CAN FIGURE OUT HOW TO WORK THIS CLICKER HERE. ALL RIGHT. Like I said, I'm the community engagement officer. Here's our mission here, which is strengthen trust, prevent crime through relationships, and deliver safety with care. One of the visions Chief Bell has is creating that relationship with all communities here, and that's what we look to do with the different programming, different engagement, different visibility, stuff that we do in the community to kind of bridge those gaps that are here in Des Moines. Here's the model we created for the engagement department for the police, is making sure that we have a holistic approach. And that holistic approach is one community, one team, we're safer together. And so that is the model that we are going to run when we're looking at different programming with stakeholders. community members and government officials to be able to work together to make this community safer together.

Here are the core pillars here.

After meeting with Chief Bowe and kind of the mission that we were looking to do in the city of Des Moines, youth and family engagement is a big part here. Before coming on board here, I did do some research here in Des Moines and There really is no youth facility here. No Boys and Girls Club, things like that. And usually when you have a facility like that in a city or in a neighborhood, it reduces drug use about 30%. It also reduces crime by about 20%. So we're kind of locking that here in Des Moines before I got on board. Those are one of the things that I recognize. But also part of the things that I've heard in the listening tours, you'll hear about a little bit later in the presentation here. SECOND IS THE COMMUNITY OUTREACH. THIRD IS EVENTS AND VISIBILITY. BEING VISIBLE TO THE PUBLIC IS VERY IMPORTANT WITH PUBLIC SAFETY. NOT JUST ENFORCEMENT, BUT ALSO COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, WHERE FOLKS CAN REACH OUT WITH THE FOLKS AT THE POLICE DEPARTMENT, NOT JUST FOR SAFETY, BUT ALSO JUST TO MAKE A CONNECTION, TO BE ABLE TO REACH OUT ANY TIME. THOSE THAT TOOK PART OF THE NATIONAL NOT OUT, YOU CAN KIND OF SEE THAT ENGAGEMENT THAT WE HAD WITH THE COMMUNITY, VERY POSITIVE. where community members were barbecuing, engaging, and talking with police officers and also their neighbors so that they can have that connectivity, that one community, one team, safer together model. And then also neighborhood watch and safety. One of the things that I also recognize being here about 30 days is there's some communities that are missing. Some communities' voices are missing as far as finding out what are the gaps in different communities and we like to increase neighborhood watches within Des Moines. And that starts with becoming one team, one community. So here's the implementation method. My prior experience with the DA, also serving as the chief equity officer for the state of Anchorage, Alaska, allowed me to kind of go through some of this experience and have some good results. The first thing that I've done since I've been here about 30 days is making sure that I heard from local individuals, local stakeholders here in the city of Des Moines. So I hosted a listening tour, a listening tour to where I met with individuals. Like I mentioned, I just met with the library. What are the certain things here that Des Moines have to offer? What are certain things that Des Moines needs to improve? What are the things that need to be brought back? And I held a listening tour. LISTEN TOUR INVOLVES EVERYBODY BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT DES MOINES IS ABOUT, EVERYBODY. SO I MET WITH CITY FOLKS, I MET WITH COMMUNITY MEMBERS, ADVOCATES, EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS, SPORTS TEAMS, YOUTH LEAGUES, AND THAT'S JUST WITHIN 30 DAYS. VISIBILITY AND ENGAGEMENT, IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO BE VISIBLE. THE COMMUNITY CAN SEE THE POSITIVE WORK THAT THE POLICE DEPARTMENT IS DOING. and the officers that are doing outside of enforcement. So that positive engagement where they have a relationship with police officers. So being visible at different functions. You guys probably have seen myself and other team members take part of stuff. And I'll talk about that a little bit later.

Training.

Training is important so that I can learn about up-to-date models or things that are happening around the country, also around the world, that we could probably implement here in Des Moines. And so today, I just got certified for SEPTED. I actually drove here today, literally. I just got back in Des Moines from Vancouver. I got certified with SEPTED. And so being able to get more training really prepares myself and also the staff about some of the stuff that we can implement here in the community engagement department. How do we measure success and strategy? Well, how does the community react? How many people are involved? How many people are talking about the positive engagement and the improvements and how are their voices being heard? And so I'll go through that later on in the presentation here. Since being on board July 1st, about 30 or so days, listening tour, I held over about 20 listening tours where I met with community members. Since then, there's obviously when I put this presentation in, There's been many more since then. So prior to this, that's what the number was. It was about 20. We're probably closer to more like 30, 40 now. Community members, which include community members, nonprofits, educational systems, religious organizations, and local leaders. Some of the things that I've been able to do with the police department with the support of the leadership there is show up to events that the city holds. So pop-up and plays. some of those that are not familiar with those. That's where the city holds these pop-up and plays at the different parks in the city, and I'm able to show up with other officers and engage with kids there, thanks to the city for hosting that. But it gives us another opportunity to be out there and have positive interactions with community members. Des Moines Children's Festival, talking to Kyle, it was a great show of numbered support there. We had about 1,000 or so individuals that were part of that. So the visibility that I talked about being out in the public, it was a great show for the police department. The Des Moines parade, that was also a great positive interaction with the community. Everybody loved the big truck the chief was out there with, the kids. But that was another positive visibility where the police and the crowd is interacting together in a positive way. NATIONAL NIGHT OUT, WE JUST DID THAT, WHERE WE HAD OVER 50 POSITIVE ENGAGEMENTS, 550 POSITIVE ENGAGEMENTS WITH COMMUNITY MEMBERS, AND THAT'S A REALLY GOOD NUMBER. WE CAN ULTIMATELY BUILD MORE ON THAT, WHICH MAKES US SAFER HERE IN DES MOINES. AND TRAINING THERE IN THE BOTTOM LEFT CORNER, SORRY ABOUT THAT, WHICH IS THE CERTIFICATION COURSE, WHICH I JUST COMPLETED TODAY AND GOT CERTIFIED. And the other training that I have scheduled already, one in October and then also one in November, the chief to go down in Seattle. So as we continue to build engagement, we also continue to build knowledge on ways that we can improve with community engagement with the police department and also Des Moines communities. Here are some of the numbers. that I talked about earlier, how we can kind of track some of the positive engagements and how we can kind of improve those moving forward. Since July 1st, coming on board, we had about 1,300 safety educational materials distributed. So we're able to put it in individuals' hands, whether it's a youth, whether it's an adult, where we had 1,300 educational materials handed out since July 1st. And it's only going to get better. Within the last 30 days being here, this number is actually different now. This number says over 1,555 individuals have engaged with departments of Des Moines Police Department. That is now closer to 2,000. And that's just going to continue to increase as we continue to host programming for different groups, different organizations and stakeholders so that we could be one community and one team. 2026 priorities, as we look forward to strengthening our relationship with community to become that one community, one team, we look to expand. We look to expand youth and family engagement, whether it's in the educational system, whether it's in nonprofits, whether it's religious organizations. However way we can expand that youth engagement, we're going to try to find that gap and we're going to try to fill that. Like I mentioned earlier, 2026, we're going to try to increase neighborhood outreach. go into different neighborhoods that don't necessarily have a voice at some of the functions that are held, some of the meetings that are held, where we can reach some of the voices and really kind of pull and hear what their needs are as well that have been presented. Next is strengthen events, presence, and visibility. That's a big part, is being able to show up. It's one thing to talk about things, but it's another thing to walk it. And so we'd like to be visible where that positive interaction in and out, indoors, outdoors, with the police department and community members around Des Moines. And then talk about tracking engagement outcomes. How we do that? Well, the materials that we hand out. How many have we handed out? How many individuals interacted? How many individuals took part of it? And that's how we would track our outcomes and how they are when they take part of it this year compared to next year. To get a hold of me here, this is my contact information. If you guys want to take a picture of that. I know it's a little tough with my first name, but here's my contact information, also my phone number. Feel free to reach out to me about taking part in a listening tour or if you want to take part in hosting an event or having that visibility with the police department and some of the functions that community members of Des Moines have. Thank you so much. Any questions?

Council, questions or discussion? Councilmember Harris.

You said all the right things, and yeah, I can't tell you. I mentioned Reach Out Des Moines, and I just, I know that what you do is, yeah, I mentioned the library and that being the community center, but you can, you know, When I first moved here, we had this much tighter integration with the schools and the library and stuff. It was just a different generation, and I feel like you can bring that back a little bit. I actually have a, just, I'm going to ask if you really could change your email address just to junior. No, I mean, seriously, because the public, just for them to reach you, if there was a

I think that's an HR question.

Yeah, no, but I'm just saying junior at desmoineslaw.gov. But other than that, no, man, go get them. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member. If it makes you feel better, we have been able to make contact with the educational system. I am working with the head coach for the Mount Rainier football team here and also with the elementary educational systems here as well to get some implementation for safety and stuff like that. Sweet.

Thank you. Deputy Mayor Oxiger.

Yes, Junior, I want to welcome you aboard. And we're supposed to have been meeting, but we keep running into each other at different events, and we haven't met up yet. But I do want to thank your efforts and stress how important it is that we do interact with our youth and our communities and bring everybody to the table as far as community building a sense of community. So thank you for your efforts and look forward to talking to you soon. Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Council Member DeMone.

It's Desimone. Yes. Thank you, Junior. Welcome to the team. I've already handed your information out three times, and I'm excited to be working with you on the business side, the brick-and-mortar businesses. We need better communication, and we need that contact. We need someone to reach out to. Sometimes calling 911 isn't what we need to do, so I'm excited to team up with you on this.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Nutting.

I just want to welcome you aboard. Great presentation. Said all the right things. You're going to do a great job here. And you're in a city that actually likes our officers. And so it's going to be good. I hope you've had a great experience so far. And it's going to get even better. So congratulations.

Thanks for being here.

Council Member Vlas.

Yeah, thank you for the presentation. Thank you for joining the police force. I really like your approach. When you came in, you had a listening tour. You met with me. You met with a lot of community members. And that's a great thing. You don't have a set way of doing things. You want to listen before you act. I love that. And welcome to the city. Thank you, Council Member.

Council Member Stimons, do you have any questions?

Just a little on the comments. I think hearing from everybody that we're really glad that you're here, Junior. I thought our engagement was a really great process.

SO I APPRECIATE YOU REACHING OUT TO EVERYBODY, BUT I DO THINK THE COMMUNITY...

THANK YOU, COUNCILMEMBER.

EVERYONE HAS SAID IT ALL, SO THANK YOU VERY MUCH. YES, I APPRECIATE IT, AND THANK YOU FOR THE PRESENTATION.

THANK YOU.

All right, Chief Bowe, last item. I know it's a long city manager report tonight, but we'll, well, this is the meatiest one, so get comfy. But this is our annual crime in Washington report. Chief Bowe will go through some important stats and trends we're seeing here in Des Moines.

Perfect. I can talk as fast or slow as you want here. I know it's a long night, so I'll try to be reasonably quick. Start out with what we're here to talk about. The Crimes of Washington report is a reflection back in time. And this is a weird forward back thing we're doing here because I'm giving you quarterly real-time live stats. So you had a 2026 first quarter report. Now you're going back in time and looking back at last year's stats for the full 2025 report that comes out of the state. I'm going to kind of go through a little bit of how that happened and why that happened and the difference in the two data sets here. Really what this is, is the big picture looking at how our crime stacks up to other people in the region. As Desmond pointed out a moment ago, business community looks at this. People moving to your community look at this far more than they look at my presentation at council. This is the statewide snapshot that people tend to look at as they're deciding where to locate a business or where to move. So I have to cover a little bit of history here on how we get to universal reporting and what universal reporting is. So if you look in the Wayback Machine, 100 years ago, everybody reported whatever they wanted, however they wanted. Laws weren't standardized. You got to make up whatever you wanted in your community. Even basic things like speeding had a different definition in every different town you went to. And what happened was it was this understanding that we had to standardize crimes and reporting of crimes, or really we can just say whatever we want as politicians or police chiefs, either make you happy or make you mad. So the first effort actually started with the International Association of Chiefs of Police trying to come up with some sort of universal standard. Over time, a congressional mandate came out that said, OK, this is enough of everybody kind of doing it. It's now required, and the federal government's going to come up with some standards and guidelines. And they came up with a universal system of reporting called summary reporting. And this is a really basic reporting system that defines about 50 crimes, and everything is reported under those 50 crimes. There's some fundamental flaws in this system, and one of the most fundamental flaws is that it is a hierarchy-based reporting system. So every crime is assigned a score, and everything that occurs in one incident gets one score. So if you go to a crime where there's robberies and auto thefts and all sorts of acts of violence and everything else, and at the end there's a homicide, there's one homicide stat. That's the way that crime system works, is you take the highest crime, and that's all that's counted. Well, within a lot of crimes is a lot of other stuff that is not even recognized under the old way of doing business. So basically, over the years, they came up with this idea of doing NIBRS, which is a super, super awesome system. It does require everybody gets completely new ways of reporting data, but it's extremely rich. It shows relationship between players. It shows relationship between locations. time that shows if a crime victim is a stranger victim versus a known victim. If it's a known victim, is it an uncle? Is it a dad? Is it an associate? I mean, it is super involved in how much rich data you can get out of it. That has been the industry standard since 2018. It took a little bit of time for all the agencies in the state to get there, but everybody now is reporting under NIBRS in the state of Washington. So the reason why I tell you that big, long story is you can't compare crime stats from pre-NIBRS. and post snipers that you will see this astronomical increase in crime of lower levels because all those lower level things were not qualified if there was a higher level crime. So you're comparing apples to oranges. There is no direct comparison. We can use other comparisons like we can look at vehicle collision, look at insurance data as far as how much it costs to fix cars. And there's different ways that we can kind of guesstimate some stats, but they're not a one-to-one reporting. So just a fair warning to somebody who's going to come to me and say, I'm looking at your 2017 stats, and you're a big bad liar, Chief. Full disclosure, this is why that's occurring. Crime trends can't be looked one-to-one using national reporting. This is also where I give my other warning. I love and hate crime stats. Crime stats are really great when they're good, and then police chiefs take all the credit, say I solved everything. And when they're bad, they blame everybody else and say I'm not responsible for any of it. The reality is within crime in your community, there are segments that we influence. There are segments that we control. There are segments we have absolutely zero control over. That is the reality of crime stats. So I have to be fully transparent that crime stats tonight actually are going to look pretty good, and I'm going to take full credit for them. But next year, don't hold me to it. So, Crimes in Washington report, kind of discuss this a little bit. In the state of Washington, we have a really unique environment where there's a nonprofit, the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Chief Police, or WASPIC, that is contracted by the state and paid for by the state to compile all records and data in the state and produce this annual report. So this is funded by the state legislature under contract to the Association of Sheriffs and Chief Police, WASPIC organization. who does this with CJTC funding. So it's a very weird hybrid in that it's not a university who a lot of times would do this, but rather it is a set of academics and analysts within WASPC that do this report on behalf of the state. The reason it takes so long is we all submit all of our data to the state, and the state doesn't believe any of us until they audit and scrub every piece of data to make sure that we all report exactly the same metrics under the NIBRS system, and there's no deviation in our data reporting. So it takes about six months for the report to come out. It's released every July. for the previous year. The report I gave you earlier is our summary data from CAD and from our RMS, our record management system. It's our internal data. It has not yet gone through this process. There will be some deviation in those two data sets, just to be transparent. So big picture, state trend. The biggest thing that has happened the last couple of years in crime has actually been auto theft has astronomically declined in the last couple of years. There's a lot of reasons for that. There's a lot of discussion. A lot of pressure has been put on auto theft. There's been changes in pursuit laws and enforcement. There's been changes in prosecution, particularly chronic offenders. One thing we've experienced in law enforcement is one person will go out and steal 150 cars a week. If you take that one person out and actually charge that person to get them out of the auto theft game, it will change the entire staff for a community overnight because it's not a ton of people doing it. It's a few people doing it a ton of times. Some of the rather focused work on auto theft has really had a huge influence in our state, as well as some of just the technical things. We give out clubs. If anybody wants a club, I have 150 of them in my office. Put it on your steering wheel. It will distract people from stealing your cars. And we have an unlimited supply. Kia went through a big process of changing their starting devices to do interrupts. So various different angles were put at this to really help reduce this. Shooting and homicides. Violent crime is down. This is where people cheer. What they don't tell you is that if you look at the numbers, they're actually down almost where they were in 2019 in the state of Washington. Washington had a huge spike in violent crime in COVID. And after George Floyd's homicide, there was a huge spike in violent crime in this state. We have just now got down to before the spike. The rest of the country has seen, and you're hearing people talk about these, you know, predating the 80s or 90s crack epidemic type numbers. We are nowhere near that in the state of Washington. We still have a long ways to go. So trending the right way. still have a long ways to go in the state of Washington. This is the other big thing that has been coming out of these numbers for years. It has been very well publicized. The state of Washington is currently dead last in the nation in police staffing. If you include all the states, we're 51st, including Virgin Islands, I think it is, or something. We also are behind. So we literally are dead last in the state of Washington in police staffing. And the trend is the wrong way. We continue to see a lack of investment in long-term funding in law enforcement in the state of Washington. So I show you this not to be dramatic or anything else, but just it's a reality of our state that the resource of the human beings pushing radiators around doing the investigations is extremely limited in this state. Where there's a limit, there's an opportunity. Our technology and some of our other tools in the state are astronomical, but we do have a gap in this particular body of investment. Des Moines, if we're fully staffed, falls about a quarter of an officer per thousand below the state average. So if you look at everybody in the state, we're below that. And at our current staffing level, we're below that again by about another quarter percent. So those are the real numbers as far as looking at this big picture as far as what's going on in the state of Washington. And also showcasing this is not just Des Moines issue. This is everywhere in the state of Washington is trying to work out this very issue. Some of the governor's investments in House Bill 2015 and some of the tools we're using now to really work on this are our effort to capitalize on this opportunity both in the city and in the region. A little bit about your police department. If we're full staffed and everybody's here and nobody's in training, all the positions are full. This is what your police department looks like. On an average shift, you have Four officers, one of which is a corporal, which is like a senior officer, a mentor officer, and a sergeant. So five people, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And then on the right side are our detective positions, our traffic positions, court marshals. It's everybody, including Junior, who was here earlier, et cetera. And then there's 13 non-commissioned people that are required to make the police department work, people who do things like maintain our records, get our warrants together, do our evidence work. And then people like Monica, who does mental health crisis response in our community. So fully deployed, that's what our department looks like. We do have four commission vacancies right now. On September 1, that will be down to two vacancies. We have two in the, they've already gone through the background. They've been offered employment. They start on the first. We'll be down to two commission vacancies. We have two people currently in pre-academy, which means we've hired them, but their academy date is set by the state. That can take up to six months to get somebody into the academy. So in the intermediate time, they write parking tickets and do a lot of training, but they can't be deployed as police officers. Five officers currently are in field training, which means they're out in a car with a veteran officer, but they can't be deployed on their own until they get signed off, that they meet the competent officer standard to operate independently. And then we have a code enforcement officer in backgrounds, and four officers are currently in various forms of leave or limited duty. So officers go on medical leave, they go on military leave, they get hurt in the line of duty, etc., This is completely normal in 2026 law enforcement. Just to be frank, there's not a unique thing to our department. This is completely normal. Prior to about six years ago, officers stayed with one agency for their entire career. Prior to about six years ago, officers stayed in this profession until they retired. Right now, about 40% of officers don't make it to retirement. They voluntarily leave the profession at some point in their careers. That is a completely UNICORN THAT WE'RE ALL WORKING THROUGH IS HOW TO MANAGE THIS CHURN IN THE PROFESSION. I SHOULD SAY THAT ONE OF OUR STATED GOALS ON THIS AND ONE OF OUR GOALS THAT I GET THESE GUYS UP ON IS 90 DAYS. FROM THE TIME I HAVE INFORMATION, EITHER FROM THE COUNCIL, CITY MANAGER, OR FROM AN EMPLOYEE THAT THEY ARE RETIRING, LEAVING, OR I HAVE AUTHORIZATION TO HIRE, WE HAVE 90 DAYS TO HAVE SOMEBODY IN THE OFFICE IN A UNIFORM. SO WHAT WE'RE TRYING TO DO IS MAKE SURE WE DON'T CAUSE A LAG ON OUR END. even if there's churn in the system. The churn in the system is the lag, not that we're not hiring people and we have a bunch of vacancies on the board. How do we come about doing our work? A lot of this is Junior relaying a lot of the stuff I make him listen to me talk about for hours on end. But really, it's how are we present in our community? And it really comes down to some fundamentals, right? It is, you have to fight crime. That's what you guys are paying us for, is to go out and hold people accountable for criminal behavior. You've got to support the human beings that work for you, keep them mentally and physically healthy. And then you have to build trust in your community, and you have to build trust in your whole community. And that's something where we really are trying to identify what are those gaps, what are those goals, and how do we hit those goals. One of the areas for me that I will be honest is one of my focal points is the youth voice. The youth voice is not heavily present in law enforcement communications in our community, and that's a huge opportunity for us to connect differently with young people. So that's something you hear about, like, hey, I met with the football team. Hey, I'm working with you. He's trying to engage that youth voice in all the ways he can to get young people in our community feeling like they have that voice to the chief, that voice to their police department. And quite frankly, when you talk about long-term recruiting, it is an amazing tool to have young people fall in love with this profession and the service that this profession is. Big long story to get to the one slide that y'all wanted me to talk about from moment one. So, crimes. 18.7% is our overall reduction in criminal behavior in our community. Again, this is where I cheer and pat myself on the back and say, I did that. Big things, auto theft is driving these numbers statewide. If you look, especially communities with large retail, if you look at Tukwila, their auto theft numbers are thousands less than they were last year, which is driving their statistics in a lot of ways. Vandalism, assault, burglary, those are all down. I would argue that a lot of that stuff is all intertwined as well. I think a lot of people who are committing crimes like auto theft are also committing a lot of other crimes in our community, and accountability on one causes accountability on all. You guys have heard me preach a lot about the importance of traffic and visibility. I am a firm believer that when somebody's out and about thinking about doing something bad, And they see police officers out there doing traffic. It's force multiplier that makes people reconsider bad decisions. I'm 100% committed. It's not just the benefit of the traffic stop and the speeding behavior. It's also the benefit from the person who decides not to do something stupid because they see the police officers in their community. There are some increases of note on here. The most astonishing one for me was the rape offenses and pornography offenses, which after I climbed back up, Off my chair there, trying to figure out what that was, I called the detective sergeant, and it's actually one of those weird things in statistics that sometimes a bad thing is a good thing. When he went and analyzed the rape offenses, what he found is they are primarily coming from third parties related to old events, which actually is a healthy counseling system that you probably have in place that has in some ways in our community through child protective services in the schools, which are where most of those are coming from, helping people understand and report past events. So it's one of those weird things that A, it sounds bad, and B, it's probably an indicator of some really healthy things occurring and how we're caring for victims in our community. The beauty of this report is you can compare community to community. Last year, I just did South King County on this. I actually added a couple of east side cities here just for a mental checkpoint here. As you move across, left is the lowest crime rate, right is the highest. I will say that I'm being totally unfair to Tukwila here, and I'll explain why in a moment. But you'll notice that really at the end of the day, we can fall right in the middle of our crime rate, and that if you take out the east side cities, we actually fall on the low end of overall crime rate. That is not to say we don't have real crime. We do. It is not to say we don't have violent crime. We do. It's not to say that this is all unicorns and puppy dogs. That's not what I'm trying to say here by any stretch. And I never want to discount the victim of a crime, because one crime is real for the individual who's a victim of a crime, and we have to honor and really, really state that. EVERY CRIME IS A REAL CRIME, BUT AS A GENERAL TREND, WE ARE IN A FAIRLY GOOD PLACE IN CRIMES PER 1,000 MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY, AND REALLY NOT THAT FAR OUT OF LINE WITH THE HIGHER END EAST SIDE COMMUNITIES ON THOSE NUMBERS. TUCKWILLA, I'M BEING UNFAIR, TOO, BECAUSE TUCKWILLA HAS ALMOST NO RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY, AND THESE ARE CRIMES FOR 1,000 RESIDENTS. THEIR TRUE POPULATION IS WELL OVER 100,000. IF YOU LOOK AT THEIR HOTEL POPULATION AND THEIR MALL POPULATIONS, THEY HAVE A MASSIVE POPULATION THEY SERVE. THEY JUST DON'T LIVE WITHIN THEIR CITY LIMIT. I do that just to be inflammatory and make their life difficult because their chief's a good guy. Speed cameras, a little bit about technology. We live in the land of technology. There are some amazing technologies out there, one of which is using tools to help maximize the impact we can have on behaviors. Speed cameras, red light cameras, they are effective in changing behaviors. The reality is people get to know where those are. They slow down. It is a very effective engineering tool and enforcement tool kind of merged into one to help change behaviors. So what we're seeing year over year is what we want to see, which is they are a public safety tool and they're doing what they're supposed to do, which is causing reductions in violation. We're going to have a budget presentation later and you'll talk about the other side of that, which is we don't get the revenues year over year out of those cameras because they also result in reduced revenues. So it is a little tricky to use that for funding your your operations because if they're working right, they actually should go down to zero or closer to overtime because they actually have changed the desired behavior. That's a picture of the back of my head. So I just put this up, just general tickets. DUI tickets, 148 for a small community. We have a really, really aggressive night crew on DUI enforcement. They do a great job out there. 731 just regular tickets, non-automated tickets, 368 parking violations. And I am old school, much to the court's chagrin. I do not use automated tickets, so my tickets are not reflected in there. But I write about 100 tickets a year, too, just because when I'm bored, I go write tickets. So paper tickets aren't included in that. That's only the digital tickets. Couple quick things, Horizon, reaccreditation. We are a state accredited agency that accreditation expires this year. We will be getting our reaccreditation. We're going through the process right now of doing what's called proofs. They come in and say, I want to see a record of this training and this stuff and things and this policy and the time you actually did this with a complaint and they randomly ask you a million questions and you have to prove them. So right now they've asked us the million questions and we're going through with all of the proofs. We are really, really working towards a dedicated traffic officer and a proactive detective as we get our staffing numbers where we want. With that churn, we will get there. That will be the first two positions, a traffic officer and a proactive detective. Proactive detective is a uniformed detective on marked car, actively just going out and fighting crime in areas of focus in the city. So something pretty important to actually changing and implementing that change of behavior is focusing on an area with proactive enforcement of all laws. We are using technology. We've talked quite a bit about LexPol. LexPol being how we track and monitor officer complaints, use of force, pursuits, and training databases in a much more effective mechanism. Not that the spreadsheets of 1986 that were here when I got here aren't awesome, but I like a little bit beyond that in my analytics. Transitioning to laptops, more efficient for the officers as far as in and out of their car, record keeping, etc., REALLY TALK ABOUT SOME DIFFERENT CRIME FIGHTING IDEAS FOR HOW WE DO EMPHASIS, DIFFERENT, THIS LARGELY IS ON THE HIGHWAY, TALKING ABOUT DIFFERENT THINGS LIKE SPEED ENFORCEMENT, PROSTITUTION ENFORCEMENT, SOME OF THIS STUFF WITH STREET RACING THAT WE'VE TALKED ABOUT WITH A COUPLE OF COUNCIL MEMBERS, HOW DO WE PARTNER AMONG AGENCIES TO WORK ON SOME OF THOSE ISSUES. TRAINING AND EQUIPMENT UPGRADES, WE HAVE SEVERAL EQUIPMENT ITEMS THAT WE'RE LOOKING AT IN THE NEXT COUPLE YEARS, LARGELY THROUGH GRANT, BUT SEVERAL THINGS THAT WE'RE GOING TO UPGRADE TO MORE MODERN TECHNOLOGY, MAKES US We have added a code enforcement officer specifically for proactive. We talked a little bit about CEPTED a while ago, crime prevention through environmental design. Code enforcement is a key component of that. You make your city look good. You make people think you care about your city. You do care about your city. People are less likely to take advantage of that with criminal behavior. It is scientifically proven time and time again that keeping your city clean and up to code will reduce your crimes. So by adding the code enforcement officer, we will have much more capacity for proactive work there instead of just reactive work. House Bill 2015, we added about $450,000 in new revenue through the public safety sales tax. Part of that will permanently fund our co-responder, our animal control, our legal requirements on public defender and police officer position. And then we also are looking at the grant. We just got $362,000 on the grant side. And we've applied for another large grant since they reopened that to add additional funding. So really helping us upgrade our equipment and our positions, and you will have the exciting budget requests that I've added to the 2027-2028 biannual budget will be coming your way here as we talk over the next few weeks. 20 minutes or less, did I hit it? Boom. And I'm available for any questions. I know I went super quick on that, and as the mayor pointed out, she appreciated the 1,025-page written report that supports everything I just said. IF ANYBODY WANTS TO SEE IT, IT IS A LINK, AND IT IS 1,025 PAGES LONG.

COUNCIL, QUESTIONS OR DISCUSSION? DEPUTY MAYOR OXAGER.

THANK YOU, CHIEF, FOR THE REPORT. VERY INFORMATIVE. ONE THING, I DID HAVE ONE QUESTION ON THE CHANGING DRIVER BEHAVIOR. SLIDE 11. OKAY. THE NUMBERS FOR 2026, IS THAT A SIX-MONTH FIGURE? Seven months? What is that?

July. Sounds like that's when we pulled up.

It was about seven? Yeah. So on the recidivism, we had a huge drop from 24 to 25, but 26 numbers. We can expect that at the end of the year to try and pretty much mirror those from 2025.

Yeah, the numbers are coming back up. One of the things that we have, it's a little bit of an anomaly there, is we had several cameras actually down in 2025, I think it was. So we had several cameras actually went down briefly, which caused some issues. We had about a month and a half where we had several cameras non-operational. So at the end of the day, yes. It seems to be trending about 18,000, which would be down from 2024, but up from 2025. Like I said, there's some camera inactivity in there that is causing some of that as well.

Thank you. I just wanted to clarify.

Yes, sir.

Council Member Harris.

Thank you. We've talked about lies, damn lies, and stats, but I don't know how much you can do about it, but I'm just struck going through this stuff by it doesn't seem to do a good job with gender in terms of breaking down crimes in terms of Am I missing something there? I would have thought that in these lengthy reports, just you would really want to zone in on, you know, victims and also just crimes based on, like, you know, that are happening in the home rather than – and, I mean, I understand you're dealing with a standardized process, but that would be just something that –

It's actually a really good question. So NIBRS actually captures 450 or so data points. If you look in that 1,000-page report in your boardroom, there's a multiple-page chart that identifies every single crime, every single gender, age. It'll break it down by any metric you want because it actually does capture that as well as the relationship of not only the crime but the relationship of all the parties. So if you and I are in a car together, we would be professional associates. It'll capture that. versus my wife is a stranger to you, but is my wife to me. It will capture all those associations. It is a very, very in-depth capturing, but for 20 minutes or less, we could talk about that for an hour.

It just doesn't. The other thing is just the public, when we talked about a couple of years ago, you're kind of the public. The problem is that you're doing a really good job. Crime is declining. And somehow a presentation has to happen that expresses more the value of officer welfare and just the long game. Because I'm not trying to tell you a thing, but every department talks about being down officers and so forth. And somehow you have to sell. the value of the officer's well-being and so forth to a certain extent. Take it away. I'm just saying I'm all for it. I'm just telling you that's really part of the equation.

And that number is real. It's a huge number. It is literally a profession that almost nobody used to resign from, and it's about 40% now just don't finish out the career. That is not a Des Moines thing. It's not a Washington thing, although Washington has much higher rates than other parts of the country. The reality is that is an industry thing. This is a difficult, stressful job, and it's not for everybody. And at the end of the day, you talk about wellness. I'll give you something. Wellness, I love people enough to let them go. If this job is not for your mentality, for your ability to manage your home life and your work life and your family life, Do you need to go sell cars or go do something that has a different level of off-duty responsibility than what this has? And there's nothing wrong with that, right? Wellness is telling somebody you love enough to let them go.

No, maybe I'm saying it backwards, but basically people see crime go down and then they will say, well, why should I pay more property taxes or whatever to hire more police officers? And so I'm just somehow we have to sell the notion of that it is worth doing things to, you know, make it improve retention and so forth and so on.

Yeah, thank you. Council Member Simons, do you have a question?

No, just very nice presentation, Chief. Thank you. Thank you so much.

All right, I do have a couple. One, I had given you some prior warning that I was going to ask you about motor vehicle thefts. Can you give me your theory, and it can be your opinion for sure, about why we've seen that decrease, not just here in Des Moines, but regionally?

Yeah, I do think it really is a coordinated response. I think it's private industry is doing things to make vehicles more difficult to steal. Our prosecutor at the King County level has been very active in doing some work on chronic and repeat offenders. I think law enforcement with the use of technologies is much better at identifying people in stolen cars and rapidly identifying people in stolen cars. One of the things we see is as soon as you're identified in a stolen car, even if you're not arrested, you immediately park and get out of the car, at least getting the car immediately back. It also is a deterrent to people repeatedly stealing cars that every time I get in a car, I get immediately stopped and contacted by law enforcement. I think it's all of these things are working together. I don't think it's one independently.

Thank you. And we talked a little bit in depth about the staffing improvements. And can you repeat for us how those were financed? Where did we get some of the additional resources to fund those improvements?

Absolutely. So House Bill 2015 is a little bit complex because I use it in two different sayings. So House Bill 2015 is a public safety council approved tax on sales. So it's a 0.1% sales tax that you guys approved. about a year ago, which went into effect in April. I don't see Jeffrey. I think it was April when we started collecting it. That is an ongoing permanent revenue stream. House Bill 2015, the governor also included a grant component of that where the state put in $100 million in seed grants for three years to support law enforcement hiring technology and efficiency upgrades. That is also a component of this where we can apply for grants and for three years, $125,000 of salary plus all startup costs. So $8,000 to send somebody to the academy, $80,000 to buy a new vehicle, tasers and gun belts, and all of that for an officer, including $125,000 in salary for three years is paid for under the grant. So we are applying for two positions on that, which our recommendation is that we have two positions on that and then fully funded. And then with that will come hey, council, we can go buy an $80,000 new car now because we can add that to our fleet on the House Bill 2015 grant side. There also is a code enforcement position there that is funded through some dedicated funding in the planning department that can only be used for building inspection or code enforcement. So repurposing that money to code enforcement to proactively start working on some of those SEPTED quality of life issues is where some of those funds are coming from. Limited term on that money is about two and a half to three years. Then we'll have to decide if we want to continue to do that or if we want to let that position expire.

Thank you. I appreciate that. All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Yeah. So let's move on to the consent agenda. Will the clerk please read the consent agenda?

Item one, approval of vouchers. Item two, LUA 2019-0063 Final Plat Approval. Item three, Signal Maintenance Agreement with WSDOT. Item four, 16th Avenue Storm Project Contracts. Item five, Draft Resolution 26-093 Midway Park RCO Grant Authorization. Item six, Stormwater Management Act, sorry, Action Plan. Phase 2 Task Assignment, Item 7, Redondo Parking Lot Resurfacing and Striping Project Contract Award. Item 8, PSE Schedule 74, Construction Agreement for Barnes Creek Trail Project. And that concludes the consent agenda, Mayor.

Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as read? Councilmember Nutting.

So moved, Mayor.

And a second. I HEARD COUNCILMEMBER BLAS FIRST. I'LL GO WITH THAT. DOES ANY COUNCILMEMBER WISH TO PULL AN ITEM? HEARING NONE, ALL THOSE IN FAVOR OF THE CONSENT AGENDA AS READ, PLEASE RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND UNTIL I CALL YOUR NAME. DEPUTY MAYOR OXAGER, I'LL COME BACK TO COUNCILMEMBER STEINMETZ AT LAST BECAUSE I CAN'T SEE YOUR HAND. COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS, COUNCILMEMBER DESMONI, COUNCILMEMBER NUTTING, COUNCILMEMBER BLAS AND MYSELF, HOW DO YOU VOTE, COUNCILMEMBER STEINMETZ?

IN FAVOR.

All right, that passes 7-0. Thank you very much. All right, we are now moving on to our public hearing. Do we have any sign-ups that are going to be passed down to me? The purpose of this agenda item is for the council to hold a public hearing on the Carter Stock LLC development agreements. I will now open the public hearing. We'll begin with a staff presentation by Community Development Director Rebecca Demming.

Thank you, Mayor, Council. This agenda is to hold a public hearing for the Carter Stock Development Agreement. It's a proposed mixed-use project at 28210 and 28212 Redondo Way for 14 residential units with 1,600 square feet of commercial space on 0.675 acres. A development agreement is authorized through the RCWs and the municipal code. The provisions allow for the city to address project development standards, including design standards, project phasing, review procedures, vesting, fees, and other appropriate development requirements. The D provides assurances to the property owners that development regulations that apply to the project will not change during the term of the agreement. Here's a proposed conceptual site plan. As I mentioned, it's 14 market rate townhomes and 1,600 square feet of retail and food service space on a small site under an acre. Within this, they're proposing to keep it at the required 35 feet height. So this is within our development standards, so that's not changed. They're proposing 33 to 50 parking spaces. In the development agreement, it says that the required retail and food service parking would be met using the offsite street parking on Redondo Way, including five existing angled spaces and five additional angled spaces to be constructed as part of the street improvements. THE FUTURE APPROVALS INCLUDES PROJECT APPROVALS WOULD BE CONSOLIDATED INTO A SINGLE PUBLIC HEARING HELD BY A HEARING EXAMINER. SO WITH THIS THEY WOULD APPLY FOR AN UNCLASSIFIED USE PERMIT WHICH IS THE PROJECT APPLICATION THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED UNDER THE MUNICIPAL CODE. AND THEN THEIR DESIGN REVIEW WOULD ALSO GO TO A HEARING EXAMINER ALONG WITH THEIR SEPA APPLICATION. AND THE FEE FOR THOSE APPLICATIONS WOULD COME TO $60,000 WITHIN THE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT. So for this public hearing, it was published in the Seattle Times and mailed to all the property owners and residents within 300 feet. It was also posted here and posted on our website and emailed to all of the surrounding jurisdictions and anyone who has also requested to be on the city's distribution list. If this is approved, those same notices would go out again when it goes to the hearing examiner for the actual project. So when we have the additional details for the unclassified use permit which would have more details on the actual project, they would be notified of the hearing for the hearing examiner. Again, it would go in the paper and go out to the surrounding property owners. These are the conceptual elevations that are in the development agreement. These elevations have not been reviewed for design review requirements because that design review would happen when it went to the hearing examiner. So these are just initial ideas that were provided by the developer, but again, hasn't been through review. And so those are the three buildings. SO WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT, AS I MENTIONED, THE APPLICANT IS REQUIRED, WOULD BE REQUIRED TO SUBMIT AN UNCLASSIFIED USE PERMIT, WHICH AT THE CITY IS SIMILAR TO A CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT. WE JUST HAVE TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF PERMITS THAT GO THROUGH THE SAME PROCESS TO THE HEARING EXAMINER. IT WOULD GET REVIEWED BY STAFF, GO THROUGH THE SEPA, WOULD BE REVIEWED FOR THE SHORELINE MASTER PROGRAM, AND THEN IT WOULD BE REVIEWED ALSO THROUGH A MUNICIPAL CODE ZONING FOR DESIGN REVIEW, LANDSCAPING, AND PUBLIC APPROVEMENTS and also in compliance with this development agreement if it was approved. And then it would go to the hearing examiner for a public hearing and approval. Here's some of the questions we heard at the time. There's some more that we've received since then, but these are what I, at the time I prepared the PowerPoint. Things like why isn't the restaurant included in the agreement? The Salty's restaurant is a separate parcel and was not part of the application for the development agreement. Questions such as, does it mean the restaurant's not happening? That doesn't necessarily mean that the restaurant isn't going to be redeveloped or that it's not moving forward. The applicant has actually informed us that they still plan on moving forward with remodeling the restaurant. It's just two different projects. Where will the restaurant customers park if developed? They'll need to work to comply with code. AND WE CAN, I HAVE SOME FUTURE DISCUSSIONS AND TALK ABOUT PARKING LATER. I'M CONCERNED ABOUT CONSTRUCTION IMPACTS AND HOW AM I PROTECTED. SO AS WE TALKED ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT WILL STILL GO THROUGH PROJECT REVIEW. AND SO THEY'LL STILL HAVE TO MEET OUR MUNICIPAL CODE, THEY'LL STILL HAVE TO MEET CONDITIONS, AND THEY'LL STILL HAVE TO MEET ALL OF THE REQUIREMENTS. THE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT ONLY TALKS ABOUT WHERE THEY'RE where they want exemptions from the code. And so if they don't want any exemptions from construction impacts, then it wouldn't be in there. So they would have to still comply with all of those requirements and all of those construction codes. And so here's the suggestion motion. We have the applicant here, and they did bring their own presentation as well to present.

Great, thank you.

Come on up.

I DON'T KNOW IF ANYBODY CAN SEE ME. I KNOW YOU GUYS CAN'T. AM I GOOD HERE? OKAY. WELL, OUR PRESENTATIONS ARE PRETTY MUCH THE SAME, AND YOU DID A GREAT JOB ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS. I DID GET A CHANCE TO LOOK AT THE EMAILS, SO MAYBE IT WOULD BE BEST FOR ME TO JUST GO OVER SOME THINGS THAT I THINK IS IMPORTANT TO THE PEOPLE, THE SURROUNDING AREA, Number one of them was the traffic impact. What is it going to look like to have more cars?

Before you get started, do you mind introducing yourself? Oh, hi.

My name is Carol Crane, and I am here as an owner's rep or project manager for the development team. If you have questions about the restaurant, we have brought Ron Lambert here. He is a restaurateur. you could probably answer more questions about SALTIES itself.

Carol, why don't you actually walk through the project first, and then we'll get council questions first.

Yes, thank you. All right, so I really do not know how to work this. Okay, go ahead.

Okay.

OK. SO I THINK ONE OF THE QUESTIONS WAS ABOUT CARTER STOCK AND WHO ARE THEY THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM AND SO WE HAVE THE FOUNDERS AND THE GROUP HERE WITH US TODAY WE HAVE ANDREW LAMBERT HE'S THE DIRECTOR OF CONSTRUCTION AND WE HAVE OUR REAL ESTATE BROKER AND OF COURSE WE HAVE RON. THIS LITTLE HISTORY ON Andrew in his background just to let you know that he has done many projects like this and is very familiar with multifamily built. This is me. I've had well more than 25 years actually in the commercial and residential. I've worked on many public works and if you've been in the town of Wilkeson I worked on their elementary school. So that's a 1912 building. You guys should go look at it. So I have a lot of experience. I am a land development expert, I guess, or a consultant. And there's some of the stuff that I worked on as well as the Norfolk Heritage Museum. So just like Rebecca said, this is the same information of where we intend to or would propose to do the townhomes and the retail space. The architectural drawings that you did see, they're just at conception right now. We wanted to see what we could fit on the lot, not necessarily what it's going to look like. SO WE TALKED ABOUT IT BEING A 14 TOWNHOMES POSSIBLY. THERE'S STILL A LOT OF DESIGN THAT WE WOULD HAVE TO DO BEFORE WE KNOW FOR SURE IF IT IS EXACTLY 14 UNITS. AND THEN THE RETAIL SPACE, WE'RE HOPING TO HAVE IT UP FRONT ON RODONDO BEACH WAY. AND SO IT WOULD BE EASY ACCESS FOR PEOPLE THAT ARE STROLLING ALONG THE FRONTAGE THERE. Let's see, so that's pretty much the same information that we've already gone through about the parking. We still would have to go through a full traffic analysis. We have a team that will be doing a full traffic report after we get to that stage before we submit for our permits. And then I know that there was some questions about, the reason why I put this map here was I wanted to show you where we're at and then the side roads. Because I know that there's a lot of talk, during construction, are we going to block your driveways? Is it going to be easy for you to get access or emergency vehicles in? And so we probably would take up when we're doing utilities on 228. Yeah, 282, I'm sorry. But we have it mapped out. I will do the traffic control plan, and that will go before you before we do any work anyway. And make sure that you're all included. We will not block any driveways or access to other retail, whatever buildings are around there. Carol, can I?

SO JUST, WE DO HAVE A LOT OF AUDIENCE QUESTIONS, WHICH IS GREAT, BUT REALLY, I THINK YOU NEED TO DIRECT YOUR COMMENTS TO THE COUNCIL AS THOSE ARE THE ONES THAT ARE REALLY YOUR, THEY'RE YOUR DECIDING PEOPLE. AND WE CAN JUST, LET'S GO THROUGH THE PRESENTATION AND THEN LET QUESTIONS FROM THE COUNCIL KIND OF GUIDE SOME OF THOSE EXTRA TOPICS.

OH, GREAT, THANK YOU. SO AGAIN, OUR BUILDING DESIGN IS REALLY JUST CONCEPTION, AND I KNOW THAT THERE WILL BE A LOT OF TALK ON KEEPING WITH THE LOOK OF Redondo Beach and we would like to hear what you guys would like to see there. And then again here's that access traffic working where the workers will park things like that. So we're going to work with you when we get to the point of doing our traffic control plans and make sure that everybody has a has gets to look at it and know that we will work with you and make sure everybody is safe. OK. So here here is some of the comments that we had and that was how are we going to reduce the noise. Well we always follow all the Department of Ecology SEPA or SWPPPs on noise and air control or pollution during construction. And so that will be brought up when we do all of our permits to make sure that everybody know you know we don't want to RUIN ANYBODY'S DAY SO WE'LL MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE THAT. WE'RE ALSO GOING TO HAVE A WEBSITE WITH A QR CODE AND THAT YOU CAN JUST DOWNLOAD THAT QR AND YOU'LL BE ABLE TO FOLLOW THE PROCESS OF THE BUILD AND THE SCHEDULE SO YOU'LL KNOW WHAT POINT WE'RE AT. SO WE'LL BUILD THAT WEBSITE UP AND THEN WE'LL ALSO ON THAT WEBSITE POST ANY WRITE AWAY WORK, ANY big deliveries, anything like that so you guys will have a heads up of where the project is and what we're going to be doing there. So I know there was some questions about the environment and if this project will impact any of the shoreline, we intend to Follow SEPA, follow our SWIFT, make sure that all of our best management practices are put in place before anything happens. That's our silt fences and anything that we need to do to make sure that we have zero runoff off our site. And let's see. And then there was a lot of questions about the restaurant and how that works with what we're doing. We're married to that restaurant with this development, so they're kind of hand in hand. And we want the development to work well. We need that so that we can fund the opening of the restaurant. Probably our major concern is getting Salty's up and running again. It is a big project, and we hope to be able to work with this together with the funding that we're getting. So do you want to hear Ron? Okay, there you go.

Let's do that. And we can have Rebecca come back up as well. Council, do you have any questions at this time? Questions only, please. Council Member Harris.

Yeah, I'm terribly sorry, but it's like 1,000 pages and stuff, and these may be incredibly silly, but just this – you're asking for a modification of our standard zoning, right? I mean, there are things apart from the, you know, what are the special items that are being, that are outside of just, you know, what wouldn't require the council to talk about this now?

I'm going to have to sincerely apologize. I made a mistake and jumped the gun here. So we have to go to public comment first before we get to those council questions. So if you wouldn't mind writing that down, we can come back to it first. Okay. I'm very sorry about that. That is entirely my fault. It is the time for public comment portion of the public hearing which we're in, and we ask that folks keep their comments respectful and. When I call your name, please come up to the podium state your name city of residence and you will have two minutes to speak, and so the first person I have is Lee Tomlin.

Good evening Mayor and City Council members. My name is Lee Tomlin and I'm a resident of the condominiums that live directly across the street from where they plan this project. I'm asking you tonight to please postpone the approval of this. I don't think that we have been given enough information to understand the full impact of this development on our neighborhood. Redondo is no longer just a residential neighborhood. People come here to enjoy our pier, our beaches, our boardwalk, Wuton Park. The parking is serious now. And if you take that parking lot away and open a restaurant, we're going to have nothing but problems. We can't handle what we have now, so... I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY EXPECT TO OR WHERE THEY EXPECT TO FIND THE PARKING. ADDING MORE RESIDENTIAL AND RETAIL DEVELOPMENT WHILE REOPENING A RESTAURANT IS JUST BRINGING MORE PEOPLE AND MORE PARKING PROBLEMS. WE ALL WOULD LOVE TO SEE THE RESTAURANT OPEN BUT WE WOULD LOVE TO HAVE PARKING FOR THE RESTAURANT AS IT IS. We're also concerned about the construction itself, the heavy equipment, the noise, the construction vehicles, the street closures that are going to happen, the access. People drive through Redondo Way all the time to get to work every day to and from. That's going to be having a problem with all the construction. We're also concerned about Wuton Park. WUTON PARK IS A WATERFRONT PARK.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I APPRECIATE IT. KAREN SHARTMAN.

NEW SPEAKER GOOD EVENING, MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, STAFF AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS HERE TODAY. I'm Karen Sharpman, resident of Des Moines, and I serve as president of the Redondo Community Association. I'm speaking today on behalf of our 300 members. For nearly 70 years, a restaurant has been an important part of Redondo. It started with the Redondo Tavern that goes back to about the 1950s. The restaurant has served as a social institution in our community. It's been a destination and a gathering place on our beautiful waterfront. Since Salty's closed in 2020, bringing a successful restaurant back to the community has been a primary interest in Redondo. We understand that the development agreement does not specifically address reopening the restaurant. We also understand that the development of these parcels is an important component of making a restaurant financially viable. Over the past week we asked the community, all of our members, to review the agreement and share their questions. We received substantial input and have submitted a consolidated list to the council. The questions cover parking and traffic, public safety, neighborhood characteristics, environmental impacts, project design, agreement terms, and the relationship between this development and opening the restaurant, which is very important to our community. Parking deserves particular attention. This property historically provided parking for the restaurant while the existing public parking is already serving boaters, people fishing, the mass center, aquarium, park users, so forth and so on. So all of these competing demands have to be considered as part of this. The RCA strongly supports bringing a successful, sustainable restaurant to the community. We ask the council to carefully consider the questions we submitted, which we believe are important to that outcome. Thank you. Thank you very much. Diane Tucker.

Good evening. I HAVING HEARD THE PRESENTATION AND IT'S SORT OF REINFORCED WHAT WE'VE HEARD WHEN WE WERE REVIEWING THIS WITH THE REDONDO ASSOCIATION AND THAT THERE'S A LOT OF CONCEPTS HERE AND WE EMBRACE CHANGE AND I WANTED TO ACKNOWLEDGE TO THE COUNCIL OUR SUCCESSES WORKING WITH THE CITY SUCH AS THE MITIGATION FOR THE TRAFFIC and getting the speed humps. I'd also like to congratulate all of us on opening the pier. And we had a wonderful Shark in the Park event. And all of these became a reality because we worked together. I think we have a great deal of concerns about the concept of this project in that it is very conceptual. This is what the building might look like. This is where we might be able to put parking. I think that what I would like to encourage the council to do is just like Karen said, we have submitted to you, Mayor Matsui, a list of our concerns and the community's concerns, that you review all of these and hold off on making this decision tonight and see if we can get a better grasp on what these concepts could look like IN A MORE TANGIBLE FASHION. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME. THANK YOU.

IS THERE ANYONE WHO DIDN'T SIGN UP TO SPEAK WHO WISHES TO SPEAK? SECOND CALL, IS THERE ANYONE WHO DIDN'T SIGN UP TO SPEAK WHO WISHES TO SPEAK? COME ON UP. I'M LYNN FROMATER, AND I LIVE IN REDONDO ALSO. THE THING THAT I AM EXTREMELY CONCERNED ABOUT IS THIS IS A LITTLE OVER A HALF AN ACRE. IT'S A VERY SMALL PIECE OF PROPERTY, AND THE DENSITY, YOU'RE NOT DEALING WITH THE DENSITY ISSUES. 14 TOWNHOMES. WHAT I READ IS I HEAR THERE MIGHT BE CONDOS. ARE THEY RENTALS? WHAT ARE THEY? IS IT DEFINED IN THAT INFORMATION? I THINK THERE'S EXTREMELY SIGNIFICANT ISSUES REGARDING THE WATERFRONT, THE ENVIRONMENT, THE SHORELINE MANAGEMENT, SIGNIFICANT. I KNOW THERE'S VIEWS THAT WILL BE BLOCKED. ABSOLUTELY. THINGS TO BE CONSIDERED THERE. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. DO I GO TO MY THIRD CALL OR DO I HAVE TO START OVER? THIRD IS FINE, OKAY. ONE LAST TIME. IS THERE ANYONE WHO DIDN'T SIGN UP WHO WISHES TO SPEAK?

ALL RIGHT.

I'M GOING TO GO AHEAD AND MOVE TO QUESTIONS. SO I APPRECIATE YOUR PATIENCE HERE. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS, DO YOU WANT TO COME BACK TO YOUR QUESTION, PLEASE?

So maybe I can find the proper words, but what are the modifications to our standard zoning? Because the thing is, I think this is a deal where people are making everything about everything. And I just, if possible, can we narrow down to what is outside of, yeah. Does that make sense?

Yes. So the two parts that are... SO ONE IS THE PROCESS. SO A UUP WOULD NORMALLY COME TO COUNCIL BY ITSELF AND THE DESIGN REVIEW AND SEPA WOULD BE IN A SENSE ADMINISTRATIVE. IN THIS PROCESS ALL THREE WOULD GO TO THE HEARING EXAMINER. SO WE WOULD BE TAKING THE DESIGN REVIEW WHICH WOULD NORMALLY BE ADMINISTRATIVE WOULD GO TO A HEARING EXAMINER AS A PUBLIC HEARING AND THE UUP, INSTEAD OF COMING TO COUNCIL, WOULD GO TO THE HEARING EXAMINER. SO WE'RE TAKING ONE PART ADMINISTRATIVE AND ONE PART COUNCIL AND TAKING BOTH TO A HEARING EXAMINER OR PUBLIC HEARING. STILL A PUBLIC HEARING IN BOTH SCENARIOS, BUT THAT'S THE PROCESS CHANGE. AND THEN ONE FLAT FEE INSTEAD OF SEPARATE FEES BECAUSE WE'RE CONSOLIDATING THE APPLICATION. SO THAT'S THE OTHER PIECE. THE THIRD IS PARKING, BUT UNTIL WE HAVE MORE DETAILS ON THE SITE. I PUT TOGETHER A LITTLE BIT OF A SLIDE AT THE VERY END BECAUSE WE'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT PARKING AND A LOT OF THESE QUESTIONS. SO OUR CITY CODE IS ONE UNIT OR ONE SPACE PER TOWNHOUSE PLUS ONE VISITOR SPACE PER FIVE UNITS. and restaurant have different standards. So until we know what those uses are, I can't tell you what kind of variance this might be doing. Again, the code, the DA has a requirement for us to look at a study. There's also a section in our code that talks about pre-existing parking that says a development in existence prior at the time of annexation like Salty's, which does not have sufficient parking at time of annexation may continue to operate with that parking deficiency. We also have a new state law that's coming into effect in June 2028 that we will have to adopt that has only one parking space per townhouse and two spaces per 1,000 square feet of commercial, including no spaces for any commercial buildings under 3,000 square feet. So if this were to develop after June 2028 or when we adopt that, there would be no parking requirements for this commercial building at 1,600 square feet. So I'm going to give you both standards. So these parking standards are kind of somewhere in the middle. So depending on when they developed. So this project under our current city code for this project by itself would need between 23 and 30 spaces. They are proposing 33 to 50. So technically it meets code. So that's not a variance. The restaurant under our current code needs 41 spaces under the new law that we are going to have to adopt in that within the next year. This project would only need 14 spaces and the restaurant would need 14 spaces. So it will be parking for both requirements. So it's, but again, I don't know how much is retail, how much is restaurant. So that's a kind of a difficult answer to ask exactly what variance in the DA parking might equal. And that's not even talking about the street parking that's in there.

Okay. And going back to the hearing examiner. Yes. That is.

Can I, can I,

That is a one-touch process.

Correct.

Rather than if the agreement came to the council and we would have a first and second reading.

It wouldn't have two readings. It would still be a one-touch process.

Got it. Okay. That's it.

Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Just because I know we have a lot of interested parties, I wanted to do one question and then I'll cycle back through. So anyone else have a question? Council Member Blass.

In terms of parking, again, so I'm looking at a satellite imagery here. Currently, there's about eight angled parking and about six parallel parking on Redondo Way South. Is that going to stay there and five of them are included in the kind of, is what's required for the code? Or are some of these parking spaces going to be removed?

No, we're going to keep the existing parking spaces and add five more.

Councilmember Nutting.

Just for clarification, this process, this is the first step in getting conceptual drawings?

Yes. So the reason why we just went for the basic schematics that you saw is it's very, very expensive to do a full drawing before we even know that we'd be able to do the mixed use project. That's why we have these drawings right now, and it's to fit the space. How many units can we get into that space is what our concerns were at first. The drawings will, of course, be the same dimensions, meaning the 35-foot height. It's just the aesthetics of it might be at the end a little different, but not much.

Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Oxiger.

Yes, one of the concerns that's been expressed is which is going to come first? Are you going to remodel the restaurant and restore the restaurant first or are you going to develop the property first, the parking lot?

I want to ask a little bit more because that to me doesn't seem to be directly related to this developer agreement.

Yeah, so doing the restaurant is a whole different permit process. So doing the restaurant depends on that permit process.

OK, but what I'm addressing is the concerns for the community as to what is the intent.

Yeah, I mean, I agree with the mayor. The question before the council's development agreement It is a valid question, but I don't know that we have the answer to that, and that's not what the topic of the conversation is tonight.

Councilmember Simons, do you have a question?

No, but no question. Thank you.

Thank you. Go ahead. Councilmember Desmoning.

I did have a question earlier. I'm sorry, I forgot your name. Carol. Carol. Earlier in your presentation, you did discuss that the redevelopment would be funding the part of the restaurant, and you did also use the terms married to. So am I under the impression that you are going to be doing both?

Correct. Okay. Yeah, it's a joint venture, so the restaurant is very important to the whole group.

I HAD ONE FOR YOU. I WANTED TO CHECK. SO THIS IS A LOT OF INFORMATION ABOUT PARKING ORDINANCES, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE TO ME, AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF I'M READING THIS CORRECT, THAT IF THE DEVELOPER AGREEMENT FOR THIS PARCEL IS APPROVED THIS YEAR, THE CURRENT CERTI-CODE WOULD BE IN EFFECT. AND IF IT WAS DELAYED, THE NEW POSSIBLY LOWER NUMBER OF PARKING SPOTS WOULD GO INTO EFFECT.

THAT'S CORRECT.

OKAY. SO BY APPROVING IT NOW, WE'LL NET MORE possible parking spots.

It would still be under what the DA says, which is 33 to 50. So it would be what the DA, it would be required to meet the 33 spaces.

But if the DA isn't approved tonight, hypothetically you'd renegotiate and you would go to the lower.

Correct.

Thank you.

Correct.

Council Member Harris, your second bite.

So when you say five existing angled spaces and five additional spaces, When you, the five existing are on Redondo Way, and then five, okay, the east-west.

Yeah, so it's east up the hill.

Yeah. So 10 along Redondo Way.

Correct.

Somehow. No, I'm not being difficult. I'm just trying to get a sense just.

Yeah, we're just following the line that you have already. So just putting more up the road. THE SPACE IS ALREADY THERE. IT'S JUST NOT DEVELOPED.

OKAY. THANKS.

COUNCILMEMBER BLAS, YOUR SECOND TIME.

CAROL, YOU MENTIONED THERE WOULD BE ZERO RUNOFF FROM THIS PROJECT INTO PEGIT SOUND. WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY THAT?

WELL, WHAT I MEANT IS DURING CONSTRUCTION, WHEN WE'RE DOING OUR SWIFT OR OUR BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES, WE'RE PRETTY GOOD AT IT TODAY WITH THE TECHNOLOGY WE HAVE FOR putting in the barriers, so fencing, using swaddles, things like that to make sure that, you know, we really like to capture if there is a rainy period, you know, we're in Washington State, so we're going to get some rain, but we like to make sure it stays on our site. The water is very important to us. I actually do a

department of ecology permitting so i am very fond of our riverways and so we will we'll keep them safe all right i just want to check back in with you councilmember simmons okay thank you i will now close the public hearing is there a motion councilmember netting

I move to adopt draft ordinance, draft resolution 26-096, approving the Carter's Dock LLC development agreement and authorize the city manager to sign the development agreement substantially in the form as submitted.

Do I hear a second? Council member Desmonee did raise her hand first. I'LL TAKE THAT. ANY DISCUSSION? COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS.

SO WHOEVER CAN PUT THEIR EAR MOVES ON. WHEN ANYBODY SAYS IN 2026 THAT THEY CAN'T DO BETTER WIREFRAME DRAWINGS WITH THREE, I MEAN, THERE ARE 17-YEAR-OLDS THAT CAN DO FLY THROUGHS AND I'M JUST SORRY. YOU KNOW, AND I UNDERSTAND, YOU KNOW, WHEN PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THE EXPENSE, I'm sorry, that just doesn't do it for me anymore. You can just buy a Mac for $750 and free software, and you can do an illustration. And nobody wants to hold you to it, but my point is that I think you could address a lot of the heartburn that I have heard just by having better drawings. The public gets nervous. In fact, it would have been better to simply have a wire frame and just have these blocks than anything. I mean, just leave it to the imagination. But the things that people care about, they will immediately go to something far more expansive and start talking about every aspect and so forth. And it makes people more nervous when you are in this uncanny valley of not enough information, just enough to make people nervous. And that's just the unfortunate part. It's essentially a bit like the theater to me. It's a horizontal deal. It's a housing development that has an amenity the side rather than at the bottom. So people will naturally want to think of it as this whole thing. But I think that it's just people want to have the discussion now rather than waiting until the hearing just because largely because of that just sort of A LITTLE BIT OF INFORMATION, BUT NOT ENOUGH. SO ANYWAY.

COUNCIL MEMBER DISMONING.

I DID ALSO STRUGGLE THROUGH THAT PRESENTATION A LITTLE BIT. I DIDN'T HEAR CONFIDENCE. I HEARD A LOT OF WE MIGHT, IT COULD, THERE'S IDEAS, THERE'S CONCEPTS. THE NERVOUSNESS IS REAL. The trust factor is real, but I'd like to remind everyone here we're still in the conceptual phases. The right hand cannot do anything without the left hand right now, and the left hand cannot do anything without the right hand right now. So we are actually having to trust at this point in time. So if we can have a little bit of latitude and understand that this is an ongoing process and that we will get there and that we are listening and that we will get questions answered, I feel like that can get us into a better space for moving forward with what is still being done.

Other discussion? Councilmember Simons?

Um...

Thank you. Hang on as we dial that back here again, or maybe it timed out. Any other discussion? Deputy Mayor Oxiger.

Thank you, Mayor. There's a line from the movie Risky Business that I think applies here. That line is, it seems to me that if there is any logic to our language, trust is a four-letter word, or should be a four-letter word. And that's really what we're talking about here is trust. Most people in the community want the restaurant to open. Still, many are worried it could make the current problems in Redondo worse, which are already making life very difficult there. I understand those concerns because I've lived here for 50 years and I've seen developers and businesses come in, make their money and leave the community to deal with the consequences. The default position is therefore on the part of the community is to favor doing nothing. But we can't fix the problems we have in Redondo by keeping things the way they are. This council has already expressed that it wants our city to become the top waterfront destination in the Pacific Northwest. To do that, we need to attract successful waterfront businesses that will support our city through their taxes. Bennett's, the potential developer here, seems to fit that goal. We haven't heard anything negative about them, AND AFTER A LENGTHY TIME ON THE MARKET, WE HAVEN'T SEEN ANY OF THEIR OFFERS FOR SALTIES OTHER THAN THIS ONE. AS THE PROPERTY OWNER, BENNETTS WILL HAVE THE RIGHT TO DEVELOP THEIR LAND AS LONG AS THEY FOLLOW THE SAME RULES AND PROCESSES AS ANYONE ELSE. BUT I WANT TO REITERATE THAT THE CONCERNS THAT PEOPLE HAVE ARE VERY, VERY REAL. At the same time, the Council is committed to keeping our community safe and sustainable and ensuring everyone can enjoy a good quality of life. This Council has indicated its commitment to push the legislature to secure better equipment and laws to address the street racing problems and all of that in Redondo to answer some of the concerns that people have. People see trust as a bad thing when their hopes have been dashed too many times. That happens when parties are insincere about their commitments. Trust can be scary, but without it, nothing will change. If we want to move forward, we need to trust the city will maintain its pledge. We have to trust that Bennett's wants to be a good neighbor. And the community needs to trust that we are working diligently to resolve the issues that continue to vex the community. I think, though, that given the changes that the council has made, the directions, and commitments to seeing through that we do improve the situation down there, I guess I have to come down in the favor of trust. that the trust is warranted. So that's why I'm gonna support the developer's agreement.

Council Member, I wanted to check to see if Council Member Blas had any comments before I go back through. All right, Council Member Desmonet.

Thank you, I did wanna sound a little more upbeat than the other council member with the trust. As a business owner, also it behooves a business owner to do right by the community. Trust is something that I understand is earned, but also they're putting their livelihood on the line to become a part of this community, to work with the community. And as a business owner who has changed communities because I did not receive that type of partnership in a previous city, Chief Bowe, I do see the trust and I understand the commitment and to be fair, there is fear on the other side as well. So the trust has to come from both sides. Right now, this is still very conceptual. We are still working on the handshake. But I feel confident that once we have the handshake, there will be full transparency because it is their livelihood that they're trying to establish within your community that has been established for decades. I do not see any nefariousness here. This is simply outreach and exploring how we can work together at this point. So I will also be a yes tonight.

Council Member Blass.

The Redondo area is so beautiful. I love going with my kids there, walking on the boardwalk, going to the beach there, going to the Mass Center Aquarium. But ever since we moved here for years, there's just nothing to do aside from them. There's no businesses. Salty's been closed for years. We always wonder, why isn't there anything? And people are asking for something to be there. This is our first chance, really, in years for this to happen. And I would be in favor of this. What we're voting on today is the development agreement. And really, we're only voting on three small things in there that pertain to the code. And I don't have an issue with those three issues. I think the parking, they're actually meeting the current code requirements. And they're going to go down in the future. So if we wait and pass on this, this developer or the next developer may come back with even less parking spaces. There's more parking on the side streets. Yes, you would have to walk. But there is some parking. We have the city parking lot there. The city is going to study in how to maybe add some parking spaces as they redo and refinish the parking lot soon. So that would add some parking spaces. But all in all, this is, I think, a good thing for the city and for the community.

Councilmember Harris, your second time.

Thank you. I'm thinking of Rick Johnson now because years Ten years ago or so, the city was trying to do this redondo, just master plan kind of a thing, and it never really came together as a deal. The trust I have is that a successful commercial venture restaurant there will improve quality of life there. So if you manage it well... it will actually reduce the problems that people complain about organically, apart from anything else. I don't like giving up control. Nobody does to a hearings examiner and so forth. But yeah, when SALTES was there, the area was calmer. And it sounds may be unintuitive to people, but townhomes are ownership and that provides uplift to the city. So these are good things. It's just a little, I'm a little unnerved a bit about this presentation, but the concept is solid and this gives the city an opportunity to polish the edges and some things along a redondo way and so I'll support this. You have to have that kind of walkability and stuff for people to do.

Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Simons, did you have any final comments?

Nothing further, thank you.

Sure, thank you. I want to say thanks to everyone who came out today to express their concerns or their excitement for any of these projects I do believe that there has been a lot of thought into what this development might mean, the impacts to the community, and like Councilmember Nutting said earlier, this is just the first step. This is just reaching out the hand, and there are so many more touches that we will have over the concept, the design, and how it will be implemented as we move forward. I'm very concerned and really aware of some things that maybe other folks don't have to think about and that is our reputation to the development community and how welcoming we can be to say Des Moines is open for business and we want folks to come here and experience what a great place to live, what a great place to visit it is. And that means that we need to work with and make it as easy as possible and continue to have the review the oversight and I think our strategic plan actually allows us to do that in a much better way. So because of that I really believe that this is in keeping with those strategic directions and I'm very excited to think about supporting the reopening of the restaurant and particularly the development of this process and this parcel. All right. All those in favor will you please raise your right hand until I call your name. Deputy Mayor Oxiger, Council Member Harris, Council Member Desmone, Council Member Nutting, Council Member Blass, and myself. Council Member Simons, would you vote aye? Okay, and thank you. That passes 7-0, thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to unfinished business. We have a couple of items that I'm going to hand back over to City Manager Caffrey.

So next presentation is about 223rd Street. Public Works Director Mike Slevin will come up to talk about some new alternatives we are introducing to the council.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm going to go over 223rd Street project at the request of bringing it back with some various different options. First, I want to cover the project history to date. BEFORE MY TIME, BUT IN DECEMBER 22, THE COUNCIL APPROVED THE PLANNING STUDY CONTRACT FOR TAKING A LOOK AT 223rd AND HOW IT WOULD FIT INTO THE DOWNTOWN AND HELP MAKE IT MORE CONNECTABLE TO THE MARINA AND TO THE BEACH PARK. IN DECEMBER 23, WHICH WAS DURING COVID, AND A LOT OF THIS WAS ON WEBSITE AND ONLINE SURVEY, SO IT WAS NOT IN PERSON, THE PUBLIC OUTREACH, A SERIES OF DIFFERENT DESIGNS WERE SHARED, DIFFERENT PALLETS AND THINGS LIKE THAT, AND THE EXISTING DESIGN WAS CHOSEN, OR THE ONE THAT WAS PRESENTED BACK IN APRIL WAS CHOSEN AT THAT POINT TO BE THE COLOR AND THE PALLET TO GO FORWARD. WE FINALIZED THE DESIGN STUDY REPORT AFTER THAT DECEMBER 23rd MEETING. in April 23rd at a 10% design. And the goal to get to a 10% design, of course, is because it opens you up to allow for grants and other funding opportunities to see how far you can push the project. In November of 24, there was a study report presentation to the council. And then in April 2nd, and during that whole time frame, we also WENT FORWARD AND WE STARTED LOOKING FOR GRANTS AS WE DO WITH ALL OF OUR CAPITAL PROJECTS BASED UPON THE 10% DESIGN THAT WENT IN 24 OF APRIL. ON APRIL 2ND, THE COUNCIL DECIDED THAT THEY WANTED THIS FIRST GRANT WE HAD ELIGIBILITY FOR THAT WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO RECEIVE IS A STORM WATER GRANT BECAUSE PART OF THE PROJECT WAS TO MAINTAIN WATER QUALITY. THE INITIAL DESIGN HAD basically stormwater features that were above ground so that they would maintain water quality and serve. The grant is for a regional water quality factor, which is about 30 acres. So it would basically help purify water for Puget Sound of about 30 acres upstream in the downtown area. ON APRIL 2, THE COUNCIL DIRECTION WAS TO DECLINE THE WATER QUALITY GRANT FROM ECOLOGY. ON APRIL 9, WE GOT A REQUEST TO TAKE A LOOK AT ALTERNATIVES FOR THE PROJECT AND THEN COME BACK TO YOU. TONIGHT IS THAT OPPORTUNITY. WE'VE TAKEN THE TIME BETWEEN THEN AND NOW TO COME UP WITH SOME GENERAL ALTERNATIVES FOR THE COUNCIL. The original layout, I just want to put this here for history, and this was the one that came with the larger number that was talked about earlier this morning or this evening, is that it was more of a promenade, pedestrian promenade and design project, so a higher end type design project to make that connection to the waterfront to Marine View Drive using 223rd as the signature street. And in this design, you see colored concrete crosswalks, meandering walks, different designs, and then the stormwater features and above-ground features as part of the design project. And the cost estimate at this stage, at the 10% stage, was $13 to $17 million. And at 10%, that's a variable number. So what we did was we took a step back after the April meeting, based on council's desires, and came up with three additional options to the original one. The first option was to keep the status quo, no project. If we decide not to go forward with two 23rd improvements, then that is always an option. Option two was, I've heard the term used this evening, more of a minimalistic approach. What if we just fill in the gaps of existing sidewalk with the bare minimums and that was the option two approach. And then option three is a scaled down but still full corridor improvement that would include things like undergrounding power and creating a more visual appearance for the project. SO THE STATUS ONE OR OPTION ONE STATUS QUO IS, YOU KNOW, YOU CAN SEE WHERE WE'RE TALKING ABOUT FILLING IN ADDITIONAL SIDEWALKS. I MEAN, OPTION ONE IS WHERE WE CURRENTLY HAVE SIDEWALKS AND WHERE WE DON'T HAVE SIDEWALKS. SO THIS IS THE EXISTING CONDITION AS IT STANDS TODAY. OPTION TWO. is basically adding existing, so this is pictures of that. And then option two includes basically filling in the gap of sidewalks that exists at the location right now. So there are some, so we'd add ADA, you'd have ADA design intersection on sixth, and basically you'd make the connections from where the top of the stairs will be in the near future all the way to 7th, and then the sidewalks from 7th all the way to Marine View Drive remain untouched. Water quality is an option in this project, so we could still accept the grant here because the water quality project would be basically considered a separate project at that point. So we would just be doing underground storage vault type, and that would be able to clean the water that is upstream, the 30 acres we talked about in the basins. And this is what some of the conditions would look like. It's basically just adding just sidewalk and matching the tenure that's there now. And so I don't have the laser on this one, do I? No, I don't. But you can see on the left, we got a straight sidewalk with curb. And then on the right, where the alien exhibit is right now, the art exhibit I like very much, is on the right there. And so you just see you have solid sidewalk all the way down. And in this, anywhere underground, the design's not there yet, could be added. The water quality features would be underground vaults at this point. So you would not see them from above ground other than some manholes. OPTION THREE IS A FULL CORRIDOR IMPROVEMENT PROJECT, WHICH TAKES US, YOU KNOW, REDOES MUCH OF THE SIDEWALK SO THAT IT MATCHES ALL THE WAY DOWN AND THEN ADDS ADDITIONAL PLANNING STRIPS OR REFURBISHES SOME OF THE EXISTING SIDEWALK. AGAIN, WE DON'T HAVE A FULL DESIGN ON THIS. THESE ARE VERY CONCEPTUAL. HEARD THAT WORD A LOT TONIGHT. BUT IT'S BASICALLY WHAT WOULD THE NEXT LEVEL UP LOOK LIKE. AND SO WHAT WE'RE REALLY TALKING ABOUT IS ADDING LANDSCAPING, STREET TREES, UNDERGROUNDING POWER, And then the feature would be involved with the additional costs, the water quality features would be involved, and again, would be underground. It wouldn't be above ground water gardens or any of those things. So the idea would be is you'd have this type of level of finish with the project with undergrounding of power lines and then stormwater features or underground stormwater features if so desired. AND THE THREE DIFFERENT OPTIONS ALSO HAVE, TO FLIP BACK REAL QUICK, SO OF COURSE OPTION ONE IS STATUS QUO, SO THERE'S NOT MUCH FUNDING TO DO WITH THAT. OPTION TWO, THE STORM WATER FEATURES COULD STILL BE FUNDED IF WE DECIDE TO GO FORWARD WITH THE GRANT AND WITH THE FUTURE DESIGN GRANTS TO DO THAT. FILL IN SIDEWALK LIKE THIS, GRANTING WOULD BE VERY DIFFICULT. IT WOULD PROBABLY BE A CIP PROJECT WITH CAPITAL DOLLARS FROM THE CITY. WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO SCORE SOME MONEY, BUT IT WOULD BE VERY DIFFICULT OR UNLIKELY AT A PROJECT LIKE THIS. MOST OF THE STATE AGENCIES, BECAUSE IT'S NOT MEETING MULTIPLE LADDERS LIKE COMPLETE STREETS, ET CETERA, WOULD NOT SCORE HIGH IN THE COMPETITIVE LIST. OPTION TWO. WOULD BE SIMILAR TO THAT. WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO GET SOME SAFETY ADA TYPE SIDEWALK GRANTS OVER TIME THAT MIGHT BE OPTION OR MIGHT BE FEASIBLE. AND THEN OPTION THREE WOULD PROBABLY BE TAKE LONGER TO BUILD BUT IT WOULD PROBABLY BE MORE ELIGIBLE FOR MORE GRANTS. SO THERE'S KIND OF GRANT LEVELS ALSO WITH TIME AND GETTING THE PROJECT COMPLETED. PREFERRED ALTERNATIVE DISCUSSIONS, SO NUMBER ONE, NO PROJECT, NO ASSOCIATED COSTS, BASICALLY STAYS AS IS. TWO WOULD BE IMPROVEMENTS TO SIDEWALK CONNECTIONS, ABOUT 500,000 FOR THE FILL-IN SIDEWALK. WE WOULD BRING 223RD INTO ADA COMPLIANCE, SO IT WOULD MEET THAT GOAL FOR THE CITY. THERE MAY BE SOME ADA GRANTS TO HELP WITH THAT OR SIDEWALK GRANTS. THEY ARE VERY DIFFICULT AND HARD TO COME BY. And it would be quicker to implement due to lower costs and less scope. More of that scope would be on the city itself. And then option three, of course, is the full corridor improvements that are dialed back from the original option that we saw in April. And we're estimating about $4.2 million for that, plus if we did the stormwater with that, it would be another $1.2 million for the stormwater on top of that. This would probably... Of the three, this would be the most highly competitive for grants. But again, grants take time, and you have to apply for them and earn them. And what we're asking for in this meeting is direction on your alternative. And also going forward, working with the Department of Ecology with regards to the stormwater grant, we need to let them know by the end of August So we also have a placeholder, I think, on the 27th if we need to come back and speak with you further after this.

If the council wants to give direction tonight, it's just there for two weeks from now if you need more time.

And so the stormwater grant, if we don't act on the stormwater grant before the end of this month, then Ecology will reassign those funds to a different project. So there's a preferred analysis chart here with the different options. I've covered most of this. And there's the cost on the top. So the different options of with or without. So sidewalks, about $500,000 is our estimate for the fill-in to make it ADA compliant. And then the stormwater feature, about $1.2. So a total project cost of about $1.7 with sidewalks and stormwater. And then $4.2 for the full corridor improvements. And then if you add the stormwater, it goes to $5.4. Okay, and so the grant reconsideration opportunity. So 580 is to incorporate stormwater treatment in the project, and that's for the design piece. Currently it's estimated for construction, so it's estimated about 1.2. The water quality feature, to design the water quality feature, we need to know the impervious service. So the design grant will also allow us to design a portion of, A PORTION OF THE STREET DESIGN, SO IT HELPS US GET FURTHER ALONG TO ASK FOR MORE GRANTS WITH THAT. THE WATER QUALITY FEATURE WOULD REMOVE ABOUT 90% OF POLLUTANTS FROM 30 ACRES IN THE DOWNTOWN, IF WE WENT WITH THAT, SO.

I THINK WE'RE READY FOR COUNCIL QUESTIONS. CAN WE GO BACK TO THE SUMMARY CHART, MIKE? YEAH, PERFECT.

COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS. I thought you did. I saw you go like that. Sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Council Member Desmoning.

Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. On the option three, can you pull that slide up of the street? It looks like we've lost all the on-street parking. Could you just confirm for option three?

So for option three, there's curb cutouts. The design right now would maintain on the north end. On the south end of between 6th and 7th, so up on between 7th and MVD, it stays pretty much the same. On 6th to 7th, you would remain parallel parking on the north side. And on the south side, we've got to take a look at how much of that space you want to take in or out, whether we would maintain some of that parallel parking. Right now, it's just gravel parking. and portions of it are no parking because of the art exhibit already. So just that portion of the design would still need to be vetted out. My guess is we would probably lose some stalls there, but right now they're It's gravel, and part of it's non-parking anyway. So those are the questions.

So again, I know we're still conceptual, but if you go to the next picture, the prettier one, there is no on-street parking in the picture on the right.

On the left-hand side is a white stripe there, and that would be parallel parking. And then your two travel lanes are in the middle right now for this particular piece. That laneage is not consistent. It may not be how we finally do it. But right now what we're showing is that you get two lanes and one parking lane on the left.

Okay. Thank you. Council Member Harris.

So is option two, that's eligible for the grant or is it, or is that like a separate thing and then we could accept the grant and then have an add-on for the water quality thing or is it?

So option two is really the 500,000 is just the estimate for sidewalks. If we decide to do the sidewalks and not accept the grant, right? We could accept the grant and do just the stormwater quality with no road improvements. and use the current road layout as what the previous services and how the flow designs are. And that's option one? That's option two. Option one is status quo.

Okay, but all right. I'm just... What Mr. Linscott was referring to, I would call option five, because the original thing, it had a working creek and flying fish. I just made that up. But the $20 million one was option four.

Yes, that was the original option. DESIGN THAT WE BROUGHT THAT WAS PICKED BACK IN 2023.

I JUST DON'T WANT TO, I THINK PEOPLE ARE CHARACTERIZING OPTION THREE OR MISREMEMBERING IT AS SOME KIND OF LIKE ROLLS-ROYCE OPTION, AND TO ME, THIS IS SCALED BACK TO VALUE ENGINEERED CONCEPT.

WE WENT BACK TO THE BASICS ON THIS, UNDERGROUND WATER QUALITY, NOT SURFACE WATER QUALITY. THERE'S NO, IT'S STANDARD INTERSECTIONS, STANDARD You know, there's some amenities with regards to trees. There is undergrounding of power. So there's those types of issues. But there's no meandering walks. There's no additional. Everything is pretty much a standard that you would see in other parts of the city.

I'm just, the thing I was looking for, my eye keeps straining to see the interface with the marina steps. You know, like how that's, That's what people always ask is how that's going to come together.

And so if you look at the lower left-hand side there, you'll see the sidewalk keys into the sidewalk that comes from the marina steps. So there's a little like a dog leg right there at the very end. It's a tan. That's the side right there you just pointed at, whoever has that.

Okay, it's fine.

Thank you so much.

Council Member Blass.

Thanks for the presentation, Mike. On option two, if you go to the map, it says almost 50% of the cost goes to decorative lighting, which is not reflected in the rendering. Decorative lighting in there too, or is it just the same?

It's standard pedestrian lighting. So we do street lighting on the street. We would add pedestrian lighting.

And that's 50% of the cost of the sidewalk?

Yeah, lighting is expensive, yeah. Oh, okay.

And then the water feature, so it's no longer above ground. It's just large tanks underground that would hold the runoff water for just the time and then go to the steps, water filtration.

So there's a combination of both, right? So the water, if we put, regardless of the option, if we put water filtration here, it's going to take 30 acres of water quality. So you're adding, not only are you adding quantity, but quality control through the process. So you'll be pulling out contaminants from 30 acres upstream. The steps are taking out about two acres right now. And then there's a bypass on that. So this just increases It increases the total amount.

I thought the steps took in all that water from the whole downtown. The steps don't take the whole downtown, no. Okay, just two acres that it takes. Okay, and then you said you could build the sidewalks and then separately have a project where you ask for additional grants from the state to build the underground sidewalks.

kind of water feature but we would be separate project well we would design right you could you we could turn it into two separate projects right we could design the the road in the street separate from the sidewalks right basically what this what option two is is we're going to fill in the sidewalks we're going to assume that in our design for the water quality and then we'll go forward and we'll do the design for water quality and then apply for construction money for the water quality grants in the next series of grants, right?

So there could be two separate projects where you build, fund the construction of the sidewalks, and then you accept the grant that we already have from the state, and then ask for more grants. And if we get it, then we can build the water feature. OK. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Oxiger.

OK. So thank you for the presentation. You mentioned that the water quality issue would address 30 acres. How many acres total are we talking in the downtown area?

I'd have to take a look at that. You got it off the top of your head now? Yes. 60.

OK. Where does that water go now?

It flows right down 223rd into the outfall that comes out by the marina headquarters. By the marina building?

Okay.

It goes into the marina, into Puget Sound.

So why wouldn't we be going for an option that addresses the entire 60 acres rather than just 30 of it?

Because that's the other portion probably flows further south. Usually when we break up, I don't have the maps in front of me, Deputy Mayor. But normally when we break up basins, we do sub-basins and do treatment per sub-basin. And it may be that if to get to the south portion of downtown, we'd have to put the water treatment in a different area because of gravity. It might be on 225th or 227th. So it's really whenever you're splitting up for water quality that runs on gravity, it's really based upon where the outfalls are, where the pipes currently are, and where gravity is going to take the water. SO I COULD DRAW SOME SUB-BASIN MAPS FOR YOU AND SHOW YOU WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT, WHY WE WOULDN'T BE GOING FOR THE WHOLE 60, BUT IN ORDER TO GET THE SOUTH DOWNTOWN INTO 223rd, WE WOULD HAVE, WE COULDN'T GET WATER TO GO UPHILL. THANK YOU.

COUNCILMEMBER SIMONS, DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?

YEAH. As I understand it, option two has...

So the issue would be prioritization of the CIP. If we decided we wanted to do this, what other projects would be in the CIP? So it would be through... funding within the CIP to figure out how we would fund this and what grants we would try to get for it.

I think additionally, Council Member Steinmetz, I would say although the general fund is a source available for this project, that is not what we would recommend. We would recommend the transportation benefit district dollars, which are restricted to projects just like this. And when the council increased the car tab fee at the beginning of the year, That brought in quite a bit of additional revenue to that fund in particular.

But that would take away from other projects that have currently risen up with the IP, right?

That's correct.

So, all right.

Thanks.

No, we don't. Second time for Councilmember Harris.

I'll just say option three is what has to happen. It's just normal. It's, you know, option three is not Cadillac or whatever. It's just a normal, complete street that is supposed to be part of the city's policy going forward. And, you know, especially it's not the sequencing that I would have expected

Yeah, I'm sorry, was there a question?

Well, are we still in the questions period?

We're still in the questions period, yes.

Okay, well, then no questions.

All right, if there aren't any, did you have any questions, sir? Okay, if we don't have any other questions, let's move into, I'm going to ask for a vote. And I would like to make sure that we have this in a vote format rather than a hand raise. Councilmember Desmone?

I did actually have a comment.

OK. Why don't we make the, we'll see if there's a motion first, and then we can see if there's a second, and then we could get to discussion.

So I'd like to make a motion.

OK.

I'd like to move that we go with option two, and that we do not accept the grant. and that we simply use our funds, I'm sorry, I forgot what it was, to go ahead with option two.

Is there a second? I can second that for discussion. So it's been moved and seconded. Let's move into discussion of option two, which is the minimalist, as we discussed earlier, without the addition of the water quality grant. Discussion? Councilmember Blass.

I understand we can separate the two projects. We don't have to reject the grant. We could separate the project, approve the grant, and then wait to see if we get grants later down the line to build the underground. We could do that. So I don't think we should reject.

That's not the.

Yes.

Yes. Okay. Discussion? Other discussion? Councilmember Desmoni.

I will. defend my motion. I see this as a beautification project. I know I missed the finance meeting last week, but I truly believe our priorities are to maintain what we already have before we start with something new. But I do recognize the need to get this street closer to what we need for our stair project. I understand that. I'm a safety girl. I think people walking in the street on Cliff Avenue is unacceptable. I think there's other places where we should be spending this money, but $500,000 can get us to a place where people are safe and we're achieving what we need to do. There have been projects that have been pushed through and funds that have been allocated for things that, in my opinion, feel like they're very legacy-seeking and ego-driven projects. I do not want to accept a project to qualify for a grant simply to get a grant. I don't think that is a good use of our staff time. I don't think that is a good use of our time. And maybe, possibly, eventually doesn't work for my financial priorities. And so for me, I believe option two satisfies the need without putting us in a financial situation. And I feel that it's going to be more beneficial for now while we have things literally falling apart that need to be addressed first. Councilmember Harris.

As I was saying, you build the city that you want. You only get to tear up the streets once in a blue moon. And so you should build what the future will want. You know, 216th, it looks really good. And you should basically make every project that we do to a certain standard because you're leaving it to the future. And, you know, a complete street is the city's standard. And, you know, if you go... If you go cheap on this in any way, basically, yeah. I mean, we talk about making this the waterfront destination. If it takes longer, be patient, but do the project you want, even if it takes longer. It's not the sequence I would have preferred, like totally not, but you don't turn down free money, especially for this kind of... deal, the stormwater improvement is a big thing.

Thank you. Deputy Mayor Oxiger.

I tend to agree with Councilmember Harris. If you're going to do it, do it right in the first place. That said, I AGREE WITH COUNCIL MEMBER DISMONES THAT WE HAVE MUCH MORE PRESSING PRIORITIES. WE'VE EXPRESSED THOSE PRIORITIES IN OUR LEGISLATIVE ASKS. IT'S CRITICAL THAT WE FIX CLIFF AVENUE. That's going to be the vehicle access to both the Beach Park and the North Marina. We've also put ourselves, I think, in somewhat of a bind in that the construction of the steps cuts off the Dock Avenue. access. Yes, you can get through, but it's going to be extremely problematic. We had this discussion in Redondo over speed bumps and how do you maneuver emergency vehicles around speed bumps. Unless we have adequate access on Cliff Avenue, we're dealing with having to run emergency vehicles through the marina And at one point, you're literally running totally adjacent to the water feature. And I can just see an emergency. You're trying to chase kids out of the way while you're trying to move emergency vehicles. So I think Councilmember Harris, I think, has the right idea as far as, yeah, if you're going to fix it, fix it right and fix it the first time. That's not a priority. The safety issue with Cliff Avenue is a priority.

Thank you. Council Member Simons.

Thank you. I think that if we have a lot that needs to be done here, then option two absolutely shouldn't be considered. It will take money away from other things, and that's the question that I asked that was just answered. Either that or it's coming out of the general fund, and we also have other things to do there.

To turn down the current grant project right now is just leaving money on the table, which to me makes no sense.

And I think that because you're only going to get a chance to do this maybe once every two or three decades that you can actually rework an entire street, that you've got to do it right. And if we really want to pull things from the marina into downtown, it's got to be a nice, attractive place.

And using...

If we just simply do option two, which is I understand the motion right now, we're going to take money away from other things. We're not going to have anything that is particularly attractive. I don't see it as a beautification project by any means. It's trying to throw some sidewalks down there. And the rest of what, as I see in option two, really isn't going to add anything to the experience of trying to pull people in, making it a nice place to walk. So I really don't think option two is a very viable option, and I think it actually creates probably more problems for us in the future because somewhere we're going to have to find the money for it, and that means we're going to have to take it away from other projects on the Transportation Benefits District.

that could be spent elsewhere. So I think we just need to adopt the long view and make this corridor, do this corridor right. And it is certainly not the grand scheme that it once was, but this can be our corridor, what this council does, and it will actually be a much better place for it.

So I would not support option two. Thank you.

Just a second. Just a second. I want to reiterate before I go back around that I agree with some of the points that have been made here as well that we're talking about a project as if it was put on this because it was necessary to do. And that's the question that we're considering right now. Is this a necessary project to do at this time. Because option one is don't do the project and save all of the money. So I want to consider that what we are doing is basically leapfrogging other priority projects. That's what will happen here if we take this commitment. It's not free money. It's a commitment. If it were free, we could take the $580,000 and do nothing with the design and just put it on a shelf. It's not free. It comes with a commitment to go forward with the rest of the project. And so my consideration is not about the merits of which one looks nice and which one has trees and which one doesn't have trees. My consideration boils down to should this rise to the top of our capital improvements projects when we have infrastructure that is falling apart, when we have a true public safety issue with Cliff Avenue, which we already said was at the top of our list of priorities for legislative dollars, and really impacts the safety of not only vehicles, but people going around and walking through that blind curve. I will tell you right now, sorry, Chief Bowe, that I swing out to the left lane when I make that turn because I don't want to hit anybody when I go down Cliff Avenue. With that, let's go through another again. So Councilmember Harris, your second time.

I guess I'm puzzled. And I don't want to put you in an awkward position Mike, but do you consider it a zero-sum?

I'm sorry, but that sounds like an opinion that we were asking for, or you were talking about funding?

I'm asking a question regarding funding.

Okay, zero-sum in what way?

Well, let me finish. Is it an either-or kind of a deal? No. I guess is what I'm trying to say, is the planning process in accepting this grant, does that come at the cost of the other things that we've been discussing?

Because that seems to be the ‑‑ Councilmember, I'm going to interrupt there because I want to say that that is actually a council decision. Council decides the priorities. And so...

It's not a priority. It's a question of our city regularly executes on multiple projects simultaneously.

And the question is what order of priority they should go in.

And that comes back to us. You can walk and chew gum. We do several projects simultaneously. And what I am asking is... IF WE ACCEPT THIS GRANT AND GO INTO INITIAL DESIGN ON THIS, DOES IT COME AT THE COST OF OTHER, OF THE OTHER PRIORITIES, YOU KNOW, CLIFF AVENUE, WHICH I'M STRONGLY IN FAVOR OF AND SO ON. I MEAN, DOES IT, IS IT A ZERO SUM KIND OF A THING WHERE WE HAVE TO CHOOSE EITHER OR IN ACCEPTING THIS GRANT?

STAFF TIME IS A FINITE RESOURCE. So we do the work on the projects the council tells us are the priority. So yes, if you tell us this is a priority project, it does get moved up higher in the list. And yes, we do simultaneous projects at once, but another one may fall a little bit more behind because of that. It's hard also for us to answer that definitively, not knowing what option you're going to pick. Option two is a simpler project. Option three is a more in-depth project.

Let's go to Councilmember Netting.

By accepting the grant for the design, does that put a time frame on when we have to do this project?

No, it does not. It gets us through the design, and then we continue to seek funding for construction.

But, Mike, there usually is a time frame if you accept the grant by which you must use the grant.

Correct.

You can't just get it and get to it five years from now. You have to use it in a certain time period.

Correct. The design itself... THE GRANT IS NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION. IT'S FOR THE DESIGN. SO IT WOULD GET US THROUGH THE DESIGN, AND THEN WE WOULD CONTINUE. WE WOULD HAVE THE COMMITMENT TO CONTINUE TO WORK ON COMPLETING THE PROJECT BECAUSE THE STATE COMPLETED THE DESIGN. BUT IT WOULD BE NOT A FIXED STATE. IT WOULD BE BASED ON WHEN WE COULD GET FUNDING.

SO IF THIS PROJECT IS NUMBER 23 ON THE LIST, IT DOESN'T MOVE IT TO NUMBER ONE?

I'M GOING TO RESPOND BACK TO THAT. AS I SAID, IN NACAL, WE HAVE SEVERAL numbers on the capital improvement list is there's literally dozens and dozens of projects and really what determines we put our focus on whatever the council wants top but funding ultimately drives what we bring to you because if it's not funded we don't build it well not if the council doesn't tell me it's not a priority so other resources like other resources like uh staffing like the city manager just said would it would not yeah i'm i'm gonna have to stop you there because

We're trying to get Mike to make a commitment when he's asking us for direction. And the question is whether or not we're going to go with the motion that's on the table, which is to accept option two.

Point of order, Mayor. That wasn't anything that I was interjecting. Right. I was not stating that we were making that a priority.

But I feel like your question is basically the same answer that we just gave Councilmember Harris, which is we're not sure BUT PUTTING ANY PROJECT ON STAFF IS TAKING AWAY RESOURCES THAT COULD BE SOMEWHERE ELSE.

MY QUESTION WAS, BY ACCEPTING THE GRANT, DO WE MAKE THAT A PRIORITY? AND THAT'S NOT WHAT WE'RE VOTING ON HERE, AND THAT WAS YOUR STATEMENT IS THAT IT BECOMES A PRIORITY.

WE WOULD MAKE, IF THE COUNCIL SAID TO US, ACCEPT THAT GRANT, WE WOULD MAKE A PRIORITY THAT ECOLOGY TELLS US TO ACCOMPLISH IT. IF YOU TAKE THESE FUNDS, YOU MUST FINISH DESIGN IN TWO YEARS, WE'RE GOING TO ADHERE TO THOSE GRANT TERMS. SO FULFILLING THE GRANT REQUIREMENTS, WE'RE GOING TO DO THAT.

LET ME CLARIFY, AND I'M SORRY IF I WASN'T CLEAR. OPTION ONE IS WE DO NOTHING, KEEP THE STATUS QUO, IN WHICH CASE THERE WOULD BE NO PRIORITY ASSIGNED TO THIS, AND IT WOULD NOT EXIST AS A PROJECT. OPTION TWO IS CREATING A PROJECT that has been deprioritized back in April back up into active movement of design. That does, in fact, raise its priority list from where it has been. So I hope that's accurate. And I think that those kind of questions are, I just don't want to put Mike so much on the spot that he's having to commit to something that we haven't even told him we want to do yet. So that's where I'm sensitive. Other questions? Councilmember Bloss.

Well, not question, comments.

Oh, yeah, comment. Yes.

Yeah, so the steps are going to be completed at the end of the year. There's currently nothing really pedestrian to walk from the steps to downtown, which is the whole point of the steps. And I think we need something. So I like the option two like to have sidewalks improvement there. Option three obviously looks awesome. It's got landscaping, all the wires, the cables are down. But it's expensive, and it's going to take a while to build. The sidewalk could be built in a year. The option three would take four or five years, maybe. And I'd rather see something now rather than later. With that said, I was hoping we could have a different option two, which is a little more spruced up, a little more beautified with, I don't know, some plant pots, some trees, something. On top of they spent another $50,000, $100,000, like I've heard other people say here, you want to do it right, let's at least try to make it look nice. So I don't know if I would approve an option two as is right now.

Would you like to offer an amendment? Oh, you could say we'd like to, in addition to option two, add a $75,000 budget for landscaping.

Yeah, in addition to option two, I'd like to add a $75,000 to $100,000 beautification fund.

So I'm going to consider that a motion. Would anyone like to second it? Council Member Dismoni. All right, let's have a quick discussion about an option two beautification or landscape. I don't like beautification as a word, but A little bit beyond the minimalist into adding some nice features, including landscaping, trees or something so much. So I heard $75,000 on top of option two. Any discussion? Council Member Blass. Hold on just a second. Council Member Blass.

This is going to connect the downtown to the marina. And we have the steps. We are spending $11 million on it. It would be nice to have a nice-looking connection point between downtown to this step that goes to the marina. I think it's fair to spend a little money now to make it look nicer. This is going to be good for 20, 30, 50 years maybe. Let's spend a little money now and make it more inviting for people to walk down, for visitors to come from downtown to the marina and vice versa.

Council Member Simons.

Yeah, I mean, I understand the concept here, and it's a nice approach, but it doesn't tell us where we're going to get that $75,000 to $100,000 from. And frankly, we don't know yet. And that's the whole problem with option two, is that there are limited pots of money that we could draw from, and what option two requires us to do is take money from other places that we've already prioritized. Option three does not, because we've got so much more. I just don't see how we're going to make that happen, and I don't know where additional money is going to come from, be it transportation benefit district or general fund.

Council Member Des Moines.

Could I get clarification on that statement from Council Member Steinmetz to do option three. Oh sorry. I'm sorry he was just saying. It was about the funding. He was saying that there was funding guaranteed for option three which I am not clear on because I Didn't understand it.

Hold, hold. That may have been an overstatement on my part.

I'm sorry.

There is a grant that is available to us right now for the engineering and design. And we know that exists.

Okay, hold on. Yes, hold on just a second. Let's try and talk one at a time. It's difficult. Go back to the rest of your question.

So the clarification was that there is no guaranteed money for the actual project. It is the grant for the design. The rest would come from?

Other grants.

Santa. OK. All right. OK. Sorry. Or potentially capital if it didn't fall, if we didn't get a grant funding. I'm just clarifying the dollars. Thank you.

All right. OK. Thank you. And so to the amendment, we're speaking to that. Councilmember Harris.

Respectfully, Council Member Vlas, this is like one of those things where it was the value of having committees. It would often be the case that we would separate out the design.

Can you speak to the $75,000 amendment?

I will speak to whatever I wish to speak to. This amendment... It's micromanagement. You hire professionals to create the best possible design. You don't design from the dais. And so I would just say you figure out a way to have them design it. Then if you have to put it on the shelf for a couple of years, but you're patient. I'm sorry, can you?

Okay, thank you. Any other comments about just the amendment? All right, so let's go to a vote on just the amendment, which would be adding $75,000 to option two, and then we'll vote on that motion. All right, so all in favor of amending the first one to include a $75,000 budget for enhancements for landscaping or other, please raise your right hand until I call your name. So I have Council Member Desmone, Council Member Netting, Council Member Blass, and myself. That's four. How many do you, what vote do you have? Council Member Steinmetz. All right, so that does pass for three. So let's go back to the main motion, which would be option two with the enhancement of the $75,000. We've already had our discussion. Let's go to a vote. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes.

Can I ask you to not say $75,000? Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Only because we don't know how much it would be. So I think I'm sensing the scope.

Okay.

I'd rather you give me the direction and let us come back with a better number. It could be more than that because of irrigation.

Do I need to revise the vote we just took?

No.

Okay. Can you go back to the number two so we can look at what it said? about total costs. There we go. Okay. It's an estimate. There. So it's an estimated. So now let's say the estimate is at $575,000. Does that accomplish what we need? It's still an estimate.

Well, sure. Yeah.

Okay.

As long as everybody knows, like, we've got to get into what real costs are.

Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah. Absolutely. All right.

Your... Point of order question. Is the... REJECTION OF THE GRANT IN THAT MOTION? IT IS. CAN I PROPOSED AN AMENDMENT TO REMOVE THAT FROM THE MOTION? THE REJECTION OF THE GRANT?

YES, YOU COULD.

I PROPOSED TO REMOVE THE REJECTION OF THE GRANT. I'M STILL UNCLEAR OF WHAT WE CAN SEPARATE BOTH PROJECTS.

DO WE HAVE A SECOND? OK. All in. Let's talk about some discussion about the accepting of the grant so that let's restate what would happen first. Let me make sure that we're all talking about the same thing. So that would be option two sidewalks improvements with a concept that we like around five hundred and seventy five thousand dollars which is an estimate but also accepting the grant for five hundred and eighty thousand dollars which is the commitment for the water quality engineering. Is that correct?

That's what you want your... No, I want just to remove that.

The grant not be... Yeah, your motion would result in us having option two with an estimated cost of $600,000, which includes the landscaping and accepting the ecology grant.

No, I would be completely separating that out. I have a different motion or discussion next week or next two weeks to talk about

We don't have a meeting until... We have the 27th.

Oh, okay.

That's the day the decision is due.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like you guys have some good momentum to make a decision.

Okay.

So your motion was to separate it out and vote on it later? Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Was that what you thought? Right. Okay. All right. So, okay. Let me rephrase. I'm glad we did this then because I wanted to make sure we were tracking. So your amendment, I don't think that's amends the first, does that amend the first motion at all? It's a separate motion. Yeah. I'm going to have to look to city attorney George if that's how you're interpreting that. I just want to be clear, Robin, or sorry.

on your motion I believe you stated that option two without the grant so is the same as the main motion with the additional yes yes motion was explicitly rejecting the grant yes it was can I get some advisement about whether you can accept an amendment to nullify the first motion

I'm not sure I'm understanding that question. Yeah.

I'm with you. OK, so what I asked for is option two and to not accept the grant. And I think what Councilmember Blass is asking is to make the grant a separate decision in a different entity entirely. So would that be me removing from my original motion the grant?

I think it's just amending. I mean, it's a motion to amend the original motion.

To have nothing to do with the grant?

Well, it's basically saying instead of rejecting the grant, it's putting the grant on for a separate discussion, correct?

And that's me amending it because it's my motion.

No, it's a motion to amend. So if there's a second, the council needs to vote on this. And if it's passed, then the grant goes to a separate discussion. And your original motion is amended to reflect what's been moved.

Right. Let me clarify. Let me try here. Can I have you state what you want your amendment to be? So I move that we, and it has to amend the motion that was the original one, which is that we go forward with option two and decline the grant. So let's make sure we're all talking about the same thing.

So I move to amend the motion to remove the statement by rejecting the grant.

Okay.

You're moving to set the grant over for a separate decision? Yes. Yeah. Can we just, yeah.

Yeah, we could do that. Let's revise. Can we make sure that you have a second for that?

Yes.

Okay. So that's been moved and seconded. Let's talk more about that. Council Member Blass.

I feel like it's kind of the first time I heard today about being able to separate the two projects and have it be a completely separate project. And I need to have more information on that and what it would take away from other projects in the capital improvement plan. I need more details on it. And I think if it's two separate projects, then we should separate the motions too.

Other discussion? Okay, let's go to a vote. I'm going to restate it. All in favor of amending the original motion to put the grant back in, which will hold over the discussion about the grant to a later time. Let's go for the vote. All in favor.

Madam Mayor, I don't believe that's an accurate statement.

Okay. I'm sorry. Council Member Blass was nodding along, but yes, go ahead.

As I understood it, it was simply to remove the words from the original motion and reject the grant. So this amendment would remove those words and consequently the amendment would just simply pick option two, sidewalks only.

I don't think that's what you meant. So let's go back to the originator of the amendment.

I agree with what Damir said and how she summarized it.

Not what I heard, but OK. All right.

So I believe that's the motion on the table, is to remove that language. And that means that the grant would have to come back for another discussion. All those in favor, please raise your right hand until I call your name. Deputy, or no. Council Member Nutting, Council Member Blass, how do you vote Council Member Steinmetz?

I'm in favor.

All those opposed? Deputy Mayor Oxiger, Council Member Harris, Council Member Desmone, Council Member and Mayor, myself, that is going to fail 4-2-3. Let's go back to the original motion. Okay, I think we can do it. You're right, we had the momentum. Let's go ahead and take it to Oh, yeah, I can restate it. Council Member Desmone, would you like to restate your motion?

Oh, it's my privilege. I would like to make a motion that we go with option two and that we decline the ecology grant. All right.

All in favor, please raise your right hand until I call on you. I HAVE COUNCIL MEMBER DESMONI, COUNCIL MEMBER BLAS, AND MYSELF. HOW DO YOU VOTE, COUNCIL MEMBER STEINMETZ?

I'M OPPOSED.

OKAY. ALL THOSE OPPOSED? DEPUTY MAYOR OXFORD, COUNCIL MEMBER HARRIS, COUNCIL MEMBER NUTTING, AND COUNCIL MEMBER STEINMETZ. THAT MOTION FAILS 4-2-3. DOES SOMEONE HAVE ANOTHER MOTION? COUNCIL MEMBER HARRIS, A MOTION

I move to approve option three.

All right.

Second.

Second. Option three. Discussion. Deputy Mayor Oxker.

We're back into the priority issue again. You know, we have two projects that we've cited that are very important. I don't want to take our eyes off the ball. And so when we get these projects going, we can come back to this. The $580,000 grant, it's not a good fit for us at this time if we're trying to work with the other priorities. it's kind of like the old saying about, you know, we're getting a pony, but you've got to figure out how you're going to feed it, how you're going to house it, who's going to, you know, take care of it, that sort of thing. We've got these priority projects that we need to do first, so I'm opposed.

Council Member Harris.

Gosh, it seems like 800 years ago that we had committees, but if this were going through a committee process, we would not be having this discussion. You don't turn down the money. You find a way to do the design, and then you move the priorities for construction as you see fit. Nobody wants the Cliff Avenue and Beach Park projects done now. more expediently than myself, but you don't turn down state money. You figure out a way to get to design. And I honestly didn't see this coming, that it's not an either or in terms of priority. It's just, yeah, I'm just repeating myself. You do the design, but that in no way will take the eye off the ball in terms of... projects that you and I both agree on. Again, I keep saying it's not the sequencing I would have chosen, but you only get one shot at doing these projects. And we owe it to the future to make them all just the same quality, especially that street. It's the spine to the notion of the waterfront destination. But it doesn't, it will not, at least from my perspective, it will in no way change my feeling that the Cliff Avenue has to be the top priority in terms of construction. It's just grant, grant, grant. That's the only way my mind is working right now is what grants can we get, but not sequence of construction. Thank you.

Council Member Desmone.

Mike, could you please pull up that option three with the math, with the numbers, the money part. Thank you. I will not vote for a project for a grant's sake. I will not do it. The grant is $500. I'm sorry, I don't actually care. Thank you. for the design for something that is still going to cost us this much money if possibly maybe someday whenever we get other grants that might defer some of these costs. I will not vote for this. This is asking too much of us financially. We have a possibility of something that can put things to a place where we can function now while we can maintain other things that are currently failing. I will be a no again.

Council Member, I'd just like to say something because you looked right at me when you said that. Mike, you don't have to answer. It's not personal.

I promise you. Council Member Simons, did you have any comments?

That's right.

Before I go back around, I want to make sure that there are others who haven't spoken yet who can speak. Anyone? All right, let me go first. I think it's important for me here to hear what other folks are saying. Other folks have said here and I've heard very strongly some opinions about why we have reservations why I have reservations for this project. And I think it's also important to remember that the city residents and voters told us twice that they didn't want us to continue the spending priorities that were a bit fantastical and the lessons that I learned from the vote from our residents was to spend more wisely, to prove that we could listen to feedback, to try and come up with some compromise. I appreciate that this has been scaled down from $17 million to five. I still think it's too high. And I think that it's important for me to not only listen to my colleagues, but to listen to the residents, where this to me is not a priority and accepting this grant does put it on a priority list. We can argue up and down about where it would fall on the priority. And in fact, I think that will be a conversation we'll be having very soon about the capital priorities and where we should focus our energies rather than it being a sort of free for all with some numbers next to it. So with that, let's go back around. I saw the hand of Deputy Mayor Oxegar.

Yes, and I believe that it was also the comment, correct me if I'm wrong, of the city manager that when these grants come with a due date, we have something that we have to do, and that creates a priority. And so by accepting the grant, we're putting this into the middle of the decision-making on other projects that we're working on. And we've already said that the priority has to go to Cliff Avenue and fixing the Redondo seawall to protect the pump station down there. So we're just interjecting another mess into the whole conversation. And is it worth $580,000 to you know, put ourselves into a position where we might not have the funds to deal with it.

Other discussion? I'm sorry, to clarify, Councilmember, the motion is for option three, which is $4.2 million, not $500,000. You just asked if it was worth $500,000. I just want to make sure. The grant. Okay.

No, it's okay. Any other discussion before we go to a vote on option three?

Yes, Madam Mayor.

Yes, go ahead.

I really think this is being presented as a false choice. We are quite capable of...

Thank you.

one-third less, more than one-third less than what originally was proposed. But if you're going to do it, you need to do it right. You need to actually create something that's attractive because that's the whole point of doing this, doing something with 223rd is to fix it up and help it become that corridor, which is not necessarily going to take away from making the improvements to the Redondo Seawall. That's a false choice. It's not going to take away from making improvements down on B Street. That's also a false choice. So please, let's be honest with the voters. Let's be honest with people here. And we can do more than one thing at a time and make it work. But let's do it right. I'm still in favor of option three.

Councilmember Harris, your second time.

The voters objected to the city borrowing money. And I just want to point out that this is not borrowing money. And that's basically it. It's a question of sequencing. And I just think about the original notion of downtown redevelopment from 2008, the UW presentations. I just can't imagine doing something as dramatic as the Marina Steps and then not have something leading up to it that is commensurate with that. And I am willing to be patient as long as it turns out to be someone else's money, as long as it's all of equal beauty. Thank you. Oh, and also the water quality thing. I mean, the fact that we're even talking about any opportunity for water quality improvements, I mean, come on.

I just want to clarify that there's no other funding attached to this at this point. So to say that there will not be loans on it, I think is hypothetical. Let's go to a vote. All those in favor of option three, which is the full corridor improvement, please raise your right hand. Council Member Harris, Council Member Nutting, how do you vote, Council Member Simons?

I'm in favor.

Okay. All those opposed, please raise your hand. Deputy Mayor Oxiger, Council Member Desmone, Council Member Blass, and myself. So that motion fails 3-4. So we have some choices here. We can go with option number one, or we can table this discussion, because it doesn't sound like we have agreement, quite frankly. Okay.

Point of order.

Yes.

You mean table or do you mean postpone?

I mean table.

Which kills it?

Yes.

So that would be turning down the grant because of the timing. Okay.

So unless there's a motion for option one or option two. There isn't a motion yet, so there are options until... We would need a motion. Okay, so he would need to restate that motion. I would not be able to support reopening this discussion when there's absolutely no agreement. So what would be the point? Go ahead.

I move to table.

I'll second that. DISCUSSION. COUNCILMEMBER BLAS.

IF I UNDERSTAND, THIS IS REJECTING THE GRANT, BUT ALSO REJECTING OPTION 2 AND 3 AND GOING DE FACTO OPTION 1?

YES.

I DON'T THINK WE SHOULD MAKE THAT DECISION NOW. WELL, FOR REJECTING, WE CAN, BUT I THINK WE SHOULD STILL DISCUSS TO DO SOMETHING DOWN THERE.

WELL, WE DID. We discussed option two and we discussed option three. So tabling would effectively move us to option one, which is the only thing that we haven't discussed. Any other discussion?

Madam Mayor, point of order. Option one is no project, so it kills the project either way.

Right. That's the option we haven't discussed yet.

But even if we table it and that's the only option left, it's a dead project.

Right. And I'm trying to look here to see if tabling actually is debatable. Go ahead.

Tim and I were just talking about what to table means.

Yeah. So I mean, we're taking it as postponing or delaying discussion. But I mean, I guess that could be indefinitely. So I guess if we could clarify, too, what the intention of tabling means.

TABLING IS NOT POSTPONED. TABLE MEANS THAT WE DON'T MOVE FORWARD WITH THIS DISCUSSION. SO THAT'S WHAT MY MOTION WAS TO DO. OR, YEAH. SORRY. IT WAS, YES, DEPUTY MAYOR OXFORD'S MOTION.

IF FOR CLARIFICATION, PARDON. IF FOR CLARIFICATION, JUST GO WITH ONE. I MEAN, IF WE'RE GOING TO HAVE AN ARGUMENT OVER WHAT THE MEANING OF TABLING IS, THEN I WOULD RETRACT MY MOTION AND MOVE TO JUST SIMPLY GO WITH OPTION 1.

IS THERE A SECOND? COUNCILMEMBER DESMOND HAS SECONDS. NOW WE CAN HAVE A DISCUSSION ABOUT OPTION 1. ALL RIGHT. DISCUSSION FOR OPTION 1. Doesn't sound like there is any. Should we go to a vote? All those in favor of the status quo, option one, please raise your right hand. Deputy Mayor Oxiger, Council Member Desmone, and myself, how do you vote, Council Member Simons? Are you a yay? Okay, great. All those in favor, all those opposed to motion on the table, please raise your hand. Councilmember Harris, Councilmember Netting, Councilmember Blass, and Councilmember Simons. So that motion fails three, four. And we're back to where we started. I don't think we're gonna reach an agreement. And this is one of the reasons why I think that we were hoping to get to some sort of agreement today and unfortunately we did not. So at this point, there is not a direction that we can take. We voted down all three options. And so I think in de facto, that means unless you come up with a totally another motion, which I'm not really going to entertain at this time, then we're not going to move forward. So yeah, thank you. I appreciate it. It's a tough exercise to go through. I think you just watched not only the sausage made, but we killed the pig. and dragged it in and then chopped it up and stuffed it into the grinder and it was pretty nasty to look at which is why we like to buy the pork sausage on a nice little styrofoam tray instead of thinking about how the negotiation and the vision actually gets done. So I apologize to all those folks who are watching on the display. I think what we can take away from it is that we have a group of council members who are very passionate about all their positions. We're not always certain about how to get there, but I think that we do have a lot of shared values in terms of moving forward with the city and the vision we'd like to execute. And unfortunately, this just could not come to any sort of consensus. Okay, I got to find my agenda in all of this fun stuff that we have. So hold on just a second. I think we should actually postpone the next item too because we had one more after that, correct? And move on to the food bank relocation MOU. How does that sound? I got three nods. Is that OK? OK. Thank you. I appreciate all of your patience with that. Let's talk about the food bank relocation MWU, and we will hear a presentation from City Attorney Tim George.

TIM GEORGE, Thank you, Mayor. A quick presentation on the food bank relocation. You got a letter provided at your table. that had the background in it. The food bank is looking to relocate from their current location. They do some great work in the city. They've approached the city. Next slide. So we've worked with them to try to find a location given that a lot of the existing buildings are just outside of their price range. It's really expensive to get a building or land here in the city. So we identified this parcel. It's just south of the post office. The city owns it. It's vacant. There are some pieces of it that are currently being used by one SJU parking lot and then the UW air monitor. So we'd have to adjust the lease area a little bit, but doing that, it's just under one acre. The assessed value is $205,000, probably assessed a little low considering what property is going for in that area. It's currently zoned something that wouldn't allow a food bank, but the council controls the zoning. Next slide, please. So a lot of this was in the letter you received. The food bank is very interested in this location. They like it. It would serve their needs, they believe, well, given its access and closeness to bus lines. So they're currently applying for grants. They've received some. Next slide, please. We have drafted this MOU as a first step And what this does is it basically says the city's committed to this location. We're committed to securing a long-term lease. This gives them the ability to access the property. It gives them the certainty that they have the ability to get a long-term lease so they can go out, they can apply for grants. They can let the granting agencies know that they have this agreement. While we work to draft a lease agreement that would protect both the food bank and the city, I believe what we're moving forward towards is a long-term lease on the property for a de minimis amount of money given the public benefit that they provide. But we want to make sure before we get locked into a long-term lease that there's parameters in place showing that they're making progress and that they're actually going to build on this site. and that they're going to put it to a public use. So we don't want to rush into a lease. We want to work through those pieces in conjunction with the food bank. That's what this MOU does. It kind of says that we're working together and lets them go out and get some money and start meeting some of those conditions as we work on this lease that kind of lays everything out. So that's what this is. The food bank is in support, and there's a motion in the packet and on the screen. I can take any questions if you have any.

Questions? Councilmember Harris.

So, and I may be misreading this, but the term six months is used, is that the length of time to come to an agreement?

Yeah, that is the, I believe that's the extent, extended term. But this MOU is intended to be... Oh, yeah, that's the initial term. So, yeah, this MOU is intended...

I just want to make sure that we both side... He's attempting to answer. Hold on just a second.

Yeah, six months and then a 12-month extension. That's 18 months. We anticipate a lease agreement well before that. And then once that lease agreement is signed, this MOU goes away because we live by the lease agreement.

Very good. And just...

For expediency, can I move on to someone else, and I'll come back to you with your second question.

Sure.

Anyone else have any questions? Great. Councilmember Simons, did you have one before we move back? Councilmember Simons?

No, no question.

Okay. Councilmember Harris, your final second question.

Yeah, so... You know, I had mentioned to the city about having like a little bit of fencing or something around, decorative around the pathway from the activity center into the park, just something. I'm just, the purple or whatever the square, is that really going to be the extent of the development? Will it take away from any of the parking or any of the access areas? from the activity center into Stephen Jay. Does that make sense?

The purple is the parcel. The lease area will be smaller than that. The lease area will not take away from parking or from access or from the air monitor.

Okay. That's it. Thank you.

Any final questions? All right. Is there a motion? Councilmember Nutting.

I move to approve the MOU with Des Moines Area Food Bank to grant access to city property to allow the preliminary planning and review for the potential relocation of the food bank and authorize the city manager to sign the MOU substantially in the form that is attached.

Is there a second? Councilmember Des Moines. All right. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand until I call your name. Deputy Mayor Ochsinger, Councilmember Harris, Councilmember Desmoni, Councilmember Nutting, Councilmember Blass, and myself, how do you vote Councilmember Steinmetz?

I'm in favor.

That passes 7-0. Thank you very much, and thank you for your patience, Executive Director Van Gaskin. All right. I am going to ask for some indulgence here because we're going to need to adjourn in five minutes. And so I'd like to skip our final couple of items, the new agenda items for consideration and any council member reports.

I second that.

All right. So then why don't instead of seconding that, why don't you have a movement to adjourn, a motion to adjourn?

I move to adjourn, Mayor.

Any second? Council Member Desmoni, all in favor of adjourning, please raise your right hand. And if I could hear your aye, that's a 7-0. Thank you very much. And we will see you next time on the 27th, 2026.