City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I call the Gig Harbor City Council meeting of Monday, March 9 to order and ask assistant city clerk element to call the roll.

First.

Mhmm. Councilman Alman? Present. Councilman Coronado? Here. Council member Eckberg? Here. Council member Martin? Here. Council member Rodenberg? Here. Council member Stone?

Here.

Council member Tessichini? Present.

Thank you. If you could all please rise and join us for the pledge of allegiance. Before we begin this council meeting, we would like to recognize that we are gathered on not only the ancestral and traditional lands of the Squabash Band of the Puyallup tribe of Indians, but also on the site of the largest and longest standing historic villages of their people, the original inhabitants of the Gig Harbor area. Counsel, are there any changes to the agenda? Seeing none, tonight we have several presentations.

The first is a proclamation for Women's History Month. I'm excited to have representatives from the Gig Harbor Women's Co op here tonight to accept the proclamation on behalf of all the amazing women leaders in our community. I'll read the proclamation and then come down to present it, and then you guys may speak for a few minutes if you'd like. We'll also do a photo before you speak. Whereas American women of every race, class, and ethnic background have made historic contributions to the growth and strength of our nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways, and whereas American women have played a unique role throughout the history of the nation by providing the majority of the volunteer labor force and were particularly important in the establishment of early charitable, philanthropic and cultural institutions in our nation, and whereas American women have served our country courageously in the military, and whereas American women of every race, class and ethnic background served as early leaders in the forefront of every major progressive social change movement, and whereas American women have been leaders not only in securing their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity but also in the abolitionist movement, the emancipation movement, the industrial labor movement, the civil rights movement, and other movements, especially the peace movement, which create a more fair and just society for all.

And whereas, despite these contributions, the role of American women in history has been consistently overlooked and undervalued in literature, teaching, and the study of American history. And whereas American women have played leadership roles in Gig Harbor's own history, now therefore be it resolved that I, Mary Barber, mayor of the city of Gig Harbor, Washington, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as Women's History Month.

Okay. Thank

you for celebrating and supporting the women who helped make Gig Harbor such a vibrant and caring community. Thank you.

Thank you all for the work that you do. And if you're not familiar with the Gig Harbor Women's Co op, Google them. They're amazing. Second, we have a presentation from the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation who are giving us an update on their senior center. And they'll be followed by another presentation.

Just want to note, I'll only note it once, that there's ten minutes for each of those presentations. So we'll start with the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation. The timer I'll turn it on when you start. Thank you.

Starting over. Thank you, Mary, and city council members. My name is Julie Gustanski. I'm here on behalf of the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation this evening, an organization that will be celebrating twenty years twenty years of serving the community this year. Here to give you an update on where we have gone over the last four and a half years on work to bring a senior center to our community.

Sorry. I have to look at the slides here. So for purposes of right now, we are calling it the Harbor Center, which is a working name. It is located at 30 36th And Point Fosdick, about three minutes down the road from the Uptown Gig Harbor area. The vision for the senior center slash harbor center, really evolved out of, the past four years of work with the community.

We held focus groups, and we did surveys and design charrettes. And, ultimately, the vision, brings together something bigger than a senior center, but a center that will serve all generations. So it's more than a building, but it's really about a place where people of all ages can come together and connect. But it all really started with the knowing that our community had a long standing need for a dedicated senior center. So this is a visual rendering from the architect's drawings depicting generally what the outside of the senior center will look like.

As I said, it brings together the senior center, but it's also for families, and it's for community, and it's for learning, and it's for environment. Again, the need Gig Harbor's need has changed immensely over the twenty two years that I have lived here. In the since 2000, we've had a 86% increase in the number of people aged 65 or more, and I am getting there. Still, our community lacks a place for seniors that is a dedicated space. Our only senior center has been operating from a shared and temporary space since 2019.

We also lack flexible event spaces for gatherings, performances, events, and and then nature and education and connection. There's no single place. You know, many communities have a nature preserve, or they have education centers that are dedicated to environment. We have neither. But under the foundation, we do have a nature based preschool.

And as we have been also engaged significantly, we, the foundation, in helping to protect, and acquire lands for parks and conservation efforts over the years, this was kind of a fitting third, leg to the stool. So the Harbor Center direct directly addresses the needs by establishing a purpose built facility that unites senior programs and services, shared community spaces, and protected lands. Again, this is a rendering from the architect's drawings. So this is the site plan, and, actually, this does not look to be the most, recent. You can forget about this building down at the corner.

That is not going to happen. That, in fact, is where there will be a two stage detention pond. But up towards the all of the development will be centered up in the corner of the property where you can see two buildings. It's actually three. So the education center, the senior center, and the event space will all be up in that corner of the property with the remaining approximately nine acres of the property being protected.

Here, we see basically the layout for the, both the senior center and the community event space, separated by a breezeway, largely due to, zoning requirements and Pierce Pierce County code. But the design this probably went through four or five iterations of design work, but it provides a number of things that our community doesn't have beyond a senior center. We will have a, commercial kitchen that can be used as a commissary kitchen. It can also be used to, for the community center for meal preparations, of all sorts. The the event space is about 4,000, 670 odd square feet.

The senior center's 5,945 square feet. And together, this really is a hub of the center in that the community center helps drive and sustain the senior center. These are some visual depictions of things that the committees working on the project envisioned as they were going through. And then this is the environment the actual education building, but it also serves as conference space. And you can probably forget about some of those designations on various offices.

We don't really know how the office plan will work out, but, ultimately, it's administration space as well as classroom space. And, again, some visuals from the committee that was looking at this. This is the conservation area, and you can see the green boundary designates the area that we plan on putting into permanent conservation. And this also better depicts the layout of the buildings. So this is built by community.

This was no one no one person's idea. This we had over a thousand people weighing in, through a variety of means and mechanisms. So while it's led by the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation, we really started out in an effort to try and address gaps in our community infrastructure. We the conditional use permit was granted in September 2025, and so this is this is basically a shovel ready, project at this time. The big thing lacking is the, we're now on, the effort to raise the funding.

Again, built by community, a numb a number or the majority of all of the firms that have been involved in, the project thus far are based here in Gig Harbor, or their principles as with Helix is Gig Harbor based. So here, we have highlighted the range of benefits, and there are substantially more. But, you know, it expands opportunities that we don't currently have in our community for inter generational activities, supports a wide range of organizations, and offers so many opportunities for collaboration. The location is in a in a great location. It's accessible.

It's convenient, and it's very near major arterials. It contributes to the city's strategic goals to bring visitor and tourism oriented activities, and it is sustainable beyond initial initial funding. We have worked hard to outline a business plan that makes this work not just for, for one year or two years, but for the for permanent for the forever.

Sorry, Julie. Your time is up.

Okay. Anyway, this, this is the the last piece, and it just shows the breakdown of what it's going to take to make it all happen.

What I'd like to do is ask if council have questions for the speaker. Council member Rodenberg.

Hi, Jyoti. Hi, Lee. Thank you for meeting with me last week.

Oh, thank you.

Since we met, I did someone looking into this. Do you does Gate Harbor Greater Foundation, do they own that 13 acres?

We are working on the we have a MOU with the, landowner who's actually here this evening. So we are working to raise the funds to acquire the property. It is part of the overall nearly $14,000,000.

K. The permits are in the greater Good Gate Harbor Foundation's name?

The permit is I believe the the permits are all tied to the property. We have worked along

So then your MOU, is that a written legal written conveyance of the property to you?

It is. We have a purchase agreement that's part of the project.

And in those permits, do they cover who's to provide sewer service? Do you have a permit from the city of Cake Harbor for sewer service?

Presently, we have not moved forward on on the plan to extend the waterline for sewer service.

Okay. Thank you.

Yep. Council member Eckberg.

Thank you for coming to speak with us and for taking time to speak with me the other week. We talked a little bit more in that conversation about the costs, and I think you maybe we're gonna get to that more in some of these slides. So I'll ask you a couple questions about it. Maybe you can speak to everybody as to what you estimate the both the capital construction cost, the ongoing operational cost, and the funding plan for this project.

Sure. The general this side sort of outlines. It's about a $14,000,000 project. So far, we've had nearly $300,000 in donated time and services by organizations such as the Rush company and others, thereby helping reduce the overall total. The general plan for raising the funds is fundamentally the same as all nonprofit organizations.

We're in a quiet phase of our campaign right now working towards grants and major contributions. But the vision is that this is a a community owned project, and, ultimately, it will take donations and grants and capital funds, very diversified funding funding stream to make it all happen. And there was a third part to the question.

On that capital, you said you're starting already. So can you share how far along are you?

We are approximately 2,000,000 into commitments.

Okay. And then my other question was on operating cost. Have you budgeted for the

operating cost? Gonna handle all Operating costs are estimated at this point at between 3 and 3,700,000.0, which might sound like a lot annually, but our current school has an operating budget about of about two. So the balance of the costs, of course, is for the senior center and the event space. It's one of the things that we feel important about this project is that it provides a space where others who already have programs in place can use the space for their programming without having the need to duplicate efforts or basically increase the nonprofit organization's operating expenses for staff and things like that.

Thank you.

Councilmember Coronado.

Yeah. Thank you for present presenting today, and thank you for all the work of the Greater New Harbor Foundation. I know it's felt in the community. Personally, I've I've experienced that, the the benefit from the senior lunch program. So thank you for the work in that.

The questions I had were I got three questions. Maybe you could touch on what kind of milestones you feel most accomplished with the project so far, and how can community members support this project, and what kind of coordination is happening with the city and Penn Med to I think you already touched on it just in your last response about duplication of services. I know that's something we've we've been aware of as we build out some of our capital projects as well and trying to make sure that the senior needs or whoever needs are met without necessarily duplicating services.

Right. So maybe I'll have to go backwards because I can remember that piece first. A big part of what we don't want to do is duplicate services. Presently, we provide a range of services and programs, through our senior center, through the Curious By Nature School, and through Envirocor that, and the foundation as a whole that nobody else has done or was doing at the time the organization formed. You all know or remember that the what is now the Gig Harbor Senior Center used to be a club under the Boys and Girls Club.

So there were no duplication in services, and and, in fact, the Giga Harbor Senior Center has grown. We have more members than ever before, and the range of services and things that we do has actually diversified in the almost six years that they've been under the foundation. But because there was no senior center or is no senior center, there's we there's no duplication there. We provide early childhood education of a different variety that is a very different model, but still there's even more need in our community for early childhood education. And

Then biggest hurdles remaining and maybe milestones you've overcome that you've

The milestones are huge. I mean, if you if you think about it, this is this has all been done by a nonprofit organization that works to, on a very conservative budget. And, to get to where we are today with this project but with this project is in no, small part due to the, partnership with the landowner, brush construction, and others who have basically stepped up to try and make this happen for our community. And there are people who are from our community. And to have that kind of backing and that kind of support is probably you know, it's the only way we made it this far.

And was there one more?

Yeah. I mean, I was looking forward to the community coming behind you and supporting this project.

Yes. I mean, this we now have a full website for the project, which is fairly detailed, and there are all sorts of ways that you can get involved. We will be having, we have three different kind of task force or campaign groups focused on the different areas of the, project so you can be involved that way. Of course, contribution of funds is always, big. But if you go to the last slide, the very last slide has a has a link to the website, which is www.gghfharborhub.org.

And we did this very specifically so that it wasn't attached to the 100 some plus other pages associated with the programs, events, and other things that the foundation does. So

Great. Thank you very much for your presentation, Julie.

Thank you. Thank you.

So our next presentation is the Edin Boatyard And Boat Shops annual report to the community.

Alright. Hi. I'm Matea Eastland. I'm the marketing director at the Gig Harbor Boat Shop, and I just wanted to start today by thanking the council and mayor Barber for having me. Guy was unable to make it, but it's my privilege to be here instead.

So thank you. So I wanted to start out with addressing the boatyard house. Our mission is to perpetuate the working waterfront skills, use traditions in the historic Edin Boatyard and aboard classic vessels of the Puget Sound. And there are a variety of ways we do that, and one of the ways is through allowing the Boatyard House to be rented by the public and by using it for our own public programming. The Boatyard House at Edin Boat Park is a 31 square foot community gathering space available for rent to the public and for boat shop public programming.

The Main Floor of the Edin Boatyard Brick House along with the adjoining patio and deck is available for family, community, and organization activities. The rental times are from 8AM to 8PM, and we have a 30 person capacity. In the Edin Boatyard House, we offer a variety of amenities, including tables and chairs. We have a kitchen that fully operates with a variety of different, appliances. We also offer a TV with HDMI cables so people can do presentations there.

The boatyard house has been growing in use, and that's something that has been exponential and has been really encouraging for us. As you can see, from 2023, we've doubled our community rentals, which has been huge. This year is already looking like we're headed in that growth rate as well. We've also been excited to be able to do more public programming in it as well. So boatyard house community use, This image is from mayor Markley at the boatyard house ribbon cutting in 2022.

But although we don't have photos, they we've had a variety of different organizational meetings. We've had baby showers, birthdays, graduations, and even weddings at the Boyard House, and we're having a variety of those events scheduled already this year as well. So as far as what g GHB, our acronym for the boat shop, what we use the house for is a variety of community programs, starting with one of our favorites, which is our summer camps. This is our elementary age summer camp out on the deck and then our middle school girls summer camp in the survival suits inside the boatyard house. We also have a variety of presentations and classes throughout the year, all maritime oriented.

We had a flat mat class as well as a knot tying class with Dennis Armstrong from the knotted line as well as other classes. One of our presentations this year, we had multiple, was a reading with local author and captain Richard Bard where he read some of his poetry and some of his writings to the community. We also use the house for crew school, which is coming up in April. It is our introduction to commercial fishing and commercial purse seining crew life. It's a program I personally love and am really enthusiastic about because I feel like it's kind of one of a kind in that students get to come in and actually get hands on live purse seining experience and a real, I guess, full on introduction into the life of commercial fishing.

We also have our boat launches out there as well, and celebrate this particular one was unveiling the ideal, which is a boat that was built by our boatwright, Tom Reagan, that runs our Saturday program. And we unveiled his new sailing boat and had a little party in the boatyard house deck. It was great. So with that being said, I wanted to clue you guys into into some of our upcoming programs and events for this year, what we have scheduled. First of all, our annual fundraiser auction will be May 15 at 6PM.

We'll be sending out invitations shortly. It'll be available online. If anyone's interested, please shoot me an email, info@GigHarborBoatShop.org. We'd love to have as many council members, community members as we can get in. The next one is crew school. I was just gushing about this program because it's one of my favorites. It's April. We have registrations. Our person, captain Greg, in addition to Guy Hoppin, our executive duress director, and Sarah Fiskin, who spent many years purse seining. She was one of the first female purse seiners. They're hands on in this program. It's a really great program. It promises to be a lot of fun again this year. And our classic boat rental season. This is so much fun.

Anyone in the community can come in and rent a classic boat and tour around the harbor. It's a great way to, you know, get familiar with the water and everything that the Gig Harbor Waterfront has to offer. Our maritime mentorship program. This is really cool. This is something that we had a few years ago and are just starting again this year.

This is the opportunity for young high school and college age adults to come in and get hands on one on one, two on one experience in the boat building craft with an expert craftsman at the boat shop. We also have another year of maritime summer camps starting at the June. We're looking forward to having elementary age as well as middle school age kids at the boat shop again learning both in the shop and on the water. Our Northwest Fleet photography collection is a really cool project that we've been working on over the last year. It actually takes place in the studio in the top of the boatyard house.

We have a pretty cool setup up there. Richard Gray is our program director, and they've digitized over a thousand of local photographer Ken Aller's photos over the past year. We're really close to being able to launch a web archive of these photos that'll be accessible to the public soon. We're really excited about it. The community boat restoration program is kind of a cornerstone at the boat shop.

They have been meeting every Saturday for, I'd say, over a decade, way before my time. And it's a group of community members that come in, and they not only maintain our rental boat livery fleet, but they restore classic boats as well and relaunch them into the community. And the community boat restoration for women, this is going on its third year. It has been awesome. We have a group of dedicated women that meet every Wednesday, and they also work on restoring, maintaining our boats.

But in addition to that, they have been integral to the restoration, the maintenance on the veteran, which is what this photo's of two of these gals that are loyalists to the program. And it's growing, and we're having a lot of fun with it. Ore making is a newer program. Matt Holter, one of our, expert craftsmen, is very enthusiastic about the art of making ores and not letting that ancient maritime art die. So it's an opportunity that we try to have every few months for people to come in and over a twelve week period or more if they need more time.

Matt teaches them to make their oars completely from scratch, completely custom and fitted to their own rowing style and needs. Family boat building. This is a great program, another one of those corner store programs we've had for a long time. We have three sessions sold out for 2026, and it is the opportunity for a family of up to five people to come in and over a Saturday, Sunday period build their own salt based gifts that they get to take home at the end of the weekend. And per senior veteran's hundredth birthday.

We are looking at tides and trying to figure out when we can get veteran into our dock at the best times. We haven't picked a date yet, but we're super looking forward to veteran centennial year. It's really a staple in the harbor, and we've put so much time into it. Our volunteers have been absolutely wonderful working on VETRON this past year. VETRON is a huge part of the Gig Harbor Boat Shop. We do veteran charters. We use VETRON for cruise school, summer camps. Any chance we get, it's an incredible boat and an incredible piece of harbor history. We're super excited to celebrate it, and we'll put the date out as soon as we can figure out the best time for the tides. And I just wanted to thank you guys again and see if you have any questions about anything.

Thank you very much to the council member Eckberg.

Yeah. Thank you for the presentation. Appreciate that. I had the opportunity to know the boat shop for a long time from the community bond that that saved a piece of our history to all the programming you guys run. So appreciate everything that goes on down there. Just a question about the summer camp. As a parent whose kids have gone through that camp, they're awesome. I was gonna sign them up the other week, and I didn't see it. So is camp registration open, or when can people sign up?

We are looking at getting it open hopefully really soon. We've had to find a new summer camp director this year, and that's taken a little bit of time. But we're super excited to have Trevor Nordeen coming back. He's actually been teaching this past year in Colorado and is really enthusiastic about getting back with the boat shop and back in the boat. So as soon as we get that pinned down, they they'll be out, I would hope, in the next two weeks.

Great. Thanks.

Yeah. Councilmember Martin.

Thanks for the presentation. That was fun, and it's really neat to see all the activity out there for just a cross section of our community. Is there anything that you're looking to do, not maybe not this year, but next year, and you need a little support or communication that hasn't happened yet?

So something we're really focusing on is the veteran needs a new engine. The engine is really old. I'm trying to think of how old. I know Guy has told me exactly how old it is, exactly what model it is. I wish I had that kind of brain.

Exactly where it was built, who

built Exact I know it's a cat.

Oh, fun. It's a caterpillar five. No. I'm

just Yeah. Right? You you would know if he was here, but that's something we're really focused on because we've had issues with it in the past, and repowering, it's really important. It's a super integral part of Gig Harbor history. It was built it's Scansea Shipbuilding Company in 1926, hundred years of history. So keeping it moving, keeping use for the boat shop, allowing the public to do charters, the summer camps, kids to get on, you know, and see a wooden boat, a 100 year old personator versus these huge fish boats that come in out all the time, we feel it's a really important piece of history, and that's something that we're really going to try to focus on this year and moving into next year for the veterans hundredth year.

Council member Aman.

Hi. In regards to the engine, I don't know if you can answer this, but is that the original engine? And if so, are you looking to rebuild or replace the engine?

I don't think it's the original engine. Don't hold me to that. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure I've asked Guy that exact same question. But I do know that it is older, and we have, been replacing parts and working on it. But I think the best option would be to completely repower it with something more reliable as opposed to keep using duct tape and superglue and whatever else engine builders use. Again, I'm not sure to try to keep it running. We'd really like it to be very reliable for one hundred more years.

Okay. Thank you.

Great. Those are all the hands I see. Thank you very much for your presentation.

Yeah. Thank you

again. Appreciate it. So I will now welcome public comment on items on the consent agenda. Please come to the podium or press the raised hand button on Zoom if you would like to comment on the consent agenda. And seeing no one, I will assuming there's no one online. K. I will close public comment on the consent agenda and open it up for a motion from council.

I move to accept the consent agenda.

Second. It was moved by council member Rodenberg and seconded by council council member Coronado to approve the consent agenda. Please vote on your screens or vote verbally if you are unable to access your voting screen.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. It's not letting me evoke.

Okay. Motion passes seven to zero. Thank you, counsel. For my mayor's report today, I want to begin by remembering the lives that were lost last month on the Key Peninsula. Four women's lives were taken much too early.

They were amazing members of our community who will who will represent vivid memories for many of us, and we at the city are working with others in the community to find the best way to celebrate the lives they lived for years to come. Tonight, I would ask you all to support their families and friends and that we take a moment of silence to remember them. Moving on to happier things, I offer a hearty salute to our city administrator, Katrina Knutson, who was aptly named citizen of the year by the chamber of commerce during their annual gala last weekend. We are all grateful for Katrina's leadership and contributions to our city government and our community in general. I know my council colleagues and city staff join me in congratulating you on this well deserved honor.

It also seems apt that this month, Katrina also celebrates ten years of service to the city. And I have a plaque for you.

I

know. You don't have to know everything. Would you like me to present it or not? Mhmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Citizen of the Year

Congrats, Katrina. Contract.

As I proclaimed earlier in this meeting, March is Women's History Month, and it's a time we celebrate the women who's contributed to the world and the life we all enjoy today. As a woman of a certain age, I'll remind those who are a bit younger of how far women have come in my lifetime. We can now participate in sports, get a credit card, get a house loan in our own name, and more, all thanks to those who came before us, who spoke up, and asked for equal treatment. I'm so proud of the women leaders I know, and there are a lot in the South Sound community and here on this dais and in this room who lead so diligently with their heart, committed to doing what they know is right, and I thank you all for what you do. In last week's gigabyte, we addressed the vandalism that has been happening at Doris Heritage Park, the newest jewel in our park system.

Vandalism to the restrooms have meant they are temporarily closed, and once open again, the hours will be reduced. There's also been damage to other parts of the park. Quite simply, this must stop. Our parks belong to all of us. They reflect who we are as a community.

And when they're treated with care, they remain welcoming and accessible for everyone. We know the vast majority of our residents respect and value our parks, and that's why we're asking for your help. Please take care of our public spaces. And if you see something, say something. Report suspicious behavior to the Gig Harbor Police Department by calling 25385122362, or if it's an emergency, dial 911.

Your quick action can prevent damage and help us keep our natural spaces beautiful and our community spaces clean and tidy. Together, we can ensure our community spaces stay welcoming and worthy of the pride we feel calling we feel calling this place home. Friday, council member Martin and I participated in the South Sound Housing Affordability Partners board meeting. This group is charged with helping build more affordable housing in our South Sound through shared contributions from area governments. Together, we're building housing in our communities.

Another project we've been working on is about to be unveiled as well, and that is a hub for building accessory dwelling units in our jurisdictions. The website that will be unveiled soon includes definitions, a one pager, and resources for zoning and other restrictions in each area. We're hoping it will provide needed and helpful resources to those interested in building ADUs, and we'll include more information in an upcoming gigabyte once the web pages are live. And I will now turn it over to city administrator Katrina Knudson, citizen of the year, for her report.

You get twenty four more hours with that, and then we have to, you know

I'm gonna keep using it.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, council. A couple of things to report to you this evening. One that is not on the slideshow that I will share is you may receive or have received information from constituents regarding dirty water over the weekend. Public Works has provided an update on that. This weekend, we lost remote communication with the North water tank with the SCADA, which I had to look up online. It is the supervisory control and data acquisition system. Basically, it's a remote control for our water system. It was communication with that was lost causing the booster pumps to turn on.

Unfortunately, this happened, and it stirred up dirty water in the North end of town. And so we've heard many complaints from residents, surrounding Gig Harbor, North McCormick, Creek, etcetera. Crews were out this weekend clearing the lines to ensure that they were, running clear again. So I wanted to reassure you if you do hear from constituents that this was, a one off problem with the communication with the SCADA, and crews have cleaned that up. If residents are still experiencing dirty water, we would advise them to run the water for a period of time till it runs clear, which it should.

And if they have any further questions, to contact our water division of public works. There has been a lot of discussion regarding mental health in our community, in particular youth mental health, and so wanted to take this opportunity to provide an update on what the city is doing in in order to, address this. In response to concerns, we are taking a leadership role of convening community partners to address a coordinated approach for youth support and their families. You may have read in the newspaper that unfortunately we've experienced another youth suicide in our school district, which unfortunately puts us either at the top or very near the top of youth suicide in school districts in the state of Washington. It is because of this that we believe a coordinated effort between the school district, other partners, and the city is necessary in order to address this problem.

We do not believe that this is a school district problem solely that they need to stand alone. The youth are at school for a certain portion of the day, but they are also at home in their homes and in the community for portions of this. And therefore, the city taking a partnership role with the school district and others is important. So in this vein, our housing health human services program manager, Shay Smiley, has been and Mayor Barber have been working to convene school district, faith leaders, service providers, business owners, community members, and organizations in order to strengthen coordination and ensure youth and families are connected to appropriate supports. An important part of this is reducing stigma surrounding mental health and providing, resources.

You'll hear from our youth council at your next meeting surrounding their project. I believe mayor Barber has already said that that is going to be a youth mental health summit that will be here at the Civic Center, and the Youth Council will host a youth led summit focused on connection, reducing stigma, and increasing awareness surrounding mental health resources and support services. Noting that youth are the target of this, there will also be a separate track for parents and adults in the community to learn what the signs are of mental health crises in order to hopefully reduce suicide attempts. We're also going to look to expand youth mental health first aid training. Ms.

Smiley has been in contact with the health department and is hoping to receive a train the trainer of mental health first aid training to where Shay would be able to train city staff, district staff, other interested parties, potentially YMCA staff, place where youth are so that they are aware of the signs, the warning signs, and symptoms regarding severe mental health challenges and what to do if you are in the presence of a youth that is experiencing any of those signs or symptoms. Another part of this is strengthening trusted adult networks. That's why we're working to engage faith leaders, community organizations, and youth serving groups to expand the network of trusted adults that can step in and help the youth when they do indicate that there is a problem. Again, number one, reducing stigma. Number two, creating trusted network so that there are adults that are available and know what to do in the case of these situations.

And then lastly, providing resource access and support spaces. Through the Youth Summit and Community Partnerships, the city hopes to connect youth and families to counseling resources, wellness supports, and peer support opportunities. We believe that these are all within our scope of service, and all of these are ongoing. You should expect to be invited to all of these as we hope to inform, educate, counsel, city staff, and the community in order to help the youth in our community and turn that statistic around. I am going to try to advance my slide now.

There we go. On a happier note, and you probably can't read all of those, so I'm gonna read them out loud and it's pretty funny. David Boyer has been with the city for eight years, and I don't think he has taken one breath without trying and attempting and being successful at achieving all of the credentials that he has gone after. David was promoted from building inspector to assistant building official fire marshal some time ago, And he is now per the hold on. I read this.

International Code Council, he is one of the very few in the state of Washington with the distinguished honor of being a code a master code professional. This is really unheard of. I'm gonna read these just because I think that the airtime required really indicates the dedication that David has shown. These are his credentials. Housing and zoning code specialist, residential combination inspector, residential energy inspector plans examiner, property maintenance and housing inspector, certified building official, code enforcement technician, fire codes and standards inspector, residential plumbing inspector, commercial electrical inspector, commercial combination inspector, residential mechanical inspector, commercial building inspector, residential electrical inspector, building inspector, accessibility inspector, plans examiner, commercial mechanical inspector, master code professional, residential plans examiner, building code specialist, certified fire marshal, zoning inspector, fire code specialist, mechanical inspector, plumbing inspector, fire inspector one, fire inspector two, residential, building inspector.

I think that's a repeat. Electrical inspector, combination inspector, building plans examiner, fire plans examiner, and commercial plumbing inspector.

To

say that David has been dedicated to his craft and that it has benefited the city would be an understatement and wanted to highlight him here tonight because it is remarkable what he has done. If you see him, please feel free to give him all the kudos. We're very lucky to have him here. And last but not least, I'm happy to report that the 2025 annual report you knew was out, We now have handy dandy pamphlets that Laurie will hand to you that you can hand out to constituents if you're having coffee with them or at public meetings. This summarizes the annual report in a very consumable manner and shows on a few pages how busy we have been.

I just want to really quickly so she doesn't get embarrassed, but shout out Laurie, our communications manager. She took probably a 100 pages of what we've accomplished in 2025, got it down to 20, roughly 20 pages, and then took that 100 pages and somehow got it into this. So I don't pretend to know how she does all of this, but we're really glad that she's here working for us and that we're able to share this with you counsel and the community. That concludes my report. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. There sure is a whole heck of a lot going on. So I will now welcome public comment for comments on nonagenda items. If you would like to make a comment to the city council, please come forward at this time. Or if you're on Zoom, please press the raised hand button, and we will recognize you. And you will have three minutes to speak. I'm not seeing anyone. So I will now close public comment on nonagenda items and ask if there are any reports from council. Council member Eckberg.

Thank you, mayor. Just a couple of quick comments. I wanna, follow on into this and to the work that's going out, getting out the message about all the work the city's doing. There's a tremendous amount of hours and efforts that go into operating the city. The mayor did a good job articulating it at her speech before the chamber, and I know she's going to another several other locations to share that.

And, this is just really nice to grab the attention of the public that only wants to give us thirty seconds sometimes. If you know some of the facts in here, you can share, really succinctly some of things we're doing. So well done on that, and thank you. Got the opportunity Saturday to attend Chatterfest, which this councilman may have questioned that idea a few years ago when it came out, but it's been a tremendous success, and it was another good one, on Saturday. If you haven't been to that, I encourage you to to attend that event next year.

And the mayor grabbed it because the mayor talks first, but I also think it's worth sharing that Saturday night was the chamber gala, and our very own Eric Baker won the unofficial prize of best dressed city staff member. And our very own Katrina Knutson was recognized for the outstanding work that she does as citizen of the year. So well deserved. No hoo. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you. Councilmember Martin. It was fun sitting at Eric's table, I

do have to say. It was very enlightening. But, again, congratulations to Katrina. If you weren't there and you didn't see all the other nominees, again, Katrina's graciousness, she first said thank you, and what an honor it was to be recognized with the other nominees for citizen of the year. You so deserve it.

We are very fortunate, not only as council members, but this community to have someone with your dedication, compassion, and always striving to do a great job. It's been a pleasure working with you, and I look forward to many more years of that. So thank you. I wanted, tag on that I am hearing nothing but wonderful things for our community development group. As I speak to people unsolicited, different contractors or people that were remodeling a house or a new business, just say how nice it has been working with the city.

Some of these people have worked with the city for many years, so they're seeing a lot of improvements. Others have not worked with the city before, but we're very respectful and appreciative of the job that's being done out there. We never hear enough good things, so thank you for that. And lastly, I wanna say thank you for Katrina and for the mayor and Shay standing up, real involvement in mental health. It is it's something that breaks all boundaries. Doesn't matter what economic class, what race you are, what gender you are. It is really something important. And I think this really goes to what we as council talked about, and that's that community connection. So thank you.

Thank you. I don't see any other hands raised. Okay. A list of upcoming meetings is attached to the agenda, which is available online or in the back of the room. And we will now move into executive session for fifteen minutes to discuss the potential acquisition of real estate per RCW forty two dot three zero dot one one zero, parenthesis one, parenthesis b, an action may be taken following the executive session.

We've resumed from break, and the time is 06:48. Do I have any motion on that? Mayor,

is your mic on? No. Thank you.

We've resumed we have returned from break, and the time is 06:48.

Mayor, we returned from executive session.

Oh, executive session. I'm sorry. That's okay.

I'll try again. We lost an hour, so it's all good.

We have resumed. We have returned from executive session. The time is still 06:48. Council member Rodenberg, do you have a motion?

I do have a motion. I'd like to move to authorize the mayor to pursue and execute an agreement to purchase properties consistent with the terms discussed in our executive session. I second it.

It was moved by council member Rodenberg and seconded by council member Tessichini to approve the purchase of properties discussed during executive session. All in favor? Aye. Please vote using your screens if you can. Aye. Or verbally if you cannot. Okay. I'm missing okay. Motion passes seven to zero. Thank you, counsel. Is there a motion to adjourn?

I motion to adjourn.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you.