City Council - Regular Meeting

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You can hear me though. All right. Thank you. I'd like to call the meeting uh of March 2nd, 2026 to order at 6 p.m. Will you please join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance 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.

Okay. I'd like to invite Chris Lumston from Gateway Chapel for our invocation, please. Good evening everyone. Thanks for having me again. Uh this is my daughter Isabelle's first ever city council meeting. She is Hi Isabelle. Isabelle just turned 6 years old. She is in kindergarten at the early learning center. Uh go bees. And uh she already knows one of the council members. Uh council member Hawketter's daughter and her go way back.

Nice. uh ballet at the at the Y. So, she is well on her way in city government. Pretty cool. Pretty cool. Way back. That's right. That's right. So, hey, it's it's it's already it's already taken off. Uh thanks for inviting me to pray. Let's let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for a beautiful day. I know we call it false spring here. We're thankful for the sunshine. We've been in the big dark for a while and we just thank you for the reminders of why we love the city, seeing the mountain, feeling the warmth of the sun, seeing our neighbors walking, enjoying the city, playing at the parks, and calling this place home. We thank you for making Sumar and giving us this place to live. and we just recognize that it's yours. And we just pray your blessing over this meeting that you would just give each of the folks involved the joy of knowing that they're serving their community and the reminder that they are representing the people in these streets, in these homes. And you'd give them the wisdom to listen, to understand, and to have compassion on those they serve. We just give this meeting to you, Lord. and we thank you for this time in your name. Amen.

Thank you. Will the clerk please call the role?

Alers here. Evers here. Hawketter here. Kenna here. Rinky here. Wilie here. All members are present. Thank you. Before we begin tonight, we do have an amended agenda. Do I have a motion to add resolution number 1745 confirming an emergency declaration for a failed storm main under 3A new business? I will make a motion to add uh resolution number 1745 confirming the emergency declaration to our agenda.

I'll second that. Seconded by council member or deputy mayor Alers. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded to approve the approve the agenda as amended. All in favor? I opposed.

Thank you. Okay. So at this time I want to adjourn the meeting into an executive session for a period of 20 minutes for evaluating the qualifications of a candidate for appointment to elected office. Action will be taken during the meeting. So I adjourn at 6:04 p.m. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N.

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Yeah. Okay. Let's get myself in order here. Okay. I'd like to reconvene the regular meeting at 6:24 p.m. Will the clerk please read the consent agenda? Item number one, resolution number 1742, interlocal agreement for school resource officer. Item number two, approval of the checks and electronic payments in the amount of 8,148,624.56. Item number three, approval of the minutes from the council meeting of February 17th, 2026 and the 23rd of February study session.

Thank you. Deputy Mayor Elpers, would you please make a motion to adopt the consent agenda? Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to adopt the consent agenda of March 2nd, 2026. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you. Seconded by Council Member Kenna. It's been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. Would any council member wish to remove an item? Okay. Thank you. All in favor? I

opposed. Passes unanimously. All right. Thank you. Uh next would be our public hearing. Uh there is no public hearing tonight. So, we'll move on to regular uh business. So, unfinished business. There is no unfinished business tonight. So, we will move on to public comment. The limit is three minutes. Uh Michelle, has anyone signed up for public comment? Yes, Mayor. We do have two people who have signed up.

Okay. So, I would like to read the rules. Um is there anyone on Zoom by chance? No. Okay. Thank you. So, I'll go ahead and get these rules read. So, the purpose of these meetings is to conduct the important business of the city. And that often means the city council is making difficult policy or budgetary decisions. With that said, I want to share a few rules and reminders that I will be enforcing to encourage respectful and orderly public comment. As a reminder, the public comment section of the meeting is a time for the council and myself to hear from members of the public on topics not on tonight's agenda. And while it may feel awkward, this is not a time for the council or myself to answer questions or engage in back and forth debate. At the conclusion of your comments, I may request that the appropriate staff member contact you for further discussion. Rule number one, please keep your comments relevant to city business and about matters over which the city council has control. Rule number two, all council members and city staff deserve respect and dignity. Please refrain from disorderly or disruptive speech or conduct, personal attacks, name calling, rude or offensive statements, obscenities, derogatory comments directed at individuals, and hate speech. If you don't comply with this rule, I will interrupt you with a reminder and then may choose to suspend you from continuing or have you removed from the meeting. We have behavioral expectations. We will all model courtesy and respect. This includes those of us on the dis and members of the public are expected to do the same. Audience members, to ensure every speaker feels comfortable speaking, please do not clap, boo, or speak while another person

is addressing the council. Please speak into the microphone. Comments are broadcasted and recorded via the mics. If you leave the microphone, your comment time ends. Now that I've reviewed the rules that will apply, I invite the first speaker to the microphone. Please start your comments by stating your name and the city in which you reside for our records. You will have three minutes to speak. And the first mayor, the first person, excuse me, mayor, is Mr. Randall Adams. Thank you, Mr. Adams. Do I state my name or is that was that my name being stated?

Does he uh need to state his name and address? If he could for the record, please. Thank you.

Randall Adams, City of Sum. This past week, we issued permits for the best lithium battery site out at Daringer. These sites are highly controversial. Elsewhere, communities have robust conversations between city councils, councils or county commissioners and citizens. Yet, in Summit, that whole process was bypassed and approved by staff without the planning commission or city council ever being consulted. I guess that was legal. Maybe the city attorney can clarify that for us. The entirety of information given to the council was during a presentation regarding the after-act ordinance that doesn't even apply to the Daringer site. There was another fire in California a week or two after that. You remember unions representing firefighters in California and New York are fighting against the additional attempts to place best sites closer to citizens like what the city is now attempting to do. The reason they are fighting against these best sites is that their equipment is failing when they fight these fires and they know that the sites have to be further away from population. Our firefighters have no experience with fires and can only believe what their equipment manufacturers represent. their fellow fellow fellow firefighters in California, New York know that the equipment does not hold up. They now have respiratory issues because of failed equipment and that is why they fight their unions fight to close these these close in best sites. I have been told that is an issue for firefighters to deal not for the city to worry about. You are now on notice that you need to concern yourselves about our firefighters safety. Now look at the Daringer site that is within 500 feet of East Valley Highway, five houses on the hill, the commuter rail railroad track and the waters of the White River Reclamation Project. Not to mention the Peterson Brothers offices and our Daringer well that sits right on top of our aquifer. These best fires give off cyanide gases, which is great for a train to drive through and toxic metals that spread much further than previously thought from testing on the recent fires. The reason our city staff pushed this through is that they hope it will

produce $43 million in revenue over approximately 40 years. Risk be damned and permit costs are expected to upload front those revenues. At least that's what Ryan Windish suggested at bright night's presentation last year that only three council members were allowed to attend. I had a very good conversation with two management personnel there who told me at that time they had no sites online. repres representations regarding risks were based off what Tesla had told them and that they would have six holes in the ground that go up to 15 ft deep to try to moni monitor contamination. Beyond that, it's the city's problem. Unique is in that we all know that the water table is much is isn't that deep, especially in that area where numerous sites where the water from Lake Taps bubbles up along East Valley Highway out onto the out to the railroad tracks. I know that because my uncle worked for PSC and for many years running the electric plant and oversaw the levels of Lake Taps and the dikes and the mount and monitored how much water was percolating out into the valley. It is significant and that water eventually filters down into our aquifer. We need to do more research before we

Sir, your time is up. Mr. Adams, can you stay up at the lectern for a minute? Uh, so I think there's a couple of things. So, I want to thank you for coming and sharing your thoughts. Uh, and I did receive this ahead of time and was able to read it. And this is always your opportunity and everybody's else's opportunity to do so. However, some of your statements were not factually correct. Okay? So, I'm going to take this opportunity to provide the public with the correct information. And it's important to me because these meetings are recorded. All right? And the public needs to understand these facts. And this is a record. This is a record. I'd love to have conversation.

So, what I've got two things. So, I'm just going to mention a few things here and then I would ask you to please set up an appointment with me on a Thursday morning. Michelle can do that. So, you and I can talk offline up in my office if you so wish. Only Thursday. Well, you ask her. She'll find you the opening. Okay. Okay. For you any day will work. All right. Just to shut him out, please.

No, just to have a great conversation with you. So the whole best uh one of the things you said was that the whole BEST process was bypassed and the city counsel by the bypassed the city council and was approved by staff. Um and that is because this use was permitted as a CUP in a zone for which Bright Knight applied. Staff worked tirelessly through the SEPA and permitting processes to ensure that as many possible protections were implemented. Now you're well aware that myself and another individual up here, you know, were in a committee meeting when this was discussed. But one of the things that we've found is um well maybe you're not but others out there are they witness this. And one of the things that uh we know is that that once something is permitted we can't not permit something if an area is zoned for it. Once it's permitted we can't stop a permit. So that's something we can talk further about and if the city there's a means in which somebody can go straight to the state and get that best unit put in our town. Uh the other hard truth is that the city not appropriately reviewed and proceeded processed the permits for this project uh the state of Washington would have done so. So that's the other thing. So the state of Washington they can bypass this city and they can approve these permits. So there's a state process through the energy facility site evaluation council that provides applicants with the ability to apply for these types of projects and receive approval directly from the governor. So, you sent this early enough today that I could do some research. So, that's why I want to talk about this because I think it's very important that we share these things. The Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council can override local zoning laws when reviewing projects. So, trust me when I say that it was better to have kept this project local and implement as any mitigation measures as we could rather than leave it up to a state board to review and approve. So, I'll stop there for tonight. It's because you and I will go, we'll volley back and forth and then

let's get some time. Yes. So, let's get some time set up where we can volley upstairs. But the real key is and maybe you can answer at that time why it is that other counties and cities have moratoriums on these projects and have conversations out in the open versus it not being done here. I will be happy to do that with you, sir. Okay. So, thank you. Forward to the conversation. Thank you. and mayor. The next person who has signed up is Tina Bernett.

Hey, Tina Bernett. Um, Sumar, I just want to clarify, mayor, whether I'm allowed as a citizen to express my input on the nominations for the next city council or is that off limits? Ma'am, you will have the opportunity to do so um when we get to new business under the council vacancy. Okay. I will clarify whether that was and and you're actually going to allow us to speak before you vote on it, unlike what happened last year.

So, it will be different than last year. Last year we had a little bit of a misstep, but this year you will have an opportunity to speak after Yes. the nominations. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Um and I'll So I'll reserve any of those comments. I do want to say yes, whatever conversations you have with Randy on on the best site, uh would you like to attend, ma'am? I that would be wonderful. You're more than welcome to attend. Randall, Mr. Adams, can she attend? I have no problem. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. And um I just want to add personally having been in the energy business for 25 years. I s I support Bass. I that's the wave of the future. I just think this where we ended up, however we got there, the location is awful for our community and we need to find some way of mitigating the dangers. And I don't know if we can do that now. You've passed um ordinances to apply to anything in the future, but it it it's a scary thought because it's so close. But best is a very important part of our energy infrastructure in the future. It just doesn't need to be so close to communities.

I'm more than happy to talk with uh you guys, anyone else. Okay. All right. I think my whole point being it's real key that we're factual when we're here and if we're not sure of the facts, feel free to reach out to me ahead of time. Okay. And I'll help us with that. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. All right. So, is that all Michelle? Yes, Mayor. It is. Okay. And still nobody on uh Jeff back there. All right. So, on to new business. So, we're going to move on to the council vacancy. So, I'd like to call on Jason Wilson, the city administrator. Please.

Mayor and Council. Tonight we'll be uh completing the appointment process for the vacant council position. So I'll go through uh what your rules say the process is and happy to answer any questions uh before we get started. So the first step of the council is to ask for nominations. So the mayor will call for nominations. There's no second required. So just you know signal that you want to speak, say the name that you want to nominate. Uh when nominations are complete, somebody needs to make a motion to close nominations. It needs to be seconded and then a majority vote of council to close nominations. After nominations are closed, uh we will open this up for public comment. It's limited to two minutes per person and it's only related to those applicants who were nominated. After that, you'll have some time to discuss anything you choose to discuss and then we'll go on to voting. Voting is done by roll call vote. Uh the clerk will call your name. At that point, state the name of the person that you are wanting to appoint. Appointments do require a majority vote, which means tonight it requires four votes. You can vote as many times as needed to obtain a majority vote. With the person receiving the least amount of votes, they fall off. So assuming you have more than uh two people nominated, the person who receives the least number of votes falls off that future round of voting. In the case of a tie, a three-3 tie, the mayor does have the ability to cast the deciding vote. Uh, at any time, you also can go back into an executive session. Uh, that needs to be an agreed executive session with council. Uh, once again, that's just to discuss qualifications, and there's no straw voting. Uh, and by some chance, if you feel like you need to postpone the election, you could do that to a date certain. You do have until the end of the month to make this appointment. So, if you were to postpone that, we'll walk you through that process. And then whoever the successful uh applicant is, they'll be sworn in at the

next regular council meeting, which is March 16th. So, before I turn over to the mayor to accept nominations, is there any questions I can answer? All right. I don't see any. So, mayor, I'll turn it over to you. Okay. Would any member like to nominate a candidate? Council member Hawksteader. Madame Mayor, I'd like to nominate Mark Malcolm. Thank you. Council member Kenna. I'd like to nominate Amy Huo.

Is there anyone else? Council member Elers like to make a motion to close the nominations. Thank you. Is it there a second? I'm sorry, mayor. Who made the second? Second was made by council member Elers or Evers. Thank you. All right. Are there any comments from the public? on the on the closing nominations. Oh, we have to vote on the closing nominations. Oh, okay. So, we would like you to vote on the closing nominations. Yeah,

that's correct. We almost forgot that. Yes. So, we do need to take a a vote. It can doesn't have to be a roll call vote. It could just be a voice vote. So, just all in favor? All in favor? I I Any opposed? Do we need that recorded? It's not Well, so you guys did you guys touch it? Okay, I think we can all go on now. Are we good? Thank you. Okay, so we have two nominations. Mayor, excuse me. Were there any opposed? No. Any opposed?

There were none. No. Thank you. All right. So, with that being said, are there any comments from the public on the two nominees that we have? Mr. Beerman. Any comments at this point must be related to the nominees. Please remember your time is limited to two minutes.

All right. All right. Thank you, mayor and council. I think it's important that we acknowledge and thank the codate candidates who applied and were nominated to fill the vacancy. We saw a wide variety of qualified candidates from a variety of different backgrounds, different experiences in our community. I think it says a lot about the great community we have here in Sar that so many folks were willing to step up and put their name out there, put their neck on the line in service to the city of Sumner. Uh, I appreciate their efforts and and applaud them uh for taking the time to put their name out there, finding a role in the community to contribute either through council meetings, commissions, and committees in the past and then going forward whatever uh whoever gets selected. Um, specifically, uh, I don't want to say too much about particular people by name, but I will just say that Mr. Malcolm has experience with other cities of varying sizes and, uh, very he has he's very commendable for his service to the communities that he's lived in in the past. He served on the planning commission here and uh, has attended and spoken at various council meetings and has also supported candidates who ran for office here in town. I think he'd be a great uh next council member. I will also say about Miss Wo, she fights for the citizens and it's obvious when you hear her speak. It's obvious when you see when when you uh see her at the planning commission and the way that she approaches her her duties and responsibilities. She ran for office herself. Uh and and I would also say that uh she received uh nearly half the votes in the election that she ran. So, a sizable portion of the community believed in her and I think she would be a great and valuable contribution to the council as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other comments from the public?

Since I said I was going to speak, I decided I better speak. I think we had seven great candidates. um you did a good job of narrowing it down to two very qualified candidates and I mean obviously I would have voted for Nick but um Mal Mark and Amy are I don't know how you're going to pick I mean they're both really really good and Amy you know she put herself out there running for office and that was brave and expensive having done that I know it's expensive and a lot of work. She's been out there talking to everybody. So, uh, but Mark, you know, he has a lot of experience, too. So, I don't know how you're going to choose, but good luck. I think you you narrowed it down to two fine candidates, and I would be happy to have them on the city council. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have anyone else? Uh, Please.

Good evening. My name is John Gammon. I live in Sumar. Have for 30 years now. Um I jotted well first of all like the others thanks to all the candidates for putting themselves out there. That takes a certain amount of courage and um so thank you to them. Um, I went through and identified some key attributes um that I thought the council person that you appoint has to have and primarily the ability for you all to get along with that person and for that person to have a track record or some history of demonstrating respect for city staff uh and the public. those of us who show up here and try to bend your ear um interacting with neighboring cities, city officials, county officials, state officials that the council members become the face of Sumar. So, it's really important that you kind of pick carefully. Um, I would say the diversity of a person's experience is uh really important to me as well. And I see time is marching on here. Um, I won't beat around the bush any longer. I identified that Mark Malcolm, even though I don't know him, in my mind, in watching the interviews, reading the materials, I thought he was the best candidate. And part of that is uh the diversity of his interests that go beyond his great professional career and business interest. He's interested in the arts. He's in interested in land conservation. That's kind of the full package that I

look for uh in all of you to try to represent me in the city of Sar. So thanks.

Thank you. Amanda might be short because you didn't pick my guy, but that's fine. Um, of the two candidates that you did choose though, they're both great. Amy, I voted for you in the last election. But between those two, it's going to come down to um to me, I I'll always say it citizens are your best consultants. and Mark has proven that he has the time and wants to commit the time to this. The only people that show up every week are Nick and Mark. So to me, in the end of those two, that's really important to me. Um, if you go to an event, Nick's there and Mark's there. So if you can't have Nick, I'll settle for Mark, I guess. But I'm just kidding. Um, but I can have a great conversation with him.

Um, he's a lot like Nick. We don't agree politically and on a lot of things in life, but I can have a calm conversation with it and I feel it's respectful. Um, but yeah, for me at the end of the day, this is going to be a hard job of if if you're really putting it in the work, it's a good 20 hours a week at least, if not 40 if you're really going to research stuff because I've tried to research some of the stuff you guys have to do. I don't have time or the brains for that. Uh, but between those, Mark has proven that he shows up every time to multiple meetings, multiple events, and I I think he's the best choice. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?

I would just say that um I'm sorry. I would just say um my input would be to pick the person that you're going to vote for tonight to be the person who you think is going to make SAR be a small city and look like a small city 10 to 20 years from now. That's how I would vision this going out forward. Uh thank you for the opportunity to have been in this process and good luck to all of you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. So,

so Mayor, it's your uh discussion at this point and then uh roll call vote when you're ready. Thank you very much. Are is there any comments from the council? Oh, mine just went on. I know it did. Okay, my next on is not on. Everybody just stay calm. It's still not here. Okay, there we go. Deputy Mayor Elers.

I want to echo what many people mentioned here. I really really appreciated that we had u a number of applicants we did. I thought there were some really qualified folks and uh the only thing I'm hopeful about is that some of the folks we saw um we had I haven't seen them at meetings or haven't seen them here, but I really hope that we do in the future. I hope that um those of you who applied um get involved or try to get involved in a commission. I think Mr. Malcolm has done a good job. I think we get to there's a lot lot of learning this year. We're doing a budget cycle. So, whoever's um comes on the council, it's really nice to be familiar with what's happening because we have two years worth of spending decisions to make coming up in a few months. So, um yeah, I want to re reiterate that thank you for for applying and again, we have both of the nominees are on the planning commission. there will inevitably be one spot available um uh no matter what decision is made tonight. So uh again, I would encourage those of you who came to uh to pursue uh their opportunities and appreciate your involvement in the community.

Council member Ranky.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I just want to say also I appreciate everybody that applied out of the seven uh that are in the audience here tonight and also online or at home and haven't come tonight. It's not an easy decision. We don't take it lightly. Um there was a lot of good uh candidates I felt and I', you know, come down to a few. Um and I I know who I'm going to choose tonight. So I just want to again reiterate thank you to the people that have applied and also you know this is basically an 18month appointment and then they're going to have to run in, you know, in June of 27 basically um announcer if they're going to run or not. So, there's going to be some other people, you know, that can run next year if they want to. So, um, those are my thoughts tonight anyway, and just appreciate everybody that did apply. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Kenna.

I'll echo those same comments. Thanks to the public for sharing um, their thoughts and also, you know, thanking the candidates because we did get a good group of folks who put their name in the hat. Um, and I think we've got two great nominees. I just wanted to speak in particular. I think a couple of candidates um during the interviews touched on this and it was relevant to to me when I went for my appointment which is uh that of time and being able to make this work and and telling yourself, oh, I don't know if I have enough time and ability to do this and make it work and if you've got a family or whatever that might be and you kind of talk yourself out of it and I did that um a year or two previously and uh and then kind of found an opening for myself to do it. But um if you've got a family, if you've got other responsibilities, you're you're helping take care of other people in your family or friends, like if you have an opportunity, whether that is on a commission, whether it's going for council either in an election or um in an appointment or that's just coming to our open houses and our events, see if you can find the time. I I know all of us up here are very open to, you know, uh chatting with you at these different events and um I went to Sar University. That's that was a great opportunity if you can make that as well. Um, Amanda touched on it though, it can there can be times where there's a lot to read, there's a lot to research, to talk to people. Um, and it can be enough. But I would encourage anybody whether this works out for you or not this time around. Don't don't give up. There's opportunities down the road. Find the time and uh kind of see if you can make it work because we really value that up here. I know staff value your feedback and and input. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, with that being said, uh the council will be stating the name of the person they wish to appoint from the nominations. So, will the clerk please call the role? Council member Kenna. Oh, sorry. Thanks. Alers, nothing. Ranky Mark Malcolm Wily Mark Malcolm Evers Mark Malcolm Hawketter

Mark Malcolm Kenna Amy Ho Thank you. I would like to congratulate Mark Malcolm uh as the winner to participate on the city council. Thank you very much. All right. So, now we're on to resolution number 1745 confirming emergency declaration failed storm main.

Thank you, mayor. Uh this was the item that we amended the agenda and added on to today. Uh so last week the mayor declared an emergency and uh we'll go through why that is and in the next steps. So uh what we're talking about is a storm water main located on 24th Street East just east of 142nd and I've highlighted it there. The orange lines are storm lines and uh the section we're talking about is the the box there in red. This is a 48 in storm water man. So really big. It's 15 feet deep. So, uh, late last Tuesday, a hole in the roadway was reported to police. Luckily, a vehicle did not go into it. Early examination by our operations department discovered a a large sinkhole underneath the pavement uh more than 10 ft deep and more than 10 ft wide. Uh on Wednesday morning they dewatered the storm main and discovered 15 feet of that storm line had completely collapsed and approximately 300 ft in total was severely damaged. Uh over the next 24 hours or so they discussed repair options and costs and and determined that the the cost of this would require a formal bid. Uh they also began looking at the pipe section to the west and discovered it's also damaged and they're currently in doing some additional investigation uh this week to determine how bad that section is. Uh knowing that this cost would require a formal bid uh that triggered some other decisions and on Friday the mayor declared an emergency. And I do want to point out that this damage was likely caused uh by the December flood. So why is this an emergency? Why are we doing something different than we normally would? Uh first off, this storm line drains approximately one-third of our manufacturing industrial center. So when it rains, which is going to happen tomorrow supposedly, uh water cannot

make it to the river, uh which will likely cause more damage to our infrastructure. Uh there is a workaround, but that requires manual bypass pumping from that storm main into an adjacent storm main. And when it rains, the rain doesn't stop, right? That's something that we have to do the entire time. And what if we have high river levels? Uh we are not out of flood season yet. We have more weather coming in as well as the snow melt. So uh higher river levels would mean that this this storm main line will also be underwater again. Uh additionally, because you know a 48 in storm main isn't enough, we also have a 16-in high-pressure natural gas line that's running parallel to the storm main. Uh and future erosion could damage that line. Uh also with the roadway being closed, it's impacting neighborhood neighboring businesses and restricting their access. So a traditional design bid build process which conservatively takes 90 days would cause delay and likely result in further property damage. So that's why we declared an emergency. So under S municipal code, it does require council to confirm the emergency declaration at the next regular council meeting. Uh just so you know, Rodardi is currently beginning repairs. Uh we're estimating about $900,000 and that's just for the east section. Like I said, we're still looking at the west section. Uh in the coming weeks, council will also need to approve the contract and actions consistent with it and uh it'll be caught eventually in a budget amendment and we'll have to reevaluate some of our current capital projects in the storm fund. Staff has already notified the Washington State Department of Emergency Management as well as our county partners about the loss and we'll be amending our December flood damages report.

Happy to answer any questions? Any questions? Okay. Deputy Mayor Elers, would you like to make a motion? Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution number 1745 confirming emergency declaration failed storm. Is there a second? Second seconded by council member Evers. Thank you. I'd like to call in city attorney and Andrea Marquez and city administrator Jason Wilson. So I apologize mayor. I actually got ahead of myself and I gave you that presentation before we had a motion on the floor. So I'm not going to say anything. That's my fault. So move on.

Thank you. Any comments from the public? Is there anyone on Zoom? All right. Any comments from the council. Will the clerk please call the role? Evers? Yes. Wilie, yes. Hawketter, yes. Ranky, yes. Kenna, yes. Yes. Motion pass six to zero. Thank you. All right, that will bring us to reports. So, Council Member Evers.

Oh, wow. Going first, huh? Okay. Well, I'm not like the head of any committee, so never have any committee reports, but I just will make a couple comments here. Am I on? I No, you're not. There. Is he on now? Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Um, first of all, and one of my pet peeves in my real life uh outside of this is um reply all. It bugs the heck out of me. And so I have to apologize to my fellow council people and a lot of the staff today. Um I hit reply all on some little minor thing and um so my apologies. In my defense, I've never ever used Outlook. So maybe I can get one of our T people to give me a training on that. So my apologies. Um as some of you might know, I've had my little summer news index paper for I don't know 12 years. So anyway, I cover sports a lot. So I just want to give you an update on the sports. Um the girls um lost to Davis by quite a bit at Davis the other night, but they were a top eight seed. So they have advanced to the final 12. Um and they'll play Auburn Wednesday at 2:00 in the Tacoma Dome. So um and if you if you have the history, last year it was Davis and Sar in the finals. So and Davis is now on the other side of the bracket. So, we won't someday we'll not be playing them until maybe they get the to the final day. Um the boys um great coach Bill Ly um they um just missed getting to state the last two years and this year they did and their reward was uh driving to Pasco to play Gana. So unfortunately um the boys are gone but they it was a great year. I anytime you make it to state is great. And then couple more things. Um Gabby Steiner who um is on the girls gymnastics team and she was on it two years ago when the girls won state. Uh she was a state winner in the bars event and the vault event and summer finished fifth overall and wrestling which is a very strong program here if you follow that at all. Uh Matt Harshman's been there a dozen years, but anyway, his son Hoy uh won the state title at 120 and then the female the girls program has

grown a lot um in the last few years. And Summer Girls had two state champions um Maddie Watts and Sage McCclary both won state titles. So, five state titles in those individual sports and one basketball team still alive. Thank you, Deputy Mayor Elers. Uh, I just want to thank Mr. Evers for the update on the sports. I don't have anything specific to add tonight and I do accept your apology about the reply at all. I didn't see it unfortunately. So, thank you. Thank you, Council Member Hawksteader.

Thanks, Madame Mayor. Uh, I want to thank the seven candidates who applied. Um, I'm looking up at the council here. I see six are council members here. I know three of us have gone through that process that you have gone through now um before we got here. So I I really do believe service is the key to happiness in any any capacity or any way you find to serve. And I I extra points when you serve your own city, your own community you're in. So there is ample ways to continue to serve. You know, if you didn't get on this time, there's the planning commission like um Andy mentioned and there there I there events for the city of Sar, uh food bank, you name it. if you can find a way to serve, continue to get to know people. And then if you want to keep trying to get on the council, it only it'll only help as you as you learn to know know this community on a deeper level. So, thank you for playing. And by the way, I want to say I don't remember being on the jumbo jumbotron when I was out here. So, thank you to all you who stood up here and publicly got on the jumbotron and TV to do this. So, anyways, I also serve on a committee uh called the community development committee. I'm chair of that. I want to make sure the reports are up to date. And uh as many of you know, our city staff is incredible at securing grants. They are top-notch at securing grants. And they did it again. They are first to apply for what is called the climate change and resiliency grant. It's through the Department of Commerce. They were the first to jump on that and secure a grant of $240,000 for the city. And the way they're going to allocate this is 150,000 to the ADA transition plan for the major updates. make sure we're in compliance. Our ramps are there, that our our cities remains walkable for all of us. And then the other 90,000 will go to the water system plan vulnerability assessment report to stay ahead of the curve on any vulnerabilities we may have. Water is really important. Um, and I want to thank the staff again on that. They do they do an incredible job with that. That's my report for the for the community development. Thank you, Madam

Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Wy. Is that right? It's not red. It is red. There it is. There you go. Uh thank you. Um I just again also want to thank the candidates for uh stepping out of your comfort zone and um you know um trying to um get involved. I appreciate that. I don't really have a a report tonight, so thank you. Thank you, Council Member Ranki.

Uh thank you, Madam Mayor. I'll report on both of my committees tonight. uh public safety met on the 18th at uh 4 p.m. Uh the fire chief Parkinson gave his uh brief overview of the monthly stats. Nothing really out of the ordinary. Pretty much call volumes staying about the same. Um we did have a house fire though in Sar on on Sar A 700 block where we had an offduty firefighter lives next door actually uh kick in a door and actually rescue a gal in the house. So that was pretty uh good and it was a pretty good fire. There was also one the day before on me mccumber. So we had a couple fires this last month. Uh Chief Mori gave his overview. The call stats too pretty much stayed the same. Um they're trying to fill one patrol officer uh right now entry level doing some interviews. Um the interlocal agreement that was on the consent agenda tonight. We went over the school district uh for the school resource officer uh did a three-year extension of that contract. Basically, everything stayed the same. Uh we just extended it for school years 26, 27, 28. So for the next three years, those will be in place. Um next meeting will be the third Wednesday of this month. Um my other committee is the um Pierce County Regional Council and we did meet on the 19th. Um pretty short meeting. There wasn't a lot on there, but we did have to uh revote on a few uh openings for some of the committees and things. Some of the people that um actually January got nominated and put in uh had a conflict with some stuff. So, we had to redo a few things. Um, I was selected as an alternate on the economic development board. So, I'll be having a quarterly meeting on economic development through PCRC and then we had to replace two

members on the zoo and trek authority appointments. So, it was pretty in a pretty um short meeting. Uh, next month will be on uh the third Thursday of March and a small city day topic. So, it's going to be a lot of topics that small cities that we can send in and want to talk about and do things for. Um, my economic development committee is on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. March 4th, so it's coming up this week. Uh, other than that, that's all I have tonight. Mayor, thank you. Thank you, Council Member Kenna.

Well, I can't top that in terms of committees. Uh, Miss Council Member Ranken is involved in a lot. So, um, I will say just uh one note on committees. We do have public works tomorrow at uh 400 p.m. So tomorrow Tuesday and uh that's here um in the conference room I believe down the hall, right Michael? Yes. Um and uh you can also join that on Microsoft Teams I believe. I was going to report out on Sumar University. I'm sure uh hopefully I'm not stealing the mayor's thunder too much. I can share my perspective away.

I'll I'll leave some something for you there. Um but I didn't get to attend the first session. I did go to the second session. Um I a number of you were here for that as well. So that was great to see. Um the staff put in just a ton of effort to make this um come together and and I think a few of them were here for 12 hours or potentially more. Um so that is a heck of a long day, but it shows their commitment to um engaging with the public and and sharing their work and their projects. And so I was really impressed by that. Um, in particular, I'll just call out Cassandra who is our chief financial officer. The opening session of that session too was on the finance finances in the city. And I am always surprised, although probably shouldn't be, how she articulates uh budgets and the numbers to not only me, but I'm sure there's a few of you in the public, too, where uh I I I still struggle with that, but then I hear her speak and it makes sense. So, um, thank you to her for for putting in the effort there. Uh, Derek Barry, who's in our public operations division, Lana Hoover and community relations, I was in their session on parks, trails, and uh, events. They shared a ton of information about what's going on, uh, kind of what's planned for the future. Um, there's also kind of a few concerns or even a few myths that were shared about why is this being done, why is that not being done? And and it was nice cuz Derek was there, Lena was there, Jason was there to kind of help share, you know, accurate information at the time about, you know, why this was done or why this is on hold or whatever that might be. So, um, it hopefully the folks that did attend and have some of their questions answered kind of walked away feeling like they knew more and they were, uh, informed and and maybe weren't so, uh, um, you know, just in the dark on it. Um, so we did do a workg group uh to kind of end the evening as well and that's um where we talked about like what's working here, what's not and um

what we can do better as a city. And again, this is just my perspective. I was in a different uh group from the mayor. But I heard many good things about the walkability of our town. I heard that as well today when talking about the sunshine and how people were out. So that was great. Um the safety in our town and uh I hear this at the high school and I hear it with members here. um just the the community feel and how people love small town Sumar. They want to hold on to that and and keep on to that. I see on some of the Facebook groups all the oldtown uh oldtime pictures of Sumar, you know, 30, 40, 50 years ago and what it looked like then and and if we can cling on to some of that, you know, I think we're doing a good job. So, people people really that resonated with them. There are some challenges people spoke about like traffic um and then kind of the unsheltered and homeless population issue and how we go about giving resources to those individuals and and kind of make sure that um they're not impacting our residents and and the safety issue as well. Um, so again, just want to say thank you to the staff that put that together, whether you were in the background, whether you were in front presenting. Thought it was an exceptional evening for at least that one session that I attended. And um, you know, it sounds like we're maybe planning those in the future, but I'll leave that to you, Mayor.

Thank you, city administrator Jason Wilson, please. Okay. Uh, coming up at next week's study session, we have two items on your agenda. First is the six-year transportation improvement program. The second is a zoning code text amendment related to co-living housing. Uh, March 16th at the regular council meeting, uh, you'll be conducting the oath of office for Mark Malcolm. Uh, you'll hold a public hearing for Harrison Street Alley vacation. consider a resolution setting a public hearing to vacate a portion of 63rd Street East. That's down near our wastewater treatment facility. Uh Fire Avenue Trail project property acquisitions from Puet Sound Energy and Club Wealth. Uh accepting that climate planning grant that council member Hawketter just mentioned. Uh property acquisition from the Sleman Estate from the White River Restoration Project. A PSSE gas easement related to the operations facility. a construction contract award for sewer manholes and castings, an ordinance for the quarter 1 budget amendment, an ordinance for franchise agreement with Easy Fiber. That's the first reading of that one, and a construction contract award for the wastewater treatment facility bioolids modernization. Uh on top of that, we will also be recognizing a couple um of our residents that have done some heroic things in the last few weeks. Uh, one of them council member Ranki just mentioned and I'll save the other one for for next week, but uh, Chief Moriki and and uh, Chief Parkinson will be here to present those and discuss those efforts. On the personnel front, um, I did want to announce that Chief Murki has formally announced his retirement effective the end of May. Uh the city recently opened an internal recruitment process to select our next police chief and more information will

be shared soon about how the public and elected officials can celebrate Chief Murki's 25 years of service to this community. That's quite a testament uh and really appreciate Chief Brad. So happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Y

All right, let's see what I have here. So, I too want to thank everyone who applied um for this position and I would encourage applicants to apply for the planning commission. We now have two open seats and it's a a great way to you know begin the venture into giving service to the community and the city. Um and I want to thank everyone for your patience as we work through my technical difficulties up here. It's there's a lot of button pushing going on and we have to just go through it nice and slowly so I can get everybody, you know, speaking. So, thank you for that as well. Uh, I want to thank everyone who did graduate from Sumar University uh last week. Council member uh Kenna cited what he saw uh same same in the February 11th. So, there were six different sessions. We've got a lot of great feedback from the community. In fact, I was at the senior center today. Uh, communications director Carmen Palmer and I went over to talk with a great group of folks over there and there were actually some people there proudly wearing their summer university t-shirts. So, uh, I think everyone should be jealous and everyone should want one. Okay, so just keep watching that e-news because we do have more of these classes coming out. Our 50 graduates invested six hours of their time to learn more about how the city operates and it's a gift of their time that we value very much. It really uh was a time commitment and for myself. So, you know, everybody signed in and I stood up here and I kind of saw the first group of people and I thought, "Oh, how many are going to drop off?" You know, that was on February 11th. Oh, how many will be back February 25th? Everybody was back February 25th. So, I thought, "Well, this is pretty great." And then council member Hawksteader came to the first one and he came to the second one and then council member Kenna came to the second one and I thought oh this is getting some good press. So I

would encourage everyone to come and have fun with us there and it is just uh the start of a way to engage with the city. Um when I went to the summer senior center today talked with people there about their questions and input and the two that were wearing their shirts they were quite excited. I was thrilled to see it. Uh all this involvement is key to Sumar being a strong city and it does take all of us. It takes all of us, not just those of us sitting up here. Um and I'm very serious when I say call and get a time to come upstairs and talk. You know, we can sit down and talk through things. Uh we set aside a half an hour every Thursday. I thought nobody is going to show up. I mean, any day is fine and it can be longer. We have had someone just about every Thursday and it works out well because uh we invite whoever the leader is of the department if the person can tell us what their issue might be so we can take some immediate action and we've been doing that with people. Um so it just really helps to go out there you know bring them in listen and then go out and resolve whatever that issue might be. uh the participation, you know, for people, seven people to apply for this one seat is remarkable. And I would commend anybody. I'm I don't know that I've ever heard it called a jumbotron, but I'm with you. I mean, I'm looking back there and I'm thinking, what do I look like up there? That's kind of scary. I don't want to see back there. I'll look there. So, it is it can be a little unnerving, but start out, you know, on that on one of these commissions. just keep an eye out on that or Sumar Main Street Association or some of the events that go on here in town. Uh it's going to take all of us. So, please apply for the planning commission. We'll be getting those positions filled as soon as we can. And that's how a lot of people got their start in the town here. Um in fact, two weeks ago, the Puup Sumar Chamber of Commerce, uh there was a gala there and they recognized former mayor Kathy Hayden with the John Porter Memorial

Award. And for those of you that don't know, uh, she spent a number of years, I want to say 21 years potentially on commission. She started out, it was somewhere in there, uh, on the the fire determining if the fire department was going to go to East Pierce County. So, she was on that commission. Um, and it was just a really special honor for her to get this reward. It's about someone that really participates in the community and the community service. So she was on that fire merger committee and then the planning commission. Then she got on the council, then she was a deputy mayor and then she ran for mayor. So that was a lot of years she spent here giving of herself and her time. I think it was really key what council member Kenner brings up. It does take time. It does take time and for those of us that have done it, but you get really kind of engrossed in it. It's really it it is fun to to really be part of creating the space where you live. It really is. It's really great. So, with that being said, whether you're being recognized for service you've already done or just trying to find how to get started yourself, we appreciate it all. We appreciate everybody, you know, that is putting forth the effort. Um, and I would say congratulations to Chief Brad. I retired once, too. And then look what happens. You find something else that you want to do. So,

yeah, you can rest for a bit, but congratulations to you. You You have had a lot of fun things said about you since your email went out. So, I know everybody will miss you greatly. So, with that, I'm going to say I'm going to adjourn this meeting. I'm going to ask everybody though, please exit the council chamber at the conclusion of the meeting so staff can close and secure the room to the point that council member Kenneth said. You know, Mondays are long days. Summer University days are long days. They're, you know, 12, 14 hour days for folks. So, if you wish to continue conversations, you're welcome to do so outside. So, with no further business before the council, this meeting is adjourned at 7:19 p.m.