City Council - Regular Meeting

Pardon me. That was a little bit, well, it was effective anyway. I meant business and that's what we're up to. Welcome to the City Council meeting for August 4th, 2026. Will the clerk please call roll?

Mayor Pro Tem Errol Tremolata. Present. Council Member Brendan Elwood.

Present.

Council Member Mark Jocelyn. Council Member Heather Cullen.

Here.

Council Member Rob McFarland. Present. Council Member Christina Rustick. Present. Council Member Susan Torgerson.

Here.

All are present with the exception of Council Member Jocelyn, who is excused.

Very good. Thank you so much for that. Would you be kind enough to lead us in the flag salute?

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

Okay, well, good evening, everybody, and welcome. For those of you here in chambers, we love to see you here and online. I'm not sure how many we have online tonight, but I'm sure we're going to find out. So let's take it away and begin. Mayor Pro Tem, can you make a motion to approve tonight's agenda?

Motion to approve City Council meeting agenda for August 4th, 2026, as written.

Thank you so much. Thank you very much. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. And I'm going to listen to Rob's voice there, so I didn't mean to. Glad to see you online. Thank you for joining. Okay, moving on to consent agenda. But before we do, Council, does anyone wish to pull an item from consent for debate tonight? Seeing none, can we make a motion to approve consent?

Motion to accept consent. Second.

Second.

Okay, very good motion by Ms. Cullen and seconded by Mr. Tremolata. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Boy, we're moving along. And this is exciting stuff. Well, partly. audience participation. We're always grateful to have to hear from the audience and the community in general. So at this time, if there's anyone who would like to step up to the podium, please state your name, please spell your last name for the clerk. Way to go, Jacqueline. And you have three minutes to speak. We are so excited that you're here and have at it.

Hi, y'all. I'm Jacqueline Goodbar, G-O-O-D-B-A-R, just like the candy bar. I live here in North Bend, and I'm also serving on the board of directors for the North Bend Downtown Foundation. So I'm here just to give y'all a quick update about what we've been up to this summer and what we've got coming up. So we had our first 4th of July parade on, obviously, the 4th of July. We weren't sure how many people to expect, but we had over a thousand people show up to either participate or watch the parade. It was amazing. I don't know if any of y'all came, but it was an absolute delight. We got nothing but amazing feedback and everybody was like, so you're doing this again next year, right? So. We'll see. Block party was also excellent. Went off without a hitch. No issues whatsoever. We also had about 3000 people show up to our block party. We had lots of people coming to these events from out of town to people coming from. Seattle, just to kind of take a break from the city, visiting a small town. It was amazing. Summer info booth. So we have been doing a summer info booth the last two months. We prioritize being out there during the World Cup weekends and just welcoming visitors to our city, handing out. We made these new maps. I don't know if you all saw in there. It's a big tear off sheet. And so it's got a directory of all of our downtown businesses. It's got a map on it. It's excellent. So we were handing those out to people. We even met somebody who is here celebrating her recent retirement. She's like, well, as soon as I retired, I got sick for two weeks, but now I'm here and I'm just ready to be retired. And we're like, this is a great place to be retired. Thank you for coming to our town. We also installed the kiosk that's over in front of Tweed's restaurant. It has a bigger version of our map and our directory. And then there's also a area below where everybody can put in their brochures. And the Snoqualmie Valley Transit has been using it to put in their bus schedule information things, which is awesome to be able to get that into a really prominent place where people in our community can access it. We've got a couple upcoming events. So we have our monthly meetup cleanup on Tuesday, August 11th from 4 to 5. If anybody would like to join us, meet us at the train depot. We've got the most fetching vests for you as well as grabbers, trash bags. We got all the stuff. Just bring yourself if you would like to. Just a reminder, the Snoqualmie Valley Sunflower Festival is starting on August 15th and it's running through September 15th. And that is throughout the valley. But just make sure that you visit Sunflower Sisters, which are right here in North Bend. And they're also doing a fundraiser. They're selling those sunflower decals where you can put a custom message on there. We have two updates on the foundation's fundraising efforts. So our disc golf fundraiser has been rescheduled and it is going to happen now on Saturday, September 27th at the disc golf field, you know, over there behind South Fork. So that's going to be great. We're going to have whole sponsors. There's probably going to be a bar crawl.

Thank you, Jacqueline. Okay, we're off and running. I love it. Anyone else from our beautiful community wish to speak tonight for public comment? Come on up, Sandy. Glad to see you. Please. I think it's okay.

Yes. Five minutes to seven. So I raced down here. Yeah. I think most of you know me, but my name is Sandy Naft. I live in the Wood River area. I want to talk about kind of what's going on around us right now, which is the smoke, the fires, all that kind of stuff. I understand you guys are kind of in the middle of preparing an emergency response plan. And I wanted to bring something to your attention that happened to my family with the recent fires in Spokane. I have a sister who is extremely disabled. She is in assisted living, and the fires came so rapidly. She was part of the Old Trails fire in the 80s. Indian Canyon or whatever it's called over there. They had to go so quickly. They took her meds and she and three other patients and basically were loaded onto the disabled buses that Spokane has, which they have a hundred of them and I think that's great. But she also has a very specific need, which is she has had the Michael J. Fox surgery for Parkinson's, which means she is kind of a bionic woman, I guess, for lack of a better word. She has a device and electrodes planted in her brain, and she has to have a charger called a DBS. And don't ask me what that stands for, because I don't know. but it has to be charged about every three days. Well, they failed to take that because it wasn't sitting with her meds, and this is a life-saving device. And so when I finally found out where she was transported to, which was the convention center over there, there was no way of I got a hold of the Red Cross, but the Red Cross had no way of getting hold of anyone inside for the first two days, which I think that was a bigness. And so when you guys are preparing your emergency response plan, to keep in mind there may be some very specific medical needs for people, and that there needs to be some sort of a triage as far as communication, like from the get-go, who's going to contact who, so that there is a consistent pattern to take care of everyone. not just, you know, the fleeing families, but also those who are disabled and need extra medical care or maybe some other type of needs that I'm not aware of. So I just kind of wanted to bring that to your attention when you're preparing your emergency response plan, that there may be some additional needs and that communication needs to be set right away, not on day three. if you follow what I'm saying. Thank you. Thank you, Sandy, so much.

Anybody else from our beautiful community wish to speak? Anybody online tonight, Phil?

Not tonight, Your Honor.

Okay, thank you very much. We're going to move on to announcements, presentations, and appointments. Item number nine is the youth appointment to Parks Commission. And I'm going to read our summary statement to begin with. And I see out in our crowd. Yeah, well, anyway, Aileen and her parents. So I'm so glad that you're here with us tonight. So I'll begin. In 2007, the council passed Ordinance 1277, which amended Parks Commission membership and established a youth position to set forth below. Section 1, and we talk about that, and one member shall be a resident of the Snoqualmie Valley School District enrollment area, shall be between the ages of 16 and 18 at the time of appointment, and shall have full voting rights. On September 2, 2025, Aileen Eusebio was appointed to Parks Commission Youth Member Position No. 5 to fill the vacancy left as a result of the expiring term of Ethan Eusebio. Yes, that's your brother. Honored to have had his experience here too. Since that time, Eusebio has enthusiastically served in her position and has indicated she would like to continue to serve her community for another term as youth member of the Parks Commission. Um, I am recommending the reappointment of, uh, Eileen Asubio to youth member position number five on the parks commission. Uh, and I can read that action for you. So let me begin. Motion to approve AB 26, 0, 0, 6, 8, confirming the reappointment of Eileen Asubio to youth member position number five on the parks commission term expiring August 31st, 2027. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Rob, can I hear you?

Yeah, I was debating on a point of order. I believe a council member needs to make the motion.

Wouldn't that be nice? Yeah, let's start that one again. Who would like to step up with that? I would, but I don't have the paper.

It's the very last page.

Good. Motion to approve AB26-068, confirming the reappointment of Eileen Yusubio to youth member position number five on the Parks Commission, term expiring August 31st, 2027. Second.

Thank you. Brendan, would you like to speak to your motion?

First of all, thank you for coming back for more. It's wonderful to see young people get involved with the public process. It's something that we need and you're leading by example. So I appreciate that. And please continue on with your service. I mean, it just gets better and better and better. The more you get involved, the more fun it is. So especially on the Parks Commission, you guys do so much cool stuff over there. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Susan.

Well, thank you for being involved. I mean, everything that Brendan said, but I also want to say the same thing is that really appreciate you being involved. It's a great experience and I'm excited for you. So thank you for stepping up. Wonderful. Anybody else from council wish to say anything?

Ms. Cohen. Yes. Thank you for being on this park commission board and thank you for being a voice for people in your age group and community. Because a lot of times we don't know what your age group would like or consider to be important. And so your voice is very important. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you. I see Rob.

Rob?

I would echo that, particularly Brendan's comments, but also to encourage that you continue throughout your lifetime to give back to your community in this way. It's important. been fundamental to a lot of us that you're in front of tonight and very rewarding for the community as well as yourself.

Thank you, Rob. Anybody else from council wish to make a comment?

Okay.

Well, I would love to make a comment. I'm very honored that you're stepping up again. Thank you for all your hard efforts. And like everybody said at this table, service is really a special experience and you make of it what you want of it, I guess. But please continue on I'd love that for you. And we're so grateful for having you're having a voice for your age bracket. And that's a very valuable thing. So thank you so much. And at this time, if you'd like to come to the podium and say anything, you don't have to, but we'd love to hear. Oh, I am so excited to just know you are. But vote. Hey, hey. Well, as you come forward, I will go back track. Yeah. OK. Motion to approve ABT. Oh, Susan, what?

Did we already make the motion? Yeah.

Thank you. Oh, Lord. Okay, thank you. Motion to approve AB 26-068, confirming the reappointment of Eileen Yusubio to a youth member position number five on the Parks Commission term expiring August 31st, 2027. Now I can say all in favor.

Aye.

Any opposed? Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Okay. Thank you for being with us. Thank you. Oh, I'm really excited to serve again. It was really fun last year and I'm really looking forward to all like the new opportunities and more ways I can help support North Bend. Love it. Thank you.

Can you stick for just a moment and see if there are any questions from our council?

Christina, not to put you on the spot, sorry, but just curious if there was something that was really memorable from this past year for you.

I just really enjoyed like seeing all like the process of like the decision making and like what's happening in the city. So it was really cool to be a part of that. Anybody else? Brendan?

Yes. Apologies up front for putting you on the spot. But I'm interested and you may not think about this yet, but coming at our community from your position, are there things that you're seeing like innovation wise that we as a council body should be considering in the future? Because ultimately when revenue, tax revenue comes in, we have to figure out how to spend it, right? And voices like yours that are critical in shaping those decisions that we have to make. And so if you don't have anything now, that's fine. I understand. But if there are any things that you've seen in your time served that we should be considering or fun things that you think the community should factor into what we have with our current assets, that would be wonderful to hear something.

Yeah, I think currently North Bend is doing pretty good at this. But if we like in the future when we're deciding things, I think it'd be really good to like have a lot of open spaces and like spaces that are like easy to access through just walking or biking. Because a lot of people my age, they don't really drive. And it would be easier to just like get out of the house if it was very more walkable.

And then a follow-up, because we do have a lot of darker months here because of the weather, any sort of creative ideas or something that you can just spitball for us that we should be thinking about in those dark times of year?

Not at the moment, but if you mean dark by literal, then maybe more like lighting. By literal, yeah. Yeah, those people who walk in the morning to go to school, I feel like that would make them feel more safer. And also in general, if they walk at night from places.

That's great. And the third final one, we have another committee, it's called Public Health and Safety. And the point that you just made is a good one for us to be considering as we start moving forward. So it's an open invitation as you continue on your service here. If you come up with ideas that you think would help our community, especially folks of your age and younger residents, you're welcome to come to the Public Health and Safety Committee. And pitch those ideas to us because those are things where we have the chief there. We try to brainstorm on things that we could do for the betterment of our residents. And a lot of people don't know that these committees exist. But if those are things that pop up, we'd totally love to hear your ideas. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Anybody else? Miss Rob? Anybody? Okay. Hold it. No? Okay. I'm going to come up. We're going to get a picture. Okay. Right now. Compared to last year's picture? Yeah, compared to that. Yeah, so our packet doesn't have that in there.

Oh, yeah, it's on page 114.

Well, it's on page 114. But I can't find it. Maybe it is here, and I just didn't see it.

Yes.

Oh, there it is. I had to go to the packet online to find it. You know, I really was relying on those page numbers.

Well, people online can't see this, what we're seeing right now, but we've got a cow elk grazing in the, oh, there's another one running by. We've got quite a scene happening. I'm sorry we can't share that with you. Exposure, take two.

Open the door, let them in. Yeah.

Oh my, that's a story right there. Okay. Thank you very much. Let's say zebra. We know we're at mayor council and administrator concerns and initiatives. Let's start with Rob. Mr. McFarland.

Oh yeah. So dear. So my, my comment for the evening, uh, thinking it forward to the coming Mount Si or festival at Mount Si this coming week. I'm hoping that, uh, everyone in the community has an opportunity to go. And as you're there, please take a look around you and be aware that you are surrounded by your neighbors. Some you know, some you don't. Some you agree with, some you may not. But with this in mind, I offer a few thoughts from the Youngbloods, 1967 song, Get Together.

Oh, boy.

Listen, you hold the key to love and fear, all in your trembling hand. Just one key unlocks them both. It's there at your command. It spoke to me both from the troubled world around us, right here now at home, and thinking of my fellow elected leaders as well. This year, like most, is one where we will be challenged to make decisions that are the best for the whole of the community. to be mindful that just because we aren't in every room, in every conversation, that we are at our best when we put our trust in our colleagues, both current and past, and that we are being mindful of using your tax dollars as effectively as we can. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you very much, Mr. McFarland. Mr. Elwood.

Thank you, Your Honor. I don't have an eloquent, prepared speech like Councilmember McFarland, but I do want to extend another appreciation point to thank you for stepping up again. And hopefully word gets out and we get more young participants involved in our process. Also, as you all know, the Error is foul, so do what you can to stay inside. And I know there's a bunch of things online, and I think we're even publishing something to give some pro tips on how to stay safe on that. And I just love the fact that Mayor points out that we have elk sitting out here. I'm going to text some of my family members.

Wow, that's a bunch of them. Wow, there's a whole herd. Yeah.

So... I'm going to take a picture of this and send this to my family member and say, I love my council job. Not only do I get to serve the public, but I get rare moments like this. So thank you all.

OK. I'm noticing the amount of cars going by as well. So everybody be. Yeah.

Wow. They're beautiful.

Yeah. Wow. Pretty special. We don't see elk of this amount. That often right here. When we're conducting business, it's a unique. When we're conducting, yeah. Oh, there we go. Excellent, excellent IT maneuver. Kudos to you in the back. Wow, they're so beautiful. And the cars are slowing down. We got a little Yellowstone happening before our eyes. I'm sure they're happy at Napa right now. Northern Exposure. Okay. Oh, look at the baby.

Yeah.

See the baby.

Okay.

Well, I can't get enough excitement tonight, but you know, here we go. Mayor, council, administrative concerns and initiatives will continue on with Susan. If you'd like to speak Susan or I have nothing at this time.

Okay.

Two babies. Oh yeah. That's wonderful.

So I'm very distracted by the elk herd. But I do have something to say. It's not prepared, though. I am thinking of the people in Spokane. My mother lives there. I was very worried about her on Sunday. I didn't know about the fire until Sunday as I work weekends. My sister beat me to that. My mom is fine. But I would like to say for the people that evacuated and all the people that helped them evacuated, they did that very timely, a large amount of people. They evacuated a whole veteran hospital, which is amazing. And you can always do better and look back. So I think Sandy for bringing up things that we should be looking forward in the future. But overall, I think Spokane did the best with what they could. And I'm very grateful that nobody got as far as I'm aware, died or injured. That's it. Thank you very much, Chris.

Yes, well, I also was saddened by all of the events in Spokane and happy as well that they are able to get people to safety and certainly would like to be able to help as much as we can. Obviously, it makes us all think about the community that we live in and the impact we could have as well. So I just wanted to remind everybody that the King County Wildfire Ready Toolkit is available online and also here at City Hall if you'd like a copy of it. just full of extremely valuable information, um, on what you can do to best help yourself if we do, uh, find ourselves in that situation. And I'll just, the one thing that I learned, um, was you see these homes where multiple homes have caught on fire, and I know the wind plays a big factor in that, but knocking down the fence area from your home to the fence line gives the fire, doesn't have a pathway to just travel along the fence and then jump to the next house, and so... You know, I know there's a million things going through people's minds when they're trying to evacuate. But that was one thing that I thought, yeah, I hope I would do that to do what I could to try and save homes. So anyway, good resource. Check it out. That's all I had. Thank you.

Wonderful. Thank you for that.

I will speak to the wildfire as well. In 2017, I was in Northern California when the Tubbs complex fire broke out and we were like five miles away from it. And we were very surprised to ever find ourselves even that close. So I think the smoke is a reminder to a talk to your neighbors, talk to your family, talk to your HOAs. If you have one, understand what would be your plan. I never thought about creating a go bag, but it's something that you probably should think about just in case. To Chris's point, if you're ever in that instance, things happen fast and you don't want to be thinking about it. I think we're in a good spot preparedness wise, as our staff has shown for flooding and other other situations. But your home and your family could do a refresher. And I think the smoke can certainly serve as that. So. So please be aware of that. And also outdoor activity. The smoke is serious stuff. I think I read today that in Leavenworth, if you spend an hour outside today, it was equivalent to smoking six packs of cigarettes. And I think they're obviously a little bit worse than us, but it's coming our way. So it's definitely not great. And the other item, if you're not following along with Snoqualmie Valley for Responsible Energy, those folks came and spoke to us at length. They you should. The year will be a 14 day public comment period regarding the Cascadia Ridge bests. um, facility. Um, so obviously not directly a North bend problem, but certainly a neighbor and, uh, Snoqualmie Valley, um, item for folks to speak upon. So follow them. Um, I don't believe the comment period is open just yet, but it will be shortly in the, like I said, it will be 14 days for anyone to comment and speak on that.

Nope. Thank you very much. Ms. Emery, do you have anything?

Thank you, Mayor. Yes, I'll add a couple things to Councilmember Elwood's point. Follow our social media. We're updating it regularly on the air quality. I know that's on your iPhone app, and there's a pinpoint on that, but we are sharing that out from the Puget Energy Alliance of looking at the clean energy to see what the current... air quality. And Bree has tips and tricks, and she's sharing that regularly as we get updates from our neighbors. The other thing I would add, Sandy, thank you for bringing your points across with the vulnerable population. We did really well, I think, in the floods, but we always have opportunity to learn from what we did and the different pieces of every disaster is different and the things that we take away and the vulnerable population of taking care of folks that need a little extra help is really important. So I appreciate you taking that. I took good notes while you were speaking. So that is it, Mayor. Thank you.

Well, thank you very much. Today is election day, so I hope you got out there and voted. If not, you can run it to the boxes in actually 30 minutes. But I certainly hope that you have. Let's see. I invite local residents and business owners to join myself and Chief Hall for free coffee and community-focused conversation this Thursday at 11 o'clock at Snow Valley Chamber offices. located at 128 West 2nd Street. It's right by the Columbia, it's connected to the Columbia Bank Building, if you don't know. Formerly the Umpqua Building, just so you know. Thank you to the Chamber for sponsoring the event. I want to encourage everyone to attend the Festival of Mount Sai, as Rob mentioned earlier. August 7th through August 9th, the festival features a full schedule of fun and activities for the whole family, including a grand parade on North Bend Way. on Saturday morning, starting at 1030 a.m. Looking forward to having a great weekend with the community. The city is now accepting human and community services grant funding requests from nonprofit organizations that serve the North Bend community. To find out more about the application process, please visit the news section of the city website. The application deadline is Monday, September 14th. And as has been mentioned several times tonight, my heart is saddened, of course, and it goes out to all the people of Spokane hurting and affected by the tragedy of the fires ongoing still. And the first responders, I deeply respect and admire and appreciate all the efforts being made so far. Also want to thank Aileen, boy, I'm sorry about that again, for being here and stepping up and appreciate all that you do. And also to all the individuals that stepped up for our public comment tonight, appreciate all your efforts to be connected to community and to your city government. We appreciate that. Okay. National Night Out is happening right now as well till 8 p.m. Chief, thank you for stepping up and we appreciate all your efforts for serving our community, as you well know. In fact, Amber Emery and you, Chief, and myself and Don DeBerg were invited to go to the National Night Out barbecue at Tanner. So we met some splendid neighbors. Many of whom I've known for years and some new folks. So it was a wonderful time to celebrate community and caring. So thank you very much. Let's look for an adjournment right now. Who would like to step up and make that? All right, Brendan, thank you. And we have a second. Okay, great. All in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, we are finished for the night. Be safe, everybody. Take care of each other. Thank you.

I think, are they out there? Go take a look.