City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everybody. I'd like to call to order the Lakewood City Council meeting of Monday, August 3rd, 2026. Ms. Schumacher, could you please call the roll?

Council Member Branstetter?

Here.

Council Member Lauricella?

Here.

Council Member Lindholm?

Present.

Council Member Pearson?

Here.

Council Member Talbot has been excused. Deputy Mayor Bell? Here. And Mayor Boeke?

Here.

Do you have a quorum?

Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you very much, and we're under proclamations and presentations, and do we have Chief Smith here yet? I think I'm just going to read it in. Tomorrow night is National Night Out, so might be on its way.

Okay.

Okay, great. Nice to see you again. Come on up here. Whereas on Tuesday, August 4th, 2026, residents of the city of Lakewood will have an opportunity to get together in their neighborhoods to participate in the annual National Night Out Against Crime. And whereas National Night Out Against Crime is an annual community building campaign, that promotes partnerships between law enforcement, public safety agencies, neighborhood organizations, and residents to strengthen community safety and improve quality of life. And whereas National Night Out encourages neighbors to come together in a spirit of cooperation and civic engagement, fostering relationships that help prevent crime, reduce fear, and build stronger, more connected communities. And whereas the success of crime prevention efforts depends upon the active participation of residents, businesses, and community organizations working together to promote safe, welcoming neighborhoods. And whereas the dedicated service of law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, public works employees, volunteers, and countless community leaders contribute to the safety and wellbeing of all residents. And whereas National Night Out provides an opportunity to celebrate community pride, recognize the importance of neighborhood involvement and reaffirm our shared commitment to preventing crime through awareness, education and collaboration. Now, therefore the Lakewood City Council hereby proclaims August 4th, 2026 is National Night Out Against Crime and urges all residents to participate in neighborhood events and celebrations throughout the city of Lakewood. that strengthen trust, encourage communication, and reinforce the bonds that make our community resilient, proclaim this third day of August, 2026, Paul Bocchini, Mayor, and signed by all the members of the City Council.

Chief, welcome.

Please, where's yours?

Thank you, Mayor and members of the council for recognizing National Night Out. In Lakewood, we have a very robust program. I think ours continue to grow each year. This year, I think we're up to 35 different locations where National Night Out has grown through the various communities and neighborhoods, and it continues to get larger each year. We encourage participation. We encourage everyone to come out and join in. on National Night Out, and all our officers will be out, and we look forward to meeting with everyone in the community. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Chief. All right, so public comments. Public comments. Public comments are accepted by mail, email, or by live virtual or in-person comment. Send comments in advance by mail or email to Brianna Schumacher, City Clerk at 6000 Main Street Southwest Lakewood, Washington, 98499, or bschumacher at cityoflakewood.us. Comments received up to one hour before the meeting have been provided to the City Council electronically. Ms. Schumacher, did we get any today?

Mayor, we received no written comments in advance of this evening's meeting.

Thank you. Members of the audience may comment on items relating to any matter related to city business under the public comments period. Comments are limited to three minutes per person. Virtual comments, if you would like to provide live virtual public comments, you will need to join the Zoom meeting as an attendee by calling By telephone, dial 1-253-215-8782 and enter meeting ID 868-7263-2373. Or visit zoom.us and enter meeting ID 868-7263-2373. Upon entering the meeting, please enter your name. Use the raise hand feature to be called upon. For those participating by calling in by telephone to use the raise hand feature, press star nine on your phone. When you are unmuted, please provide your name and city of residence. Outside of public comments, all attendees on Zoom will continue to have the ability to virtually raise your hand for the duration of the meeting. You will not be acknowledged and your microphone will remain muted except for when you are called upon. So tonight we are going to start in person who have signed in. So we'll start with whoever, Mr. Paul Bryce.

Hi, Paul Bryce, Lakewood, Washington. Thank you, mayor, council members. I want to start off saying, you know, definitely appreciate y'all, you know, coming here for some time and seeing some of the online testimony, like no one should take abuse like that. Definitely ways to say things. So appreciate, you know, you guys giving time for people like us to come up here and say what's on our mind and what we want. The sheet that I handed out, it kind of just does, it's really the last page that I'm talking about right now. It does a breakdown of the last three months of what sales look like for cannabis, for Seattle being 36 million, Tacoma being 25 million, and then on down, where Puyallup Five stores, 5.9 million. I think it's very easy, like saying 1.5 million in Lakewood is really undershooting what it would really do, considering, again, there's nothing west of Tacoma that services adults who are looking to, purchase cannabis. And, you know, those numbers just don't come from me buying marijuana myself here in Lakewood or going to Tacoma. It's all the stores just in town center alone, like Target, AMC, GameStop, Dollar Tree, Michaels, Ross, Barbecue Pete, Wingstop, Crunch, Planet, the Pet Shop, Applebee's, Red Robins, Burlington, Safeway, the Tire Shop, pretty much any restaurant, any retail stocking service. There's someone there that's using cannabis. I mean, we all know the ratio or the sales from cannabis to alcohol is like catching up. And that's saying that most of these places don't even have like seasoned retail outlets and the states still only have medical, not even close comparison from the amount of outlets. You know, one of the things I want to say is, like, as the main thing that should be is whether or not the people who live here want it. Again, you don't have those kind of numbers. That data speaks for itself. If you said how many votes are needed to come in here or how many people need to come in here to sit there and say people in Lakewood use cannabis, just say what that number is, how many votes we need, it's for sure easily obtained. It's not even a question. You know, and one of the things with my last minute that I want to just try to throw out there is, you know... you hear uh like cannabis still worried about the kids like i operate in small cities where it's one street is like the whole city clown like first street there's only street with lights there's a pot shop on first street we don't see a whole amount of kids buying pots because because again it's not for them they can't buy it and they drive past it every day because there's only one street in town and lakewood being as large as it is you know again you would think you'd want to pick this to where All the people that naturally already purchased it or that will come here to purchase it west of here would then go to places where it's not just hidden in some little black alley, dark alley or something of the sort where, you know, can be proud of. And again, what we really want to focus on is how many stores are going to be in here to not have like a green light district. And again, I would say start with retail, not opened up to a bunch of producer processors and everything else under the sun. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Bryce. So we don't have anybody else signed up. So if you could just line up anybody who wants to go, please introduce yourself and you have three minutes.

Hello, my name is James Dunlop, and I am a resident of Lakewood. I want to return to a subject I talked about a month or two ago, and that is the end of bus 574. So we recently heard that it is being drastically curtailed, so the 574 is now going to start from Federal Way. rather than, I don't know where it was coming from, maybe it was from Lakewood Transit Center. So Lakewood is losing bus 574, and the decision was apparently made in March. And when it was mentioned, when I think Council Member Pearson mentioned that it was going, it seemed to be a bit of a surprise, even though the decision had been made in March. And I wonder to what extent city council members and the city knew about the... about the cancellation or rather the curtailment of the 574. And, you know, there was discussion about the 574 and the fact that it ended a direct link with the airport. But it is more from the airport. If you look at the timetabling right now of the 574, and I believe, I may be wrong, but there's... But the 574 is going to stop leaving from Lakewood Transit Center, I think, maybe next month. I think it's happening really quickly. Maybe some people are not aware of it. I've mentioned it to people when I've been walking around. People were surprised and shocked that the 574 was about to not go through Lakewood. And, you know, it's not just about the airport. This is, you know, a key link to Tacoma Dome. And, of course, from Tacoma Dome, you can get everywhere and you can get to Seattle and so forth. Now, the alternative is to take another bus. I think it's bus number three. But then you have to take two journeys. So the journey from Lakewood to Tacoma Dome, which used to take half an hour, is now going to take, I think, an hour and even longer. And you have to change. Now... That I think makes a huge difference to the city. I mean having Transport to Seattle from the center of Lakewood really does matter If the city is talking about developing the center of Lakewood, you've got Barnes & Noble You've heard about all the extra housing units are going to be required You need a good bus service between the center of Lakewood and Seattle It should be possible to commute from Lakewood to Seattle difficult, but it should be possible but adding an extra half an hour both ways, a total of over an hour on a journey, it seems to be quite devastating. And I know it's a very different thing, but losing the bus 574 might be rather similar to losing the Tensler Library. OK, it's maybe not as beautiful and hasn't got the history of the Tensler Library, but it's a similar thing. Lakewood has lost something very important. And I wonder to what extent the city and city council members knew about this and they should have been aware and to what extent did they try to stop it happening or didn't they know?

Hello, everybody. Christina Manetti, Gary Oak Coalition Lakewood. So last Thursday, as you probably know, the conditional use permit hearing took place for the proposed Emerson Lake semi-truck parking lot project. The council needs to take away from this hearing that leaving an oak standing is not the same thing as protecting it, obviously. Two council members vowed to come and testify before the hearing examiner, they did not, and this was really disappointing. Apparently, they thought that leaving the oak standing was enough. Leaving it standing and then abusing it is not real protection, surely. The city says that the 60-inch Gary oak will be preserved, but at the same time, it's allowing part of its critical root zone to be paved over. It's allowing roots up to four inches and even more if they get permission. to be cut for a retaining wall. And it's allowing filling and grading around the oak. That's not protection. It's compromising the oak and calling it preservation. A critical root zone is no longer critical in Lakewood, apparently, if the city allows up to 25% of it to be destroyed. And this is the minimum. The critical root zone is the absolute bare minimum that should be protected for a tree like this. The roots don't just stop to the edge of the critical root zone. They extend well beyond like 100 feet or even more. Surrounding this tree and its habitat with impervious surface will create heat, change water infiltration, heat the soil, reduce the water reaching its roots. And what about the wetland? What does wetland protection mean when enormous expanses of asphalt and concrete or whatever they're going to use will heat the surrounding air and the stormwater that's going into that wetland? So critical habitat isn't critical either in Lakewood, because what protected wildlife would want to choose to live beside a semi-truck parking lot with noise, lighting, traffic, and disturbance day and night? This affects how they reproduce, how they live, how they function. They have to hear stuff. They can't hear stuff. It's just a disaster. So there's another very troubling issue and that's the application did not disclose all of the oaks. There are two additional oaks in the wetland buffer and the city said, oh, that's okay because it's not going to be affected by the project. These are 55 inches and 30 inches. That means like minimum of 825 years and 450 years. according to WDFW's rule of thumb. So they weren't identified. And there's one more across the property line too. So this is actually a stand, but Lakewood doesn't look at it like a stand because they're in the buffer and it doesn't matter. I don't understand. So it's not one isolated oak. It's an oak stand. It's a wetland ecosystem. And this demonstrates that Lakewood's current tree productions are not strong enough Lakewood needs to revise the code so that it protects root zones, really protects large roots, complete disclosure of oak habitat we need, and obviously we need the entire natural feature that we're evaluating, not just the part on one side of the boundary line. And here's my comment from me personally. Christina Menetti Lakewood, as you know, I've lived here like almost all my life, so over 50 years. There was a street takeover on my street yesterday. Can you believe that? For several hours, probably some of you might have heard it as well, who live nearby. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, hearing, and smelling. There were street racers with their cars who were destroying the pavement with a huge number of marks from burned rubber. The smoke in the air was thick and grayish blue. The noise was deafening. They were visibly drinking hard alcohol, according to a neighbor. I did not see that myself. And one of them almost hit a car that was trying to pass by. I saw I could hear it. I could smell it from my house, which is a block away. But I left and I went over to the post office and I could hear it from over by the post office by former black Angus. So it was unbelievable. Apparently, the police didn't intervene, or if they did, it wasn't effective. It was terrible. It was really terrible. I couldn't believe it was going on my street. And Lakewood's glorification of cars goes right along with this. They are having a photography exhibit about cars, a bombs away car show about cars. They kind of wave their hand at street racing. And one council member a couple years ago suggested it was just part of American tradition, like we can't really do anything about it. On the one hand, the city goes on in its official wording that it's reducing greenhouse gases, wants to anyway, encouraging mass transit and alternatives to cars and putting bike lanes and encourages young and old to revel at the same time in the wonders of car culture. Why? This should stop. The city should not encourage people to put cars up on pedestals anymore. This is so 20th century. It's like 1950s, you know? We're also, you know, there's also the problem of kids, the kids that were kids at that thing near my house. And they're like, oh, look, you know, like like it's smoke, you know, the noise, the destruction. And when they go to the car show and everything else and those kids, they're going to grow up in like 10 years or 20 years or whatever. And they could be in a car accident. They could wind up dead. Who knows? And they should not be encouraged to do things like this. So we're also living in a world that is on fire, a world that needs a revolution in worldview. And Lakewood is in a position of authority, obviously, to influence people's thinking and attitudes. And it's time to start using the means available to you to do exactly this. So start acting, please, like you mean it. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else, please come on up. You've got three minutes.

Marjalili. Hello, good evening to all of you and all the attendants. My name is Abraham Mirjalili. I'm a resident of City of Lakewood. I wanted to discuss two issues here. One is regarding the resolution number 202606 that is going to be taken up by this council tonight. Considering our issue, I really think that, I believe that this council is really should not take up this because it's not qualified to do that. This council has made, if provided me and my wife, my wife was not a physician, I was not a dentist, we didn't know how to manage our life, you would have made us homeless. Literally, and we can prove it. You destroyed a house that was there about $2 million, literally. And we only were paid 200, not us, our mortgage company, supposedly $325,000. So really, I think you do have more important things to do. But the other thing, Our case is on a case of no different than ethnic cleansing of Gazans. I discussed about Rachel Corey here and her when she was crushed to her death in March 2003, two decades before the October 7th. She was there to save homes of the people that they were demolishing. That's why he was crushed to her death. And, well, while the Kangaroo Court said that nothing was done wrong, it was an accident, well, maybe that was an accident. How about the Eisenhower? Aggie Ziggy, a graduate of University of Washington, who was killed by a sniper shot in West Bank just months after her graduation. She was 26 years old. And there was an individual in this country who is wanted by the International Court of Justice. He comes here freely, and he leaves. Set an example, please. Be like the mayor of New York. At least speak. People are learning about the fact, the truth, and they're talking about it. And you don't want to be left behind. Please, thank you so much.

I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Marjolili. Anyone else like to speak here in chambers?

All right, hello, I am Hailey Ivey of Lakewood. I wanna go over it as always, it's just basic environmental education. I woke up this morning and I saw a map and it said, new and improved park, Harry Todd Park. And I thought it was a Lakewood parody page, It was all parking lots. It was all parking spaces, maybe like a little strip. I'm not even sure what you're supposed to do there anymore. I'd never been there, but I saw that new and improved map and I was like, I don't want to go there. And I know it's online, but a lot of people were kind of upset that they weren't really asked whether or not they want our little green spaces paved over. I know that I sure don't, but I still have to attend hearings trying to speak up for ancient trees and wetlands. And wetlands, if you were to protect your own wetland, that is for you. It is going to cost us more money in the end. It is going to cost us more than money. And if we could have somebody that was overseeing and adding to the quality of life versus the quantity. Why am I arguing with somebody who said that they flew a drone up a tree and saw no birds, or somebody said, we'll just plant trees, we'll plant new trees that we won't take care of, and they won't survive, because if you touch the dirt outside, I don't know if you guys go outside and enjoy the nature, but the soil's really dry.

And I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just...

The wildfire smoke got to me, and I'm just going to do this tiny little song, not for me, but to convey what I'm trying to say, maybe. I dropped my pick somewhere.

I came for the mountains, but here I see no frogs. And plastic waste in the lakes, I've gotta think they're gone. Just like that ancient fur that died just down the street. If you would just listen to your backyard. It's just full of songs of cars.

I gotta go faster.

I came for the forest, but here it's all brown lawns and water waste in your haste to wet the new sidewalks. Oh, why would we all walk around when it's gotten so dang hot? You're hot away in the canopies for the pursuit of what? One more. The first place I fell in love with was a park around the block. Sunsets and birds sing in the gentle breeze. I heard down you cut the forest down. Don't you know the cost?

But the wetlands of Sealy Lake, the wetlands of the protected Sealy Lake, has chains around the tracks. The wildfire smoke is in my throat. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Ivey. Are there any other additional speakers here in the chambers? Any more additional speakers here in the chambers? Oh, please.

Hello, my name is Robin Ferguson. I was just wondering what the status for approval of the tabling for the Summerfest, if that has been done already and people have been notified.

Please say that again, I didn't quite understand you.

The tabling for the Summerfest, have you already? Already done. And everybody has been notified?

I believe so, yeah.

So it's all full? Yeah. You have all the places?

You could talk to the Parks Department about that.

It's the Parks Department that does it? Yeah. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

That's true. All right, anybody else in that, please come on up and introduce yourself.

Good evening. Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Larea Brown. I'm an educator and I also represent True Vine as well as Anna's Child Care. Maybe you've seen it. It's the purple daycare. It's been in Lakewood for over, for 26 years. And I'm here tonight to share an exciting community effort. I am helping with a community backpack giveaway, which is happening August 22nd at Cheney Stadium. I've already gathered 100 backpacks, 800 pairs of scissors, 45 packs of paper, and over 1,200 pencils. So this, as someone who represents education, I also just got my master's in education leadership. So as someone who represents education and someone involved with daycares and working with students who are also in ECAP, this is an initiative that I do feel that the city could partner with, including just any donations that you all feel led to give. So if you would like to connect or if you're interested in giving away donations, you can email info at theofficialtruvine.org or connect with me afterwards. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Brown. Any other speakers? Okay. So do we have anybody online, Ms. Schumacher? Looks like we got three.

First, we have Ken's iPhone 2.

Ken's iPhone 2. The floor is yours.

Hello, I'm Ken Paulson. I'm calling about, there's a road called Lockburn Lane. It's right next to Burr's from Steilacoom North on that road. It's real wide for about 100 feet and then it's real tight for about 75 feet. It's a one car go through. If you're going the other direction, you got to wait for the car to go through and that's how that road works. There's parking on the west side. So my problem with the road is The speed limit sign is 25 miles an hour. I was there to pick up great grandkids, and before I got out of my car, a car went by. When you had the speed meter on the back of the speed limit sign, and I could see it, and this car went by me, and I said, wow, they're going fast. They've got to be going faster than the speed limit. I said to myself, the speed sign said 18 miles an hour and the speed limit on the road is 25. Apparently everywhere except next to schools is 25 in Lakewood. I called and talked to somebody today and this road for about 75 feet is compact, highly risky for that speed limit. And it should be, my estimation for that 75 feet, 10 miles an hour. Or one of those old-style speed bumps that are in parking lots that would make everybody go slower. Otherwise, it's a hazard. I've spoken about this. I think this is the fourth time I've talked to somebody about I don't know which department they were in. They're going to send their information out. They understand the problem. It's a highly risky road. There are kids that live there beyond my great grandkids and speed limits too high. You need to stand there, somebody drive by you at 25 miles an hour, and you'll completely understand. And then you just keep on having them slow up five miles an hour, and you'll get to 10 as an acceptable high speed limit. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Paulson. Next is Dikamir Dunlop.

Hello, can you hear me? Hello, my name is Yihamir Dunlop. I'm a resident of Lakewood, and I'd like to make a comment. It's already been mentioned, but near my house, there was a, I guess you could call it a road takeover slash street racing sort of thing. And I don't know, it's kind of disappointing that it's still kind of an issue because it's, well, it's the first time it's happened near my house to quite that degree. But there were multiple racing cars, and they were burning out their tires. And the entire block was essentially filled with very thick blue-gray smoke. It looked like if you opened your windows and went outside, you'd get lung cancer in five seconds, if that. And it was not nice. We had to close the windows of the house. We had to make sure we didn't go outside. I think I heard some people saying that it seemed like some of the people there might have been intoxicated. It was not good. It was disappointing that the police didn't do anything. They were blocking access to the road. Yeah, so just wanted to mention that. I don't know. I think in general, we went around town. We could We could hear it happening from quite a far distance away. It wasn't just at our house. It does feel like street racing in general is quite an issue. We're fortunate enough not to live by a super big road, but I know there are people who live on some of the more major streets and they're bothered at night because people are racing and people can't sleep. It's quite an issue. I feel like it might have been getting worse in recent years. It's disappointing that not more is being done about it. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dunlop. Judith Anderson. Ms. Anderson?

Hi. Yes, it's me. Please stop killing the Gary Oaks. There's a huge fire. There's three fires surrounding... name of that town, Spokane. I mean, 60,000 people are having to evacuate their homes. 700 buildings have already burnt down. We are having a climate catastrophe. And one of the things that helps stop that are trees. Would you believe that? And yet you guys are just so intent on cutting them down do you have children who have children I mean it's not your kids it's their kids who are going to be stuck trying to fix this since it just seems to take so much money to stop somebody from cutting down a tree And you can make so much money off of those trees that we're just going to clear cut everything. And then there won't be any fires. There won't be any air. There won't be any water. But there won't be any fires. I do not understand how you people are leading a city to hell. You are condemning your town. You are paving stuff. You're sort of kind of taking care of that 900-year-old Gary Oak, but not really because you're going to make money from the guy who's going to develop that land. And money is not going to get you oxygen and it's not going to get you clean water. You do not have oligarch money. You are going to be left behind. And you are condemning your grandchildren to hell.

Thank you, Ms. Anderson. So is that everybody? Okay. Thank you very much. So we're going to take a break. Thank you very much for your patience. Ms. Schumacher, please read in the consent agenda.

A, approval of the minutes of the city council meeting of July 20th, 2026. B, approval of claims vouchers in the amount of $3,410,994.24 for the period of June 16th, 2026 through July 15th, 2026. C, approval of payroll checks in the amount of $3,578,025.50 for the period of June 16th, 2026 through July 15th, 2026. D, motion number 2026-55, authorizing the execution of an agreement with the Clover Park School District for extra duty police services, school resource officers. E, motion number 2026-56, authorizing the execution of an addendum to the agreement with Olson Brothers Provac for storm drainage system cleaning services. F, motion number 2026-57, authorizing the execution of an addendum to the agreement with McDonough and Sons, Inc. for street sweeping services. G, motion number 2026-58, appointing the youth council members for the 2026 through 2027 school year. H, motion number 2026-59, reappointing James Harrison to serve on the public safety advisory committee through August 6th, 2029. I, items filed in the office of the city clerk. One, arts commission meeting minutes of March 9th, 2026. Two, arts commission meeting minutes of April 6th, 2026. And three, planning commission meeting minutes of June 17th, 2026.

Thank you, Ms. Schumacher. Are there any items any council member wishes to remove from the consent agenda? Could I get a motion and a second to adopt the consent agenda?

So moved.

And moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, nay. The ayes have it. The consent agenda is approved. Ms. Schumacher, we're on to the regular agenda, resolutions. Would you please read in resolution number 20-26-06.

Resolution number 2026-06, resolution of the city council expressing its intent and commitment to work with Pierce County governments to launch a unified regional approach to homelessness, URA, direct the city manager to work collaboratively with other Pierce County governments to develop an interlocal agreement and to make progress in addressing homelessness by taking certain actions while agreements are in development.

Thank you, Ms. Schumacher. I'd like to call on Ms. Tiffany Spear, our planning manager to, uh, We've spoken about this several times. We've had several meetings about this, but to bring us up to speed on this tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. This topic is beginnings on page 94 of your packet. And as was just explained, this is regarding the unified regional approach, which you've had several study sessions about this year. Most recently, there was a conversation on July 13th So this is a resolution that basically says the city council is approving of actions moving forward to then develop an interlocal agreement for however long that process may take by which Pierce County and whichever jurisdictions select to participate would create what would be called a unified regional approach to homelessness. Within the language of the resolution itself on page 97, you'll see a couple of sections where, as was mentioned in the title of the resolution, first of all, the city manager would be working with other Pierce County governments to work on that ILA. And then in section three, there's some discussion about certain actions that the city of Lakewood is saying it would be taking or moving forward if it already is doing it. while the ILA is being developed. So happy to answer any other questions for you.

Thank you, Ms. Speer. Are there any questions for Ms. Speer from any members of the council? All right. Thank you very much for all your work on this. So time for discussion around would anybody like to speak to the, or actually let's, we got to move in a second. Mr. Mayor, I move adoption of the motion, the resolution.

I second that.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded to approve resolution number 202606. Any discussion? Any members like to speak to the resolution? Council member Laura Sela.

Thank you, Mayor Boeke. Just want to express my support for this. I know we've talked about it in depth a number of times, and I think it really just shows our support that it's a good idea for the county and for all of us together to come up with this unified approach. It doesn't necessarily commit us to anything at this point other than providing that support and recognizing that what's good for the overall community is also good for Lakewood.

Thank you, Council Member Lauricella. Council Member Branstetter.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, I'm supportive of this resolution and of the process that has taken over two years to reach this stage that The history in Pierce County with trying to address homelessness is there have been about every seven or eight years, there is a new plan to eliminate homelessness or great homelessness or whatever it is. And one of the commonalities of those unsuccessful efforts has been that they've either been put in place by the county or they've been put in place by the city of Tacoma or by the city of Tacoma. a combination of the two. And this resolution is a step towards creating a process by which municipalities of all sizes will be able to address it with hopefully having greater success in looking at the pockets of homelessness that are unique to each municipality in but sharing strategies that all municipalities could use if they apply. And so I think it's a step in a in a direction that hasn't been tried before. And it's a problem that's speaking out for new effort.

Thank you, Councilmember Branstad, or any other members would like to comment on this? So I'll just close by saying that we were at the desserts in the driveway at Oakbrook Elementary School. And usually there's several subjects that when you're in Oakbrook and any of the community meetings that take up a good portion of the time. But the other night there were some really direct questions about homelessness. And officer and I'll forget his last name, who is our homeless person, Jeremy. Jeremy James, Jeremy James. And he's kind of like the person who's a liaison for the police department with homelessness. And he talked about what he does. And the citizens there asked really good questions surrounding, well, like, what can you do? And he was like, well, I can only take them to a place if they're willing to go and there's a place for them. And what became clear is that While we have engaged on a number of items and that's put into the attachment here into the resolution today that we've been big supporters of LAHSA, the expansion of LAHSA's affordable housing units, the hygiene center, which I think is a good thing. As the second largest city in in Pierce County, the third largest entity behind the unincorporated county and the city of Tacoma, you know, we do need to be engaged in this. So I'm hopeful and and PB, Harmon Zuckerman, That this will lead to some really positive things and and give us more options to help house the homeless and PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Along with some other things that are going on out there that we can begin to chip away at this issue. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, I think council member branches remarks that run uphill on this a few times, right? The different entities and it has not been successful. So this is a different approach. There are different funding sources out there. There's expanded funding sources over the last few years. So I'm hopeful that this will work and that we can give Officer James a little more help. So with that, can I just do this on, oh.

Just very quickly yeah Thank you we're committing staff time and energy when we. pursue this resolution i'd love to hear from our city manager any thoughts on what this could look like or internal conversations that that we should be aware of. yeah.

Well, it's one of those things where council's making it somewhat of a priority by passing this resolution. So we'll put the time into that, which just means something on the lower priority level will be adjusted to make room for that. I can't speak to how much time it's going to take. It's probably going to be dependent upon how much agreement there is in the room. Um, some of these things could take significant amount of time as council member Branstetter has mentioned or two years to get to this point. So it's hard to say what that amount of time would be.

I appreciate that. And I think I'm the only council member who made this a priority during the retreat. This is important to me. I guess what I'm wanting to know is, uh, do you have any reservations from what you've read from a staff perspective?

I'm sorry. Do I have any reservations about what?

Do you have any reservations about this resolution or discussions we've had and what that might mean for staff in this time?

Not from my end, no.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, with that, we'll do a voice vote. All those in favor of resolution number 2026-06 signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed, signify by saying nay. The ayes have it. So resolution number 202606 is approved. There's no unfinished business, no new business. Reports by the city manager, Mr. Russell.

Yes, mayor and council, just a few items to touch on. As you know, we had our videos for the 30th anniversary to start airing through that. We sent that email about with notification, had a couple questions about updating our council group photo. which is certainly able to do. Had some discussions in the past up to now about do we want to bring in a more professional photographer to do that photo, which we certainly can. Probably wouldn't be that expensive. We could also do individual shots on that if council wanted. So just kind of looking for some direction in terms of One, I don't suspect anyone's opposed to setting a date for another group photo, but do we want to upgrade it a little bit from where we've been in the past? We don't hire professional photographers on staff, but we can certainly bring one in.

Do we have a current photo for this group, of the whole group?

We have one. It's on the website, but I think there are some concerns about upgrading it.

So what does anybody, I don't know that I have a major opinion,

Yeah, if I may, I would not be in support of spending dollars on this, but I think we can take a better one and be worth giving a shot.

Yeah. Council member Rand center.

Yeah, I don't think that the photo on the website seems adequate, given if it can be expanded and blown up. I think it's more important to update the sequential set of photos that are in the city hall to be able to continue that, and they've gone on. And there is not considerable difference in quality from some of the early photos, which were all done professionally in some of the later ones that were done in house. So I don't think there's a great value to it.

So I'm going to say this, no on the professional, so we won't pay for it. But yeah, because I'm looking at the picture. I personally, I'm not crazy about me standing there.

You're going to have to be in the picture.

And so I like how the other pictures are done where some of us are sitting and some of us are standing.

We'll look for a date out where we don't anticipate anyone being gone and schedule an opportunity to get another group photo.

No, but they're sitting and all these others. Some are sitting, some are standing. Yeah. Yeah, that's the tradition. Well, that is, but we've got some other ones, I think, upstairs.

So we'll get a date set up for that. Thank you. I appreciate the response. As you have seen from the proclamation, National Night Out is tomorrow. Gearing up for next weekend, which is Summerfest. Also have multiple events next week, including desserts on the driveway on Wednesday at 530. That's in the downtown area. a neighborhood association on Thursday, which is the same night as we're hosting our sister city, Gimhae. And then on Friday, we have desserts on the driveway in the Springbrook neighborhood. And that's all I have, Your Honor.

Thank you very much. Any questions for the city manager? Deputy Mayor? Is everything okay? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Russell. So city council comments. Cowboy won't throw you on the fire yet. Um, council member Pearson.

All right. Thank you. Um, a couple things. I, uh, I had the pleasure of hosting some youth council, um, folks for a job shadow opportunity at the county, uh, last week, I believe it was. Um, so two youth council, uh, members came in and I can't remember both of their names are off the top of my head. Um, but they seem to have a good time. Um, to and around the development center and kind of understanding what permit techs do and engineers and planners and biologists and building plans examiners and all the like. So that was a good opportunity to get kind of a broad sense of what some folks in government work can do. So that was good. And then Last Friday, I attended the NBA bus tour around a couple of Pierce County sites just to kind of see what's going on. And a lot different than the previous year. We visited two sites that were very similar product-wise. It seems like a lot of folks are moving to John Potter, More of a townhome style development, but it's I think that the part that is still missing and they said that really these townhomes are. John Potter, This product is scalable when when you have when you can fit like 2025 35 of them on a site but it's really not. there's a lot of challenges to do that at smaller scale. And so how do you really fix the infill problem when we don't have two to, you know, one and a half, two, three acres available for folks to develop? And what can we really do with those sites that are less than an acre or half an acre to try to get some infill on those? So until the equation, you know, really ends up being that it's, it makes financial sense for these folks to demo a house and rebuild the whole lot. You're kind of still stuck with, well, this is the legacy house, and then we're trying to do something around it is kind of where the, I think, where things are at right now. So at a smaller scale, it's pretty challenging. So, but The townhomes is great. They said it's affordable, but it still comes in at $400,000 to $500,000. So it's not like it's $300,000 or less. So that's still a challenge is that these affordable units are, by some means, not affordable. But yeah, lots on the calendar. And I'm going to try to attend as much as I can. And thanks.

Thank you, Council Member Pearson. Council Member Lindholm.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I really appreciate the public comment tonight again about 574, which we've talked about on this dais before. That's a huge loss to the community if it goes away. Something worth more discussion. We also heard some concerns about Harry Todd Park from someone who hasn't been there. I would really encourage, if you haven't been to Harry Todd Park, go. It's a great spot and it has a certain amount of infrastructure that's required for our partnership with some universities, et cetera, et cetera. It's a really great spot. I also think all public comments should be put to song from now on. I support that. I did a informal poll with the Downtown Neighborhood Association and the Lake City Neighborhood Association about the speed cameras. There was not much concern there. There was, in fact, probably support in general speaking. So that was good to know. Let's see. Really looking forward to National Night Out. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Councilmember Lindholm. Councilmember Lauricella.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and welcome back to you and the Deputy Mayor. As much fun as it was to fill in for you, I am grateful for what you do here. So looking forward to National Night Out tomorrow, Public Safety Advisory Council's Wednesday, and I will be out next week. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Lauricella. Council Member Branstetter.

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I agree with the concern that was both expressed in Council Member Lindholm about the 574 and the change of the route, being able to go and do that. And it... And I know that in the past, we were looking to try to include that in a letter to Sound Transit. And then apparently it was because others in Pierce County had other issues that they thought were more important. And I think it is true that 574 is uniquely a... Lakewood centered workforce transportation issue and the comments made tonight are right on with it. You can still get there from here, but it'll take you an extra half an hour depending on how the connection would. And so I'm not necessarily reached the point of where I wanna have pickets at the transit center, but I think we need to communicate something that requests an answer, okay, to be able to go and do that and that articulates the concern. This week, I've got the Executive Leadership Board for SHAPE that is going to take place on Friday morning, and one of the interesting things is that there is actually an item on the agenda that speaks to Lakewood in the future plans of the Pierce County Housing Authority in Lakewood. They do own a half a dozen properties here, although we haven't heard much from them, but they apparently have some initiatives in mind regarding Lakewood properties. And they're in a an expansion mode, uh, across their entire system to, to be able to go and do that, um, reinvigorated by, I think some new, uh, new dollars that they, that they're getting. So I'm, I'm, I'm interested to see what it is that they have in mind because it wasn't clear from the reader head packet, uh, what that is. Uh, I'm, um, I'm going to participate in the night out tomorrow. Traditionally, I've been a wanderer where I just wandered by myself and showed up at places. I don't know that there are things that are... I was glad to see that one of the credit unions has decided to sponsor a night out event at Wards Lake Park, which has not had one before. And so that will... and I hope it draws folks from that community around there and helps that park live up to being the neighborhood catalyst that we hope for it to be. I think, Mr. Mayor, I'm, well, I don't know that we have any tangible help I think you could perhaps write a letter to the mayor of Spokane expressing that our support and should there be something that we can do. I mean, over 400 homes and 600 structures and roughly almost 20% of the city having had neighborhoods had fires go through them. And it seemed that the nature of fires are, it occasionally passes over you, but sometimes it doesn't. And it's really sizable. We have had discussions in our council about the, The urban wild or interface with his regards to fires and have wondered, does it really apply to us and maybe this is our answer, where we need to be taking a look at some of the things that we want. looking forward, want to put into some code, you know, simply as a public safety as to what might happen. That's all I have, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Branstetter. Didn't we send a letter to Sound Transit on the 574?

The letter was on the link light rail

We did the link because folks wanted that, but I thought we did a 574. We need to do that because I was thinking they just didn't respond to us.

Yeah, no, we can touch base on that. Okay. There's some touch base on it. What's that?

What's the issue? Is there an issue?

Just some of the scheduling, some of the framework, because it's a combination between Sound Transit and Pierce Transit.

Okay.

don't either councilmember talbot thank you mr mayor i don't have a long report tonight um just getting kind of re-acclimated from from being back um i do so planning commission is this wednesday which i plan to listen in to and i also look forward to national night out tomorrow i was happy to see uh participation from apartment complexes this year. I know that they have participated in the past, but I just know that it can be hard, it can be difficult to reach these residents in apartments because just the influx and frequency that they experience of residents. So I really appreciate seeing participation on their part and That's all I have.

Thank you, Council Member Taubo. Yeah, I'm looking forward to National Night Out.

Oh, did I forget about Jake?

Deputy Mayor Bell, my apologies. I'm whispering in my ear here for the last hour.

I just talk to you constantly, so that's why. So thank you. Last week, both of us and Council Member Branstad, we went to the Oak Brook Desserts in the driveway. And that was great. Like you mentioned, we heard about some really good points and thoughts and some different stuff that maybe we haven't heard about before. So it was great to address those issues. I encourage everybody to go to your neighborhood Desserts in the driveway. It's a great place just to talk casually and also bring those harder questions that maybe you haven't had time to ask for don't want to talk about. During public comment and it's just a great place to meet people so courage everyone to follow that and go to those please I also went to the summer concert last week, and it was amazing oh my gosh. i'm sad i'll miss it tomorrow but i will be out and about for national night out uh so i will miss i'm not even sure who's who's playing tomorrow but i'm sad they're great concerts there's a couple more left to think about two more left and then going into summer fest really looking forward to that so that's it for me mayor

Thank you very much, Deputy Mayor Bell. So yeah, the next week, so we have a big night tomorrow night with National Night Out, and I was very pleased that there were just so many, but what makes it impossible for us to get to all of them, but hopefully between the seven of us, we'll get to all of them. I really, really enjoy it. And there were a lot of participation this year. And so, and also, at uh harry todd the national night out there they're going to be asking questions about the um what do i call it the the the landing or whatever the new hopefully the new boat launch there at camp murray so and that's what it was alluded to in some of the public comments tonight or one of the public comments tonight And then, of course, next week's a really busy week. We've got our Gimhae delegation here, so we have dinner one night with them on Thursday.

Thursday night. We'll pull up the schedule here.

We'll get it out. I have a 9 a.m. on Wednesday when we're meeting with them.

The item scheduled for Wednesday at 9am is a brief visit at City Hall. It's not a like sit down formal meeting, but they will just be touring City Hall before they take a trip over to Leavenworth. We'll send out the full schedule of events to the council tomorrow morning.

So what are the protocols for us to how do we greet them and whatnot? Do we know what we're supposed to be doing?

Mayor, along with the schedule, we can provide some protocols that have been used in prior visits.

Thank you. So more the merrier. So it is, I get, I get it. It's a work day. So, um, um, but 9.00 AM on, on Wednesday, the 12th, is that correct? Then there'll be here. And then that schedule looks like for an hour, uh, hour and then they're going to be taken off on their, on their travels. And then, uh, we meet them again on the evening of the 13th. And then I need remarks for Summerfest and I need to know what time that's going to be. All right. Yeah. Great meeting at, um, Oak Brook desserts in the driveway. Nicely done. Um, I talked about the questions that came from, um, from the folks on homelessness. Adult family homes are always an issue, and we do have that. We do have a group of people, I think, that are ready to take another run at the legislature. So when we talk about our legislative ideas, we might want to consider some kind of support of that or something, but, you know, Anyway, that's it for me, I think. So thank you very much in my stead. Good job, Council Member Larisela, running the meeting last week or two weeks ago. And with that, oh, thank you. I need to look at my notes here. We'd like to announce that the council recess into an executive session for approximately 15 minutes we have here. So pursuant to RCW 42301101I to discuss with legal counsel representing the agency litigation or potential litigation to which the agency the governing body or a member acting in an official capacity is, or is likely to become a party when public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the agency. The city council is not expected to take action following the executive session other than to adjourn the meeting. So with that, what time are we setting here? 8.17. 820 30 Your call.