City Council Regular - Regular Meeting

Being as close as I can be to acknowledging the accomplishments of the past.

Thank you.

Black is way off. Is it? No.

I've got 659.

It's like a Vendor. It could be about 15 seconds. Yeah.

It's right now. It's for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

And we have roll call, please. Mr.

Pillar?

Here.

Thor? Here. Matthew? Here. Husky? Here. Hines? Here. Alden Grayson?

Here.

Member Berkowitz, excuse me.

Okay. This is the public's opportunity to provide comments to council. While you may supplement your comments with printed handouts, electronic or digital aids will not be permitted during the public comments. Please state your name and your city of residence. You'll have three minutes to speak. Please direct your comments to the council as a whole instead of individual members, staff, or audience members. Please come forward or raise your hand in the Zoom app. Please remember that public comments are not a discussion and the public comments are to inform the council of your views. Do we have anyone that would like to make three minutes worth of comments?

Of course. Darcy, Camas. There's a few things. A couple things. One thing being the whole downtown mandating what can be put in down there. We have 30,000 people in this town almost. I don't think you even talk to 1%. Our city has lost the bulk of its big industry. We've lost the majority of the mill, Fisher Headquarters, UL, Archer, other big businesses. bought up a lot of them by the school district and shame on them. You're getting it for a dance because they don't have to pay property taxes on said property, which in turn goes to us dictating what can go downtown. It is a small area. This is a very small little area downtown. I go to the bank minimum every other day. When I go to the bank, I'll do something else. And we don't need to dictate what can go on and who can be renting within this town. That doesn't look good. The other thing, I'd love to know how many, what were the promises of the apartments that were put in? You know, their parking and having a dumpster out front, that looks awesome. Looked really great during Camas days too. Parking, right on their website. The majority of the people park on the street. That was our concern. putting in that apartment complex, which is not full, far from full. And I'd love to know how many low-income people got in. I've talked to three different people who applied, and they had to get co-signers to be able to move in. Well, the second they had a co-signer, they were no longer allowed the sliding scale because they used both incomes. So what is the transparency there? It's not helping anybody. And, you know, having one parking space per five apartments or whatever, that's not, that sounds great, but it's not feasible. We have limited parking throughout this whole town. And I will keep the rest of what I have to say until the end. Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to? Yeah. That's a big two.

Brad Richardson, Camas resident. I'm here on behalf of the Port of Camas, Washougal, just for a nice little update. So we were really glad to be able to host on July 23rd, the Grove Field open house in Hangar E1. And we were really happy to see a good amount of people from our community come out. We had a packed house. We actually had people having to stand in the back while we provided a presentation again on where we're at with the airport master plan, which again, we're still at the beginning of an 18 to 24 month process. We're still taking public feedback. And it was just a wonderful evening where our executive director, Trang Lam, provided a really great presentation and then answered questions, had conversations, had discussions, Our technical advisory committee provided some baseline vision statements and ideas that they were starting to think of based on the original surveys that we received, based on the technical expertise that they've received, and just the general planning. The people at that event were able to provide their feedback and their thoughts in relation to that vision. So again, we're continuing to try to match a plan that fits the culture of our community. And we launched our second survey, which is open until August 7th. There is a community and public and general resident survey and there is an aviation survey. So I recommend everybody here fill it out, share it with your friends, post it on your social, send a couple texts. Do whatever you can. We really want to get as much feedback as possible from the community. And so we're just we're very excited. So August 7th, only a few more days to get the word out on that. And then we were just excited on July 31st to get together with a few couple hundred of our closest friends at the Marina Park. uh for a wonderful night uh with five guys named mo i want to appreciate everybody that came out um just wonderful to see the community getting together uh we mentioned and joked that there was a spontaneous dance floor that broke out that's okay the port will allow it uh we were very grateful for that um and yeah just thank you for helping get the word out it was a very successful event and it's exactly uh the kind of things we want to see to improve the quality of life by gathering people together in these spaces that are ours that we have the blessing to steward for them so Thank you for a few minutes today.

Thank you. Yeah, one other person sitting. Yeah, that was a no. So we will go to online. Is there anyone with their hands raised in the Zoom app?

There are no hands raised in Zoom.

Okay. We'll move right along. Uh, what would the council do with the consent agenda?

Very moved to approve the consent agenda.

It was moved by hide and sending him to approve the consent agenda. Any discussion all in favor say aye aye. All those say nay. Are there any abstentions to passes? Okay. Your announcement to turn it over right now to Sean McPherson. Introduction. Thanks, Your Honor. Thanks, Mayor.

So I'm proud to announce that we have a new assistant city attorney. You actually, I think you just pointed her out.

I called her out.

Yeah.

It's Sophie Webster. and she's a canvas high school graduate of 2021 she graduated law school just a couple months ago um most recently though she served a clerkship with the federal judge and she's going to be handling your city court prosecutions uh she has some experience in that regard she worked last fall at the district court doing some of that work for uh in the district court for the prosecution division and so we're happy to have her on board and um So she's going to be handling what we assign her, but most particularly for city court and fill in as needed. But again, it's like to welcome to the city, Sophie Webster.

Everyone, just nice to meet you all. And thanks for the opportunity to serve the city this way. I'm super excited. Like Sean said, I grew up here, went to high school here, and I'm really happy to be back and serving the community this way. So thank you.

Welcome aboard. I'm into mayor's announcements. It was a spectacular victory for the bathtub races. These are people that are going to come to you because they're pushers. We had Tim Hoffman and John Knorr as the pushers and the one who was steering the bathtub is not here today, but Marilyn Burke did a fabulous job and it was exquisite that Washougal got beat. Thank you to all of you. That's it for my announcements. Next item on the agenda is going to be resolution number 26-013. Am I missing anything, Alicia? Okay. And it's recognition and naming policy. Alan Peters, Community Development Director, is going to lead this.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Resolution number 26-013 would adopt a city of campus recognition and naming policy. The purpose of the policy would be to establish clear and consistent criteria and processes for naming or renaming city-owned public facilities and streets. City-owned public facilities and streets includes obviously streets, but parks, trails, open spaces, buildings, including portions of a building such as meeting rooms and other infrastructure systems and components. the policy is intended to ensure that names reflect the city's history values and sense of place and provide inclusive and respectful recognition of individuals cultures and natural features significant to camas we've received a lot of interest uh for um from folks in recognizing the contributions of people that have been connected to canvas over the years but until Today, we still lack a comprehensive policy. At our workshop, I mentioned that our street naming manual does include some guidance, but again, no comprehensive policy. So the policy also outlines naming authority, which includes other boards or department heads, depending on the type of facility, but ultimate authority is vested with council. in the proposed policy. So staff recommends that council adopt the policy by adopting resolution number 26-013. Okay.

Are there any questions for panel leaders? Is Martin on the Zoom app? Okay. It looks like we have no questions. Do we have any motions? Mayor, I move to approve resolution number 26-013. Second. It was moved by Council Members Wallerich and seconded to approve resolution number 26-013. Any discussion? The resolution will be read by title only. Oops. Oh, there is one down here. Go ahead.

No discussion. I just want to say thank you. It was very comprehensive. I didn't know how it was all going to come together. You did an amazing job, so thank you. Thank you for that.

Okay. I think at this point the resolution will be read by title only.

Resolution number 26-013, a resolution adopting a recognition and naming policy for city-owned public facilities and streets.

All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Are there any abstentions? Motion passes. Thank you. Next on the agenda are public comments. We have another opportunity to provide comments to the council. While you may supplement your comments with printed handouts, electronic or digital aids will not be permitted during the public comments. Please state your name and your city of residence. You'll have three minutes. Please direct your comments to the council as a whole instead of individual members, staff, or audience members. Please come forward if you're in the chamber or raise your hand in the Zoom app.

Darcy Kamas-Washington. A couple things. One thing about the whole downtown thing, you would never get ADA compliance to have a business upstairs. At all. I've been up there back in the 70s and stuff. Those stairs are like this. Secondly, I really appreciate you getting back to me about the sidewalk issue. I still think it's weird, but I appreciate it. And I do appreciate the fact that I can get a hold of people within the city about different questions, and I will get a response. But I can send an email to the board and not hear anything. And this is why I feel one person out of almost 30,000, there needs to be town halls. It's all well and good that we can come in here and say, oh, please, or, oh, I'm mad. It's another thing to have time to where we can get answers. I don't care to hear my own voice. I don't care to spend my time down here, actually. But there needs to be town halls where people talk and get answers, respectful answers. They need to be recorded. And there was something else, and I don't remember what. I hope everybody has a real. Oh, I know what it is. Everything's going really good at the tennis courts. I know it's on the way here and it's not anything within the city except people need to be reminded. Don't do a pickleball court here and a pickleball court here blocking the complete tennis court. It's happening night and day. I actually went a couple of days ago. Some kids were like, God, we wanted to play tennis, but they're just playing pickleball. I was like, I got it. I have menopause. And I was nice. And the people met and, you know, but mindfulness, we all need to practice mindfulness and it's nice not having the lights on all night. So thank you.

Okay. Uh, Anyone else in the chamber who would like to speak in three minutes? No. Is there anyone on the Zoom app with their hand raised?

No, hands raised in Zoom.

Okay. With that, we will move on. Thank you. Staff reports. No updates, Mayor. No updates. Good boy. Council. Even though I see an empty chair at the end, I'm gonna ask Martin Elsengrave to give an update.

Thank you, Mayor, and thanks everyone for your comments. I just have a couple of quick ones. Yeah, first of all, congratulations to us for winning the bathtub race that was fixed last year. It shows that when it's fair, we can win. I met Dave at Natalia's afterwards and gave him a little ribbing. So that was really enjoyable. So thank you, Tim and John and Marilyn for doing that. The second thing is the Lackamas Watershed Council is holding a late cleanup on the 26th of September. So I'm probably going to mention this during every meeting until we get there. We're doing it in conjunction with the Ivy League. So it should be a fun event. We're going to do all three lakes in Camas this year. So we have a lot of volunteers coming up. And also thank you to the city staff who've been meeting with us. to help us sort that out. The last thing that I have is, if you haven't seen it yet, there's an article in the Columbian about a young woman from Camas High who is working with the Lacamas Watershed Council and has put a floating island into Falling Leaf Lake to test removal of nutrients by hanging the roots of these plants off the island into the lake. And although it's a It's a small test effort. You know, we'd need a much bigger island to actually have much of an effect. It's the sort of involvement that we really enjoy. So I encourage everybody to go have a look at that article that was, I think, I believe, published today. And that's all I have. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Council Member, hi.

Thank you, Mayor. New things. I want to give a big thank you to the parks or what was workers for trimming the entire heritage trail, all three and a quarter miles, but a ton of work, especially within the heat. So thanks to them. A lot of public comments on form of government. Encourage them to attend on August 11th. Some fireworks comments, questions on Wall 13 PFAS, and of course, the abandoned RV on Lake Road. So that one took the most, actually. Jennifer, congratulations on a very successful Canvas Days. Attended Stefan Hausinger's promotion to lieutenant, so congratulations and a thank you to him and his family. And appreciate Chief Jones inviting us to that. Um, and then, um, I want to comment, um, to the, uh, planning department really Allen on, uh, green mountain. And that Mark, the first time I went out there and checked out the development trails really well done. So, um, and then I'll call out the Saturday's, uh, cruise to shoot at 54 40. So another public event. So that's all I have. Okay. Thank you.

Councilmember Eschke.

Thank you. So first, I want to also recognize Campus Day was a very successful event as always. Thanks, Jennifer, your team and all city staff who supported. I know there were a lot of other departments at the city involved with before and after the event. So I want to thank everyone. I enjoyed it. And this year, for the first time, along with other council members, I was in the parade. I'm giving candies to all kids. I knew I would run out of it, but still, I didn't learn my lesson enough to give less at the beginning, or maybe I bring some more next year. So moving on. I am very grateful to be part of the technical advisory committee, along with our community development director, Alan Peters. The first meeting, as we heard, was in July 23rd. I also had the tour into the airport for the first time. And that was my first time actually walking in the airport without having security badge or someone to stop me like, what you are doing walking on the airport. That was really great to be there. That facility has a lot of potential for growth and I'm really grateful to be part of that committee. So the next phase will start with learning about the existing facility, including water line and if the port needs to extend from the city facility. Georgia Pacific Cleaning Advisory Group, I was part of on July 24th, during Campus Day, the DCA had the tabling and I just... join them to support. And I think my job was to attract other people to come to the table. So I was passing them to Caroline so they can ask questions. I even asked a balloon guy to come and then a stage next to us. So it brings families to come and ask questions. So that was good. And everything else. That was all. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. council members so large? Most of the things they said, okay?

Unfortunately, I've been out of town a lot lately, so I've missed some events, but yeah. Thanks for the reminder, 5440. I knew about the cruise issue, you guys just didn't know where it was, so hopefully the weather will be okay.

What they said. Okay, thank you. Council Member Sonescu.

Thank you, Mayor. I've had the filthiest notes about Canvas days. And thank you, Chief Jones and Chief Free and Will Noonan and your department, Scott. If I tried to thank all of you individually, I'd forget somebody. Chris Wachowski just provided me with a recap on numbers from Placer AI. We are so amazing. So on Saturday alone, we had about 14,000 people in Canvas. So pretty exciting. And from all areas, mainly from Camas and Washougal, but it spans many, many different areas. So anyway, it was exciting. So I would just thank you to all of you. And Perky Pyle, who just takes care of all our banners. I mean, again, I don't want to name names because I'd leave someone out. And the city, I always say the chamber organizes it. The city runs it because the city is amazing. Things just happen. So. Much gratitude to the city for a fabulous campus days. Stefan Hossinger, I was at the pinion ceremony with Councilmember Hine as well. I love that Chief Jones does that. It's nice to recognize them as they move up in their positions. Court concert was amazing. Brad Richardson spoke a little bit about that. It was hot. It was fun. I was dancing, but it was a great time. I mean, the band was great. I helped the Lions in the beer garden. It was really a fun time. Town Hall, August 11th, everybody, mark your calendars. I'm very excited about this. I'm excited to hear from citizens, and I'm excited to interact with them as well. And finally, welcome to Sophie Webster. You're the team. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Knorr.

For most of it, I'd say what they said, but I do have to acknowledge Canvas Day. So thank you, Jennifer, and your team, and acknowledging all the city participants also. I do wish that a sense of competition would age gracefully like our bodies do, but for the next day, I was feeling the pain of pushing that car just a little too fast, kicking off hard on that. But thank you, Tim, for the assist on there. I did have a constituent talk to me at Canvas Days and he brought up Bill Walton and something that's attributed some activities to Bill Walton. And I said, look, I may not know a lot of things, but I know Bill Walton and the 1977 Blazers because I lived through it, which was, that was 49 years ago, by the way, if you do the math, it was a long time. And so we went back and forth. Well, he did his homework and he emailed me a couple of days later and said, I'm sorry, I met Bill Russell. Bill Russell through the elbows. He took it a step further and pointed out that Bill Walton had a brother who also played basketball with him. And his mom had told his brother, Bruce Walton, to throw an elbow once in a while and protect your brother out there on the court. And he did. So I thank the constituent for schooling me up on something I didn't know there. The last thing I want to mention, I had somebody else demonstrate for me. some quiet pickleball paddles. They are designed to play a little more quietly. It's a fabric, and the ball is kind of a fabric. I meant to bring it here because I said it comes up once in a while at City Council. They said, yeah, here, take it. Take it, show them. I don't have it here with me, but there is a quiet option once in a while out there. I'm not saying that it ought to be used, but for people to think about it, there is a quiet option. I didn't know. I guess we didn't expect it to evolve that way. Those are all my updates. Thank you.

Mayor, may I add one more thing? Yes. I have to self-report with the bathtub races. So yes, congratulations fellow council members. One of the persons on the Washougal team that was going to be the pusher, who's a younger ex-Marine person, I told him 1.30, so he missed it. So Shugle's now saying that I rigged it. So Rose stepped in and did an amazing job. So yeah, and they said, you rigged it. I said, well, I don't know that I'm that smart. I would have done that. But yeah, so I think they're going to be looking for a rematch next year. So I think both years it was a little what happened. I just needed to self-report. Thank you, man.

Thank you. Okay. Well, with that... I think we are done except for an executive session. Yeah. So the topic will be property acquisition, RCW 42.30.110. 0 estimated time is 15 minutes. Council is going to go into executive session authorized by our 4230. 110 and discuss property acquisition notes will be taken in the executive session session. A decision will not be made at this meeting. More time is needed account. the chambers and announce the executive session will be extended by however many minutes are needed that we will go into the mayor's office

Thanks Alicia.

Let her know. The executive session has been completed. There was no action taken and we will close the meeting.