City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening. I'd like to call the City of Mount Vernon City Council meeting to order for Wednesday, January 28th, 2026. Would you please stand with me for the pledge of allegiance. Pledges to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, a liberty and justice for all. All right, I'd like to ask our city clerk to please call the roll. Elsewhere beaten here, Councilor Damon, here, Council Meer Hudson, here, Councilmember Oliver, here, Councilmember Tesero here, councilman Van der Stoop here Councilmember West, here. Becky for item 2 I would entertain a motion to approve tonight's agenda. I'll make a motion Second, motion by Melissa and a second by Navor. All in favor say aye. I, I'll opposed. Say no. Motion passes. All right, item 3 is community comments and judging by the fairly full room, which we love to see. Thank you for being here tonight. I'm guessing that there are some folks present who would like to address city council tonight. Um, what the way that we do this, we just invite you to come up to the podium, state your name and city of residence and try to uh keep your comments to right around 3 minutes if you could. Um if there are groups of folks here with a common message if you want to uh appoint a spokesperson, that's something you're free to do as well, um, but certainly want to hear from everyone who wants to speak. So, uh, go ahead and step on up to the podium, state your, your name and city of residence, if you would. Hello, good evening. I'm Sam Irons. I live in Mount Vernon. I wanted to highlight allocation

of opioid settlement funding due to conversation around possibly using it for a canine unit. I feel great responsibility to speak on this for my education in law and justice and psychology, and also professional experience and direct services with people in the community, including substance use disorder and mental health and behavioral health. First I want to tell you about a youth I knew from the juvenile drug court program I used to work with. He was smart, funny, loved his mom and little sister, enjoyed photography. worked hard in treatment and counseling for substance use disorder, while maintaining probation and court appointments, all while going to high school. He completed inpatient successfully and seemed to be doing well upon reentering community care until he used again. This time, resulting in an opioid-related overdose at home. By the time paramedics were able to get there, he had already died, and they were unable to revive him. I tell you this because I want you to remi to remind you that there are real people involved with this decision. People in the community that are our neighbors and loved ones. Based on what I have read in the distributor settlement agreement, there is a responsibility to use these funds for substance use disorder services, treatment, and other public health related purposes. There's a fifteen-page list in the settlement agreement for where money can, can and should appropriately be allocated to and nowhere in it includes K9 unit. a canine unit I don't have time to read through the whole list, but there are a lot of great ideas and options. Some examples listed include expanding access and training for naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses, providing education to school-based and youth focused programs that prevent misuse expansion of recovery and support services in the community, even including recovery housing. providing wraparound services to people with opioid use disorder, including for housing, transportation, job training,

and childcare. Expanding services and hiring of navigators on call teams, social workers, and other behavioral health workers in community or clinical settings. I don't know if naloxone acts access at home would have saved him, or maybe increased resources in the community, or more preventative care in the first place, but I'm not sure how a canine unit would have been able to help. As someone who has worked with people battling through substance use to stores, co-occurring with mental health and behavioral health. I would strongly encourage to instead focus this money on something other than a K9 unit. There's amazing opportunity to utilize this for immediate and lasting impact for folks in the community. Thank you for listening. OK Hello. My name's Jacqueline Fisher. um, lives in Mount Vernon most of my life. I left work early to be here tonight and to address you all because this is very important. I was born here in Mount Vernon and have worked and or lived here most of my life. And all of that experience, I have worked alongside many Hispanic people and other people of color who are now the subject of the witch hunt being perpetrated by the Trump administration. What your constituents want to know is if you're going to protect us. There was an ice siding today in Ward One off Hogan Urban, Council members Tearo and West, that would be your ward. Is there a plan Will you simply comply with the illegal actions of this illegitimate regime. ICE is acting without warrants and frankly without regard to human life. Will our sheriff, Don McDermott, and his officers intervene when ICE acts illegally Will the chief of police, Dan Christman, what does our mayor have to say? Will you stand up to protect us, or will people die

at the hands of ICE like in Minnesota in situations where lethal force was absolutely not necessary. Who can we count on to call for protection if and when illegal and unsafe ICE activity ends up on our streets, at our front doors, and our places of work, which it already has. So my question is to you, will you do your jobs Will you do your jobs and protect the people from agents acting illegally in our county. No answers right now we don't don't we don't respond at this time. I'm just asking a question. Thank you for your time. Jacqueline, thank you for taking time from work to be here. Appreciate that Mhm Hi, my name is Nicky Lavey. I live in Mount Vernon. I'm here to speak about our city's contract with Flock. I'm disheartened to learn how much our police department is fighting to keep them, especially in light of the information on the coming and goings of citizens now being able. to be publicly accessed. As a woman, time and time again, I have heard stories about women who cannot get help from police when a stalker online or otherwise, harasses them relentlessly, but now the Mount Vernon Police Department is just going to add and would be harassers and domestic abusers, or aid, I'm sorry, aid would be harassers and domestic abusers by keeping their flock contract, Anyone can request this information and have a fairly detailed schedule of their day to day life. Surveillance of our neighbors should not be done by a third party entity with no constituent oversight Cedar Woolley and Stan Wood have stopped their contracts, as have multiple cities in Washington. I know the Mount Vernon Police Department is very proud of the fact that they are not sharing their flock info with ICE, but we all know that doesn't prevent them from using it anymore The best way to be proud that you are not aiding ICE is to actually cancel this

contract. The DOJ and federal agents are violating 1st and Second Amendment rights presently. I would like to thank the police department would want to distance themselves as much as possible, if not completely disavow their actions and not use the same tools that they are using. I know you all keep watch over protesters like the ones every Friday at the courthouse. I've seen it and we appreciate it. These flop cameras are bad PR from every perspective. This will not be a popular hill to die on. I know being a citizen requires some relinquishment of freedoms for safety. It's a trade that comes with a deal, but with a tax on freedom of press, freedom of speech, and our two A rights, how much more are we required to give to still be considered the land of the free. This seems a small concession in keeping the community's trust in our police department which is an asset too, is it not? I know. And now a canine unit, really, do you guys do any pro or con list of these requests, a cursory Google search will show you the kind of lawsuits this opens the city up to because lots of people, including children have been attacked by these units. These lawsuits can be 5 to 6 times the amount of the actual canine unit. You can't even use the dog in home searches as the Supreme Court in Florida v. Jardines has said that it's a violation of American's Fourth Amendment rights. Times are scary right now, and Mr. Rogers says when we are scared to look for the helpers. People are looking for helpers. I know you all run for election to serve the public and to help your community and the people in it. I don't think it's a stretch to say people who surveil me and my neighbors are not helping. People who have dogs that can be sicked on me and my neighbors are not

helping. Please look at ways to care for this community and be the helpers. Thank you, Nicky. Hello everyone. My name is Ingrid. I live here in Mount Vernon. I want to make a general comment about my concerns for the topic of public safety. I know there are many perspectives and opinions about what this means and how it is achieved. I'm sharing my perspective both as a member of this community and also as a social worker, which means I'm trained to think about how to support individuals, but also think on a systems level. I want to urge the mayor and city council and police teams to ask themselves with every possible decision or development. Who is this protecting Is this promoting collective safety or personal safety? Is it just protecting homeowners are also folks that are struggling to pay rent or maintain a house Is it just protecting white community members are also folks of color. Is it protecting the disabled, the elderly, our children. We live in a culture that is very oriented towards personal safety. but there are examples all around the world in which more collective basing, uh, communities thrive. I think the killing of US citizens by ICE agents are perfect examples of what gets masked as safety. and branded as public safety and ultimately leads to violence and harm. Who are we protecting and from who? There are serious implications for programs that introduce weapons and surveillance into our communities, even if they are well-intentioned. There are always consequences from these measures of public

safety that end up adding a layer of complexity and danger that are often unforeseen. When we talk about things like police dogs. Is that dog trained to bite and attack people? Is it protecting in the people in the community who have a trauma history? I used to work at a hospital that implemented, implemented a canine program while I worked there. Within a few months, we had several examples of dogs misidentifying weapons and drugs and generally creating an environment of tension and fear amongst patients who are there to heal. When we talk about things like flock cameras. Who are they keeping an eye on What percentage of the population is participating in criminal activity. And meanwhile, the majority of us are going about our daily lives and also being recorded without our consent. Does the surveillance state in this community protect people? Or does that make them more suspicious, more wary, more on edge. What about the victims of domestic violence who are now potentially able to be tracked by their abusers. I know these conversations require nuance and time and thought and relationship building. and I worry that we are in a current cultural climate that is acting out of reactivity and fear and distrust and knee-jerk reactions. I encouraged the city council to slow down and think about a more preventative-based approach to community safety. In investing in housing, education, food security, recovery programs, youth programs like Boys and Girls Club, Green Spaces, easily accessible transportation. These are just some broad categories and examples that can be funded to create a community that is healthy and supported and immigrate integrated and when we are in communities

like that, violence and crime decrease because people's needs are met. Thank you for listening to my comments. I Hi, my name's Andrea. I live here in Mount Vernon Um, I just wanna echo everything that's already been said. Please, again, I'm asking you to cancel the contract with Flock. You heard my comments last two weeks ago on that. Um, I'm here tonight to ask you to vote no on resolution 1090, which proposes using opioid settlement funds to purchase a new K-9 attack dog and K-9 vehicle. Considering the city council was unable to complete this discussion and vote before we experienced an almost 50% turnover. I'm urging you to vote no so there can be renewed discussion about how opioid settlement money can be used in a nonviolent, evidence-based way that actually supports community communities harmed by opioid addiction. There is significant research documenting the prolific violence caused by police attack dogs in communities, particularly Black and Latino. Opioid settlement funds were allocated to address the harms of addiction and overdose. We should be approaching this crisis with kindness, care, and public health solutions, not violence. There has been no canine unit in Mount Vernon since 2023. And as I laid out for you for five minutes last week or 2 weeks ago, crime is going down in the city There are no crime stats to justify the need to increase our police force with a K-9. In addition, none of the leading harm reduction or committee-based opioid responses, response organizations have K9 units as part of their best practice or approach. This proposal is less of an opioid response strategy and more of an attempt to reinstate a part of the police

department simply because it existed in the past. Despite having no demonstrated connection to helping the most impacted by the opioid crisis. Mount Vernon's own history with police dogs does not support the claim that they increase community safety. Excuse me Police dogs encounter, sorry, police canine encounters are responsible for approximately 3600 emergency room visits a year. According to an investigative report by the Marshall Project. Medical studies describe these bites often resembling shark attacks rather than typical domestic, shark attacks. I looked at the videos. I watched the videos, and I saw the footage. It's horrific. It also results in more hospital visits than any other use of police force. In Ghost gadget's own reporting, Mount Vernon Py's Kine Luther in 2013, the dog handler openly described the dog's reward for compliance was biting people. The police officer in that report bragged, numerous times about how violent his dog could get. Another particular and troubling aspect of police dog attacks is that many canines continue to despite to bite, despite commands to stop. In such cases, officers must physically pull the dog off the victim, causing even more harm In this same ghost gadget report. I'm gonna read you a quote. Over the years, the canine has learned to open doors while tracking ascent. Though he's supposed to let write his handler do that. During SWAT team training, he chewed a doorknob and broke a tooth. He now has a titanium tooth as a replacement. I want you to listen to that again. The dog was supposed to let his handler perform the task, but instead

acted independently and broke a tooth from the force of that bite. Do you know how hard a dog has to bite to break a tooth. That is what they are trained to do This is not acceptable. This is a clear example from our own community of a canine that did not reliably follow handler commands. This is also not an animal that should be taken into our classrooms. Bringing a K9 unit in the name of restitution for the opioid crisis is reprehensible. This is an excessive use of force. I know some people say they would rather be bitten by a police dog, then shot, but this is not a safer alternative. Both are in excessive use of force. There is no crime that renders the need for this level of violence. Cops nor canines are not judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to crimes being committed in our community, which again are going down. Sorry, this is a really disturbing topic to be having to discuss, um. when it comes to police dogs, this is one instance where there is a demonstrated history that its use of canines and attitudes about their use lines up with broader concerns that have been validated across the country. For all of these reasons, I urge you to vote no on resolution 1090. We must find nonviolent evidence-based ways to support our community in responding to the opioid crisis. Using opioid settlement funds for a police attack dog is a gross misuse of these resources. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Andrea Anyone else that would like to address city council. Come on up. Hello. uh Gavin live up in Alger. uh I

wanna follow up on the comment I made two weeks ago asking you all the cancel the flot contracts, take down the cameras. Uh, I want to reiterate, I think you should do this, uh, these cameras are a concrete step towards a surveillance state. They erode our privacy. They're unaccountable to the public and they're just not secure. Any idiot with $20 worth of kick and break into them. Uh. talking about proposal 1090 everyone here has argued for like better, like the, the uses of, uh, you know, community community funds for harm reduction and everything, much better than I can. I want to talk about the proposal itself. So I read the proposal 1090 in the packet sent out yesterday in advance of this meeting. I was disappointed in the lack of transparency in the proposal. There's a memo that gets put out, that is supposed to be, you know, a bit of an executive summary, a bit of a, a bit of persuasion on the proposal. Uh, but it was missing any kind of like preliminary cost breakdown or evidence-based argument that I would expect to find there. The introduction section basically just states that we had a canine program, we've had one since 1979, and it ended in 2023. So we should get to have one again. Uh, the statistics regarding the efficacy of the program in our city weren't presented. They weren't presented in the body of the proposal either. Uh, the list of duties for the canine included drug interdiction, tracking lost, missing, and concerningly fleeing individuals, combating illicit drug distribution and again concerning the use and being something like a brand ambassador for the department. They didn't cite any, like what the expected positive outcomes of having a dog do this as opposed to an officer were. Uh, for the memo, the money was awarded for harm reduction in community, uh, community events. It didn't explain how the dog was going to do harm reduction. Um, the project cost for the Kine appeared to be a handmade table just screenshotted from an Excel, you know, an Excel spreadsheet based on best, best guesses or costs from

previous projects, uh, in the quote for the truck that they asked for didn't line up with what you can find on the Ford website for doing it. And that may be because it's, you know, not a police, like police vehicles, and I can only access consumer vehicles, but $82,000 for a Ford XL is their base model $40,000 truck. the radio equipment they add in it doesn't cost an extra $40,000. The package that they put in there was just a list of kind of accessories for like these are what we're gonna get and they didn't quite line up with what Ford offers or the prices. There was no itemized breakdown, uh, it just kind of appeared a little sloppy to me, and there wasn't, there wasn't anything for me to interrogate, to corroborate, to like go investigate and see like, OK, this is all in the up and up You know, a quote from Ford takes 5 minutes to go get, you know, and they're, they're there to sell you a truck. They want to give you a quote Uh, you know, in contrast, in the same pack that you guys sent out, the parks department put together two proposals, and they had detailed cost breakdowns, legal agreements project requirements. They in one case, they gave the for the fireworks vendor, they gave the certificate of insurance and a plan for what the fireworks fireworks were actually going to look like, you know and that was only for 20 grand. Um, you know, on the, on the body of the proposal, on page 1, the sixth item says the city council must find the Kine program to be quote an evidence-supported investment and they didn't show any evidence in the proposal that it would be that. right? So I don't know how you can justify approving a proposal 1090 based off of that. I'll just end with the, you know, some questions off the top of my head. I would have liked to have seen answered in that proposal. Did the PD police department consult with local addiction services or the health department about how to best use this money. Was this proposal the result of that discussion? What led to selecting an F-150 as your vehicle as opposed to the Ford Expedition like they used to use. You know, what kind of dog and what's it gonna be trained to do. It

says drug detection, tracking search and rescue, suspect after potential is it going to bite like a dog can only learn to do so many things. What type of, what's the dog expected to do if someone runs away? What's it expected to do if an officer sees someone using drugs. How is the dog supposed to exi exist in an OD investigation. What's the annual maintenance cost for the vehicle? Where did the program cost estimates come from? Why are the veterinary costs in the estimate limited to $1000 when directly below the table. They say the potential cost can be tens of thousands of dollars. They're just missing information that I would have liked to seen as a as a member of the public. Thanks. Thanks Anyone else Come on up. Hi, good evening. My name is Kelly Loewenstein. I'm resting in Mount Vernon, live near Hillcrest. Um, I want to thank council members for hearing our voices this evening, and I really want to thank everyone. Um, it's so wonderful to just hear so many folks speaking out about this issue. That's also really important to me as an educator, as a parent, um, and as a member of this community, uh, I already emailed you all, so I'm not going to reread my whole email, but I just want to highlight the, the main point just so that it's on the record here tonight, um, which is really uh kind of coming back to the first point made by Sam Iron, starting with the basic principle of the funds in question. Um, these are opioid settlement monies allocated to the city. Their intended purpose is to repair the lasting harms of corporations who profited off the intentional facilitation of addiction to opioids and related substances. So these funds should be used for services that would support and heal those navigating addiction and prevent addiction for others in our community. Using these funds on animals used to attack and incarcerate our neighbors is antithetical to the intended

purpose of the settlement. I believe that there are so many other ways that we could spend this money, um, even recognizing that it's a one-time settlement and we want to be smart about making choices that are, are not incurring future costs that we don't actually have budgeted for. Um, I think expanding beds is, uh, you know, a renovation to an existing facility of emergency housing or something like that would be a very sensible, um, and powerful investment. Naxloan Access and training for our community members would be a really powerful one-time investment that we could use this money for, uh, to really um respond to the need that is being addressed by this settlement money. Um, and then I also want to just come back to the, the last point that was made about process, um, and I would be really excited to explore and learn more about opportunities to to kind of start from first principles of what are the challenges that we're facing and are we starting from what are the benefits going to be to the community rather than the proposals that are submitted for services that used to exist or programs that used to exist. So just thinking about process and engaging community voices. Thank you. Thanks, Kelly. Hi, um, my name is Mayot. Uh, I do, I live in unincorporated Skagitt County, um, Mount Vernon, however, is my home base and uh I used, I come here for Aaron's entertainment community events, it really does feel like home to me. Um, and I would like to extend my thanks to you for, uh, all of your hard work this winter and, um, especially around the exceptional handling of the flooding that threatened so many of us this December. Um, but I would also like to revisit and restate uh community concerns about Mount Vernon's

contract with Flock Security. Um, new information about Fox mishandling of private data is coming out every day and it's concerning that our city is continuing to rent equipment and software from Flock Security at such a high cost when their systems and cameras are proven to be unsecure. Washington State has taken notice of this national issue and a bill which addresses this security risk is currently in committee SB 6002 has some protections for our Fourth Amendment rights, which are not currently being upheld, and I hope that it progresses. However, this bill is not robust, and that we cannot rely on it to pass. Council members Mayor Donovan I am asking you to step up to protect the civil liberties of those who live, work, play, attend religious services. or do any number of perfectly legal things within city limits. I ask two things. that you take immediate action to suspend all use of Flock cameras and that you terminate Mount Vernon's contract with Flock Security. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else Anyone thinking that I came here to speak, but I'm not sure I want to speak now cause there's so many people come on up. We got time OK. All right. Thank you all for, for being here tonight. Thank you for making your voices heard. We are going to move on in the agenda, uh, tonight's consent agenda includes meeting minutes, payroll checks, deposits, wire transfers, claims, routine

agreements, and a street closure request for illuminate. Council would like to move for consent agenda adoption. Second by Navo and a second by Either one of you of you All in favor say Hi, All of both say no. pushing passes, all right? We'll move on to reports, the first part of reports 5A is community or it's a council member comments. It's your opportunity to speak tonight if you'd like to do that. The council member comments tonight. Yeah, member Vander, thanks. um, thanks everybody for coming out. I really appreciate it. Um. it's pretty clear that I think that we need a better two-way communication. I don't think that the one way up here and then the one way out there is working very well. Um, I'm not sure the best way to set that up. Some of you have my phone number, I know some of you. If you could please coordinate amongst yourselves or just hang out after the city council meeting's done. I would really like to set up a time where we could have a better two-way communication. Um, and if that goes well, I'd really like to bring in the police chief and our other wonderful police officers to have some two-way communication, um, so we can hear each other a little bit better. But once again, thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate your comments. um, and I hope that this was a good experience for all of you. That's it. Thanks. Thanks, Councilman Yeah, Council member West. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um I'd like to highlight Senate Bill 5923. This is regarding critical access hospitals. uh, mainly ancorti, and although that's still that's Skagit County. It's not Mount Vernon, but Mount Maintaining a stable hospital network across our across our county is beneficial. It'll it'll, uh,

Alleviate the burdens that RERs may have, um, if this, if this continues, if this is allowed to pass, so Mr. Mayor, I'd like for, I'd like to propose that you, uh, support Senate Bill 5923, um, and, and encourage uh Anacortes. uh in Olympia Thank you, Councilmember West. That's one that's not, hasn't been on my radar, so I will take a look at it. We'll chat. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Yeah Councilor member. Yeah, I also just want to thank everybody who came and spoke today. Um, it is really amazing to see so many people show up and talk about what really needs to be said. So thank you. Uh, I also agree with everything that Andrew had said, I would love to meet with all of you. Um after this and set up more time to talk. Folks who live in Ward 2. Andrew and I are working on having a ward meeting, um, and I think at the next meeting we'll be sharing details on that. So more details to come. Thank you. Yes, Councilmember B. I just want to say, just to echo what you have already heard here tonight. I completely appreciate, um, all of the comments I can see it in your face. I can see how important this is to you. Um, when we were here two weeks ago, we had a conversation and, and I had texted Andrew later because I was looking with regards to the flock cameras looking one direction and comments that were made and conversations that we had up here broadened my perspective. um, and so I

really appreciate that you take the time out of your very busy lives. to come in here and have a conversation with us. Um on a separate note, I'm just going to stay say for me personally. I think it is disgusting It is sickening and heartbreaking what is happening with ice in this country. and um I just needed to say that it's, it's, it's just awful. I'm done. Thank you, Councilman. Um, yeah, that's my hoods. Thank you, thank you for coming. Appreciate it a lot. Um. when you have it, when you have an idea of what you think. um, to hear other ideas is very helpful. And like Melissa said, it broadens your perspective. So I appreciate the input from you. Um, and look forward to more conversations about it. Um, I have to agree, um, to say what Melissa said, she's, I, I can't, there's no words to describe how I feel about what happened or what is happening with ICE in our country. It's, it's beyond reprehensible, and there's just no words um to describe that. It's so disheartening and disgusting. Um and I'm gonna shift gears right now And speaking of ward meetings, we have the uh Melissa and I and and are at large member Demi have scheduled our Ward 3 meeting, and it's February 12. Is that correct? So looking at my calendar, February 12th at

from 5:30 to 6:30 at um Fire Station 3, even though it's Ward 3, we welcome the community. It's not just for Ward 3 people So, um, we wanna hear from you. We wanna talk things through. Um, we just want some input and, and hear what's on your mind. So please write that in your calendar if you're interested. It will be promoted um on our social media and everything. I just wanted to kind of give you a heads up but thank you again for being here. Thank you. Yeah, Council member West, there's no limit. Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I did want to say, so I do appreciate the comments that uh folks have said, um, at the beginning today, and I do want to, I, at least because Ward One was was specifically spoken to. I would say that um I fully support the state. sanctuary state designation. So I would, I would support that fully at the state level and at the city level. Absolutely OK. All right We'll move on to Mayor's report. And yeah, I, I, I hope we will continue to be, this will continue to be a place where people feel safe to speak their minds regardless of what they think we think, um whether we agree or not, um, you are invited to be here and to talk, um. talk at us here, I understand, but, um, talk with us hopefully um in another, in another venue, uh, for Mayor's report tonight, we talked about shifting gears, um, but wanted to let residents know that I had the pleasure of traveling to, uh, with three of our esteemed council members last week down to Olympia, where a councilmember Oliver, Councilmember Damon, and Councilmember Josero and I were able

to meet in person with 5 of our legislators advocate for some uh more city-friendly updates to proposed legislation that our state electeds will be discussing and voting on this short session, um, we also attended an association of Washington Cities conference, uh, where we were visited by Governor Ferguson. We learned more about the state budget and the local implications of decisions that are being made in Olympia. We learned a lot about the relationship between state legislation and city operations. We learned, well, we learned you can't always trust um uh driving directions on your phone. And, and we learned that Councilmember Damon and I both uh own the same coat and we are not afraid to wear it, uh, on the same day to the state capitol. Um so that was a great experience, good trip. Um Next, I finally, I, I wanted to invite again, everyone to one of the best winter events ever. Uh, this is the 12th annual Illuminite Walk. It's this Friday. uh January 30th. It's downtown at the Skagit River Walk Plaza and Park. This event, of course, is free to the community and it is a celebration of art and light and health and community and we could use a little bit more of all of those things right now, um, so please come down, enjoy live performances from local youth musicians, dancers, artists from 5 to 6, and then that beautiful luminary procession, the parade will, will wind through downtown and then loop back to the park. That parade starts at 6 and January is obviously a dark and cold time in Washington. This kind of feels like a dark and cold time for greater society as

well. So I know for a fact that community and togetherness can, can be an antidote or a, a bright light for all of us in in that feeling of darkness. So, uh, hope to see you come downtown this Friday again, 5 to uh whenever we decide to stop. Thanks Steve. Uh, moving on to new business. Um, we have a couple of items. Item A is the confirmation of the mayor's appointment of Planning Commissioner Brad Windler, uh, we are going to also introduce some arts and confirm some arts commissioners tonight as well. I items A and B, and I'll just let those folks who are here to be sworn in tonight know that we will do that swearing in process after item B. Development Services director Steve Sexton is going to introduce item 8. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, council. It's nice to see everybody in the same room and this is my first time to welcome all the new council members. Uh, so before you this evening is, as the mayor mentioned, a request for an approval of his appointment to the Mount Vernon Planning Commission. This will be the final seat that needs to be filled on the commission, and I was really happy when, uh, Mr. Windler, uh, submitted his application for the seat. I've known Brad for years. My time on the scheduled transit board, and he worked Sed Transit. And I think he brings, as I mentioned in the, in the memo to you, a complimentary skill set to the planning commission, both as a planner and the transportation experience that he has and continues to to work in that field. So. I can't recommend him any further than I, I, I'd think it would be a great addition. So with that, any questions for me or also questions for or emotion motion. to approve the appointment I'll make a motion I beat Randy. All right, I'll get, I'll give the motion to Melissa in a second to Randy, uh, any discussion on this item.

All right, all in favor, say it. All opposed say no. Os passes. Thank you, thank you, Steve, and thank you, Bratt. um item B is the confirmation of mayor's reappointment of two arts commissioners and Parks and Rec director Jennifer Berner will introduce the. Good evening, Mayor and counsel. Um, so we have two appointments. Um, they are reappointments to the Arts Commission. Damon Morris and Linda Brookings. Both of them currently sit on the arts commission. They are both very active in the arts commission. Um, Linda Brookings used to work for the Parks and Recreation department and um chair of the arts commission, um, and she wanted to come back when she retired and um continue volunteering on the arts commission, and she wants to continue with that effort and Damon is um works at the um College in the arts and performing arts, um, and, um, has a host of other um gifts that he brings to the arts commission. So we strongly recommend reappointing both of these members to our arts commission. Questions for Jennifer. Yeah, I don't have a question, but I got the opportunity to serve on the arts commission with these two votes. Had a great time, so thank you. Um, and I would love to be the person that makes the motion to reappoint both of you to the Arts commission. I'll second that All right. Function by Anna and the second by Mary need discussion. Mm All the papers say aye. I all the posts say no. motion passes. Thank you so much. Thank you. Let's, uh, let's do that swearing in process, and we'll sign that talk amongst

yourself, talk amongst yourself. Yes Let's do this for the camera over here. OK so that you have that, um, and we will, we'll swear Brad in first. Then you talk. So raise your right knee, you get up. Hi Brad Wiley. Hi, Brad Windler, do solemnly swear Do you solemnly swear that I will support, that I will support the Constitution and laws. The Constitution and laws of the United States, of the United States, and the Constitution and laws. The Constitution and laws of the state of Washington, of the state of Washington, and that I will faithfully and impartially and that I will faithfully and impartially perform and discharge, perform and discharge the duties of the duties of Mount Vernon Arts Commission member. No, Mount Vernon planned commitment and Mount Vernon Planning commission member, making sure you're awake. towards the city of Mount Vernon, for the city of Mount Vernon and and for the county of Skagitt, and then for the county of Skagget state of Washington, state of Washington, according to law, according to law, to the best of my ability and understanding. To the best of my ability and understanding. In 2 copies. I'll have my signature of one and we'll send you off with one. OK, Damon. I. process of elimination. Arts commission number right I, Damon Morris. I, Damon Morris, do solemnly swear, do solemnly swear that I will support, that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States. The Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington and the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington that I will faithfully and impartially, that I will faithfully and impartially perform and discharge, perform and discharge the duties of Mount Vernon

Arts Commission member. The duties of Mount Vernon Arts Commission member for the City of Mount Vernon, the city of Mount Vernon in and for the county of Skagitt in and for the county of Skagtchett, state of Washington, state of Washington. According to law, according to law, to the best of my ability and understanding. To the best of my ability and understanding. Thank you we And Brad, I think I need to sign one of yours. There we go Thank you Excellent. Thanks, thank you, gentlemen. Yes All council member Hudson has a question. Yeah, I think so We can, uh have a motion to amend the agenda. I'd like to amend the agenda, um um, I don't need. Um, and I'd like to delay that to have a more robust study session. where some of the questions that were asked tonight, we could, um, really dig in further. to perhaps uh let the public hear more of the, the conversation that we did have partially last year. So we haven't had, I mean, it, it hasn't been um as broadly heard perhaps. And I'd like to have that discussion, um, in like a committee meeting A second time So, counsel, there's a, a motion by Mary, seconded by Melissa to strike E from your

agenda tonight. Um, the purpose of that would be to maybe study this item more and discuss it more, um, any, any discussion around that? Um yeah, absolutely. But I would I don't don't I don't necessarily want to go out of order, um, I, I do have questions for the police chief around timing and some of that stuff to make sure that we're not messing up any of that jazz but if we were to schedule it for another time coming up quickly, I'm I'm down with that. I'm fine with that. Chief Chrisman back there, um, would you be available to come back, give a presentation, be available for conversations. questions. Thanks. And we also have a public safety committee meeting coming up next month, and I don't, uh, we could adjust uh the agenda maybe if you wanted to do it that quickly. That's the first, uh, Wednesday of the month. Yeah OK, we'll talk with, uh committee chair Chasero and, and Chief Harris as well and talk about that as a possibility for discussion. Any more discussion on this proposal to, to strike item E. All in favor say aye. Aye, aye, all opposed say no. No. Motion passes OK. Item C is an agreement for a fireworks show and Parks and Rec director Jennifer Berner will present this. Jennifer. Good evening, counsel again. Um, so before you is um a contract for Western Display fireworks. Um, this is a company who has supplied fireworks for us for several

years. Um, they have given us a new proposal for this year. It is the 250th birthday, um, so I wanna make sure that um this event is memorable for our community and safe for our community. um, with making sure that um we provide something for the community to help in this celebration of this event. Um, due to the painting of the division Street Bridge and limiting um the accessibility to the west side. Um, we are proposing that the event focus will be on the east side over by the riverwalk, and we are planning to bring in um a band to play probably about an hour, hour and a half before the fireworks go off and the fireworks go off usually around 10 o'clock, um, and so knowing that we will have folks over on the Edgewater Park site. We'll have some of our park staff over there. We will not be emphasizing that location as the primary location, and so we will be setting up a meeting with our police department to go over how we um will change up this year and have more of our focused be over along the riverwalk. The riverwalk usually is pretty crowded, but we'll expand that focus a little bit for this year, um, and so we just need to move forward with putting this contract in place so we can move forward with the fireworks for the 4th of July event this year. Um. I'm here for any questions that you might have. All right, questions for, comments, uh, for Jennifer. Yes, I'll be the first one. Jennifer, I'm just curious Uh. We all know how I feel about fireworks. I, I love to

have a display, but I don't feel that I'm glad they're not legal within the city anymore. That said, we set them off over the river and environmentally, I just have a hard time with that Have we ever considered somewhere else in the city or setting them off over the river is the safest place over there. I just Mhm it's just all dumping in the river. um we have looked at other locations. We do not have a safe other location. The other place that we were looking at was at Bakerview Park. We just don't have the clearance zones, um, and that's where we run into the problem. Um, is the clearance zones that we have to have for the fireworks. The only place that has that adequate clearance zone is at Edgewater Park, um, that is a public park facility that we have, um, at our disposal. Um. I know that in um Burlington, they shoot the fireworks off over when they did fireworks. It was over by the river as well. Um, in some ways there's probably the safety piece of that, um, but I understand what you're saying environmentally. I don't have any information on that. Um, I can do some homework on that if you would like. Um, it's OK for, right? Maybe down the road. I know you got a lot on your plate, so just it's not like we're going to miraculously come up with some place where so it's, we did look into drones and things of that nature too. Um, the costs on those are starting to come down slightly, um, but

it's um pretty costly to do a show that would make any kind of impact. Um, there are some that are smaller, but it just don't feel like they would make the impact that people are looking for, um, and maybe as that becomes more popular, the price, I know the price point has dropped, but it's still, um, to do a show that would make an impact is still pretty um a lot more costly than what we're spending on fireworks, drone show really isn't worth the money spent, so I did watch their own show at the huskies this last fall, and it's no good. Are you disappointed. I was very disappointed I don't drones. No smoke debris or none of that. But we have been looking at other ideas, trying to figure out if there is a different way to do this Um, it's just hasn't um we haven't come across something at this point. Thank you. Thanks for indulging me. Any other questions or comments on this one? Any motions? Move to approve. Second, motion by Andrew and a second by Navor. More discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say no. Motion passes. Item D is proposed equipment purchase for Parks and Jennifer will tell you about this one as well. Yes, so super excited about this one to bring this for you with the passing of the levye, we had in the levy budget, you know, as you know, we had two budgets, um, and when the levy passed, we were able to integrate into the levy budget for our budget for 2026. We had a new piece of equipment in that particular um budget that would help us, it's primary use for us right now is going to be field maintenance and um some ground maintenance Um, we were able to demo this piece of equipment twice last year, so we know the value that it can bring to the department

and the time saving element that it will bring to the department and we were able to work with the vendor and get the price point to be just right under 60,000, which is what we had to spend, um, so we took some of the attachments off that we wouldn't be using right now and we can program those in later, but the ones that we really needed right now. Um, so we were able to work with the vendor to get it down to our budget number that we needed to fall within. Um, and so at this point it's an ABI force Z23, which actually means nothing to any of you, but we're super excited about, um, and it's to maintain the ball fields primarily and do some ground maintenance, um, and one of the biggest things is it has um this cool little device on it that it actually tells you how it will automatically level the field as you go, um, and it adjusts as you go. So when we were putting in our ball fields at Hillcrest Park that took us several weeks with a laser level trying to get those fields where they needed to be. We could have done it in 2 days. with this piece of equipment or less. So it will be time saving for us, um, and it will be a piece of equipment that has flexibility for us to buy other pieces in the future for it to perform some other functions for us as well. Um, I included in the packet, um, it's a sole source provider. Um, I included in the packet some information on it so you have a visual of that um machine piece, um, and, um, the quote. So if you have any questions, happy to answer those questions for you, counsel. It's the ABI

Force Z23HLT, and I've always kind of wanted one. Can we please? We'll let you come right at, do the I've never heard of it. I anyone have questions for Jennifer? Yeah, Council member West. Thank, thank you, Mr. Mayor. OK, so um regarding the ABI force and a whole lot of letters. 23. Thank you Thank you any chance of getting that deployed and prior to uh Little League season for Bakerview. We, if it goes through tonight, it just depends. They were saying that they have some that they could get to us probably fairly quickly, um, and so that is our goal. Um, it all depends on supply and demand, um, but that is something that we asked about and they did say they had some um in stock and that there was probably a good chance. Good, thank you. Good to hear that you've thought that. through Other questions Move tour One second, by Andrew or a second by Demi. Uh, I hope it comes in red. All in favor say aye. I, I'll opposed, say no. Motion passes. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you very much. Now walking up, batting 5th from the on deck circle. Kevin Rogerson, our city attorney, to introduce an ordinance amending the city's purchasing policies. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the city council before you as ordinance. id ent ified by the city clerk is 3935 This amends several chapters of your municipal code pertaining to purchasing, contracting for goods and services, properties, both real and personal and donations for the city. We've had two public committees on this issue, um, in addition, what I've tried to do here is provide you a memo. that provides both the category of contract and what would be

delegated to the executive. So if you wish to make changes, we can track that in the ordinance. um, you have the plenary authority to to delegate contracts. There's no state law limitation to that particular issue. This is a purely policy local decision. um cities do delegate a certain amount of authority so we can conduct our operations in a prudent, efficient and cost-effective manner. Um, this is staff's recommendation. We've been over this. I think the PowerPoint presentation that provided a grid. uh from your public works directors in the packet. I did add the memo. Happy to ask or answer any questions you may have. This is in legislative tract form, so any new language is underlying any language that you're removing from current law is strike through. One edition I didn't make that you don't have uh in the previous as I did add that upon request of the city council, the mayor shall provide a report. of all contracts that do not require council approval. I believe that was a discussion. Other than that, I think some scribing errors every time I read these things, I, I find a typo. I'm sure there's more. We'll, we'll fix those. Thank you, Kevin. Uh, questions for Kevin, counsel, this is ordinance 3939. clarification, you said what you just stated is not in this. No, it is. So if you look at a municipal code 2.96020. The last sentence has been added. OK. Upon request, the city council mayor shall provide a report of all contracts, not requiring council approval that have been entered or terminated through this chapter. Thank you. Yes, Council member We Mr. Mayor. So just clarification, is this the $350,000 spending limit, um, in Greece

This includes that. So if you look at my memo, as a general statement, $350,000 is your benchmark for most of the categories of contracts. There are different limits for different purchases set forth. You want to purchase property the pro project that goes up to $150,000. It was all. far below that Um, or if it's a lot more than 10% for market value. So it's not categorically across the board the 350,000 but it is for many of the contracts. that the city would typically enter into public works, purchases of goods. buying software A lot of them is a 350,000 proposal. Big ones that are in the budget and have been previously approved in the, in the budget. So. yeah, council member and I guess just for the audience that's listening or uh watching this um in the public, uh, this all of this is still subject to the budgetary constraints that, city council, yeah, there is a legal requirement that you have to adopt a balanced budget and if uh you enter into a contract, it needs to conform to your budget. or a budget amendment would be forthcoming. Mr. Mayor, I did send a an inquiry to staff this week trying to find out if there's any reason why the 350,000 was was chosen in meaning meaning, is there anything that we've wanted to get that would require that amount. And that from the response it didn't seem so. so I would make an

amendment or I'd like to propose an amendment to reduce that amount to 200,000 rather than the 350,000. That would be an incremental rise, and maybe if we need to amend it again next year, that would be one thing, but it's a big jump from where we are now to 350, and I, I wouldn't be comfortable with that at this time. I'll second that And the, and just so I'm clear what I'm seconding is all upper limits that are $350,000 currently will be lowered to the $200,000 limit. Not that everything will be set at $200,000. Is that correct? Great. I would second that motion Any discussion Um, yeah, I can say why I'm supporting that. Um, it's a huge jump and um we do have a lot of contracts that come before us, um, on previous councils, I feel like um maybe contracts were um maybe old news to them. Um, we'd have a lot of people who'd been on council for a long time and so we, it felt like we were doing kind of a pencil whip, and it was kind of off to the races with it. Um, I don't think that that's the council that we currently have. I think that we're going to dive into contracts. We're going to talk about them. We're going to discuss them, we're going to be more a part of it. This gives us an opportunity to do that, um, and I will say that since I've been on counsel, there's been a couple of different changes, and this would be one of them where we are moving our legislative authority slowly over to executive authority. This is an example of that. I generally speaking, find that to be problematic, not because I don't love our mayor and I don't love our staff, um, but because one day we might not have these fine folks. And when that day comes, it's important that we don't have big shifts. This is a legislative body meant to tamper those shifts, and that's what we're supposed to be doing. And if we continue to give our legislative authority

over will be having those shifts more like we're seeing with other places, and I think that that's just I'm not saying good or bad. I'm saying that this could be a tempering force, and I hope that's what we achieve here. Sorry, that was much more long than. Yes, I too would just like to express my love for the mayor. This, this feels really warm. This is also getting weird, yeah, um, great, no, as, as we said when we presented this, this is purely a policy decision. I'm we're not gonna, you know, we propose the most efficient, right ? But um, yeah, points taken, um, and any other discussion on that? And any clarification needed on what we're voting on, Kevin, yeah, the legislative intentta is paramount for us lawyers, so we make sure we reflect that in the written law. So by the motion looking at the ordinance, you would reduce these amounts to $200,000 delegated. Purchase service contracts, goods supplies, materials, software, computers, telecommunications. public works contracts, and change orders for public works that could be done administratively to a $200,000 level. By nature of the amended motion. that that represents what we're talking, yeah, give me one second. OK. uh Kevin, my intent was um, anything that's being increased from the the from the amount now, right? Would be instead of the $350 amount would go to 20, 200k, correct. I just want to make sure we memorialize on the record so when I have the ordinance. I'll be making changes and signing it, and the mayor will be signing it. We have a record that we're doing the legislative I believe that's

true. If it's not true, perhaps the next meeting we'll all have a document that we're looking at together, and we can make sure that next council meeting in case this isn't actually. we can work on it then if that's fine, but I, it seems like that's, yeah, you certainly can always amend it. Yeah, it seems like that is what we were attempting. Thank you. Everyone clear on what we're voting on. Yeah, where it says 350,000 on here. It's 200,000. That's my understanding. Excellent. Still ordinance 39, 35, as amendment, as amended I believe the amendment includes your profession of love for me, and so all in favor say aye aye, all opposed say no. Motion passes. Thank you. Thanks, Kevin. Um, item G is a recurring agreement with North Sound Behavioral Health and Chief Police Chief Dan Chrisman will have this one. Good evening. Good evening. Council Mayor. Can I get some of that love? We love you. I know you do. Thank you. Um, this is an, in a local agreement with Scatt County for one of our uh embedded social workers. Uh, this is a reoccurring contract as, as the, uh, mayor said, um, it, uh, is an agreement for 2/3 of the funding for one social worker not to exceed $77,000 then there's an additional $17,000 that we receive um that is incidental costs, things that if they need to buy something for someone or help someone along the way, that money is in the bank for them. So we're just asking you to approve, uh, the mayor to sign that agreement. Again, pretty simple. Questions for that, for the chief on that one. the motions, so moved. Sinba Novo in a second by is that Melissa or is that? Any discussion All in favor say aye, aye, all opposed say no. Motion passes. Thank you.

Uh, for item 7, I will ask our city attorney to please call the mayor and city council and executive sessions. Yes, invite the mayor and the members of city council to enter into an executive session to discuss the legal counsel matters relating to enforcement actions, litigation or potential litigation to which the city of the governing body or any member acting in an official capacity is or is likely to become a party when public knowledge regarding such discussion is likely to result in other an adverse legal or financial consequence to the city pursuant to RCW 4230 110 subsection 1i. and to discuss issues related to collective bargaining sessions and planning or adopting strategy or positions related to collective bargaining, which is exempt from the open public Meetings Act for Senator RCW 4230 140 subsection 4 executive session time will be 35 minutes. We would reconvene at 8:40 unless extended no final action after. Can you add a, a front end 5 minute or to 10 minute bathroom break. Sure, I will recess for 5 minutes and then enter into executive session, which would, unless extended, uh, finalize at 8:45. No final action after And with that, we will adjourn the city of Mount Vernon City Council meeting for Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 at 8:07 p.m.