City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

Hi, how are you? Good to see you. Good evening and welcome to the Federal City Council meeting for July 2nd of 2026. Would you all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

Welcome, everybody. It's great to see everybody here, especially considering what a beautiful day we had here. First, we have the swearing-in and promotion ceremony. And so I'll call up the Federal Way Police Chief, Andy Wong, who will get us started on this effort, this happy duty.

Good evening, Mayor Farrell, Council President Honda, members of the Council. It is my pleasure this evening to introduce and publicly recognize and celebrate the promotion of two outstanding individuals. Mayor Farrell will administer the oath of office this evening. For more than 29 years, the success of our department has depended on promoting the right individuals, leaders who embody our core values and demonstrate unwavering commitment to service. These individuals have earned this promotion through their dedication, integrity, and proven leadership, and are deserving of this recognition. First, I will introduce Lieutenant Jeffrey Mundell, who is being promoted to the rank of Commander. Jeff has proudly served the Federal Way Police Department for nearly 19 years, beginning his law enforcement career here in 2007. Over the years, he has demonstrated consistent growth and excellence. In 2017, he was appointed Corporal and served five years in leadership roles within both the Traffic Unit and Patrol Division. In 2022, Jeff was promoted to Lieutenant. In 2024, he was recognized as Supervisor of the Year, an acknowledgement of the respect he has earned from both his peers and those he leads. Before his law enforcement career, Jeff served six years of active duty in the United States Air Force, followed by 20 years in the Washington State Air National Guard, retiring at the rank of E7 Master Sergeant. His military career is marked by distinction, including being an honor graduate and a class leader at the Air Force Non-Commissioned Officer School and Airborne Warning and Control Systems School. Throughout his career with Federal Way, Jeff has worked every patrol ship, taken on wide range of specialized and collateral assignments. These include the Traffic Unit, where he graduated both the Basic and Advanced Motorcycle Schools, Major Accident Investigations Unit, the Hostage Negotiations Team, the Field Training Officer Program, and the Honor Guard. He's also graduated the FBI Hostage Negotiator School. Beyond his professional accomplishments, Jeff is deeply committed to community engagement. He's consistently seeking opportunities to connect with and serve the community, both in his official capacity and in his personal life. His dedication to service extends far beyond the badge. Jeff is also a proud husband and father of three children who serve as a constant source of inspiration and support. Jeff has dedicated his life to serving his country, his state, and his community since the age of 21. We're fortunate to have him as a leader in our agency, and we're confident he will continue to make lasting impact in his new role as a commander. Joining Jeff this evening is his wife, Nicole, who will have the honor of pinning on his badge, an important symbol of his achievement and the support behind his success. So, Nicole, all right. Take your time, no stress. There's just two promotions. Promotions don't happen very often, so the family should be really proud. By the way, half the room over there are Jeff's prior military coworkers and friends, so this room is going to empty out when these two gentlemen leave. Please join me in congratulating Commander Mundell for this significant achievement. Congratulations, Jeff. Job well done. Okay, next we have Officer Eric Clark. He's being appointed to the rank of Corporal. Eric has served as a police officer for more than six years and joined the Federal Way Police Department as a lateral officer, bringing valuable experience and a strong commitment to the profession. Since his arrival, he has consistently demonstrated dedication to personnel development and earned the reputation as a proactive problem solver. Throughout his tenure, Eric's taken on a variety of assignments that have contributed to the well-rounded understanding of patrol operations and the critical role supervisors play in officer performance and public trust. His work in patrol, the specialized operations unit, as well as field training officer, and as a firearm instructor has equipped him with the knowledge and experience to lead effectively in dynamic, complex situations. As a field training officer, Eric is entrusted with mentoring new officers during some of the most formative stages of their careers. In this role, he has reinforced departmental expectations for professionalism, sound decision-making, and accountability, helping to shape the next generation of officers. In 2021, Eric was recognized for achieving the highest number of DUI arrests, an acknowledgement of his proactive enforcement efforts, and dedication to public safety. Eric's commitment to the continued success of the Federal Police Department, along with his leadership, experience, and professionalism, make him well-suited for this next role. We're confident that he will continue to serve with distinction as a corporal. Joining Eric this evening is his wife, Noelle, who will have the honor of pinning on his badge, again, an important symbol of his achievement and the support behind his success. Both of these gentlemen married up. The more I talk to the wives, I realize. Please come on up. Children, you're welcome to come up too if you like. Yep, don't be shy. Yep. Eric, your son's going to be really tall. Okay please join me in congratulating Eric Clark. Commander Mundell if you could come up first. The Mayor will administer the oath of office.

Commander please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I please state your name. I, Jeff Mundell, do solemnly swear that you're a citizen of the United States, and the State of Washington, and that you will support the Constitution and the laws of the United States, and the laws of the State of Washington, and that you will, to the best of your judgment,

And I will to the best of my judgment.

Skill and ability.

Skill and ability.

Truly and faithfully.

Truly and faithfully.

Diligently and impartially.

Diligently and impartially.

Perform the duties of police commander.

Perform the duties of police commander.

In and for the city of Federal Way.

In and for the city of Federal Way.

County of King.

County of King.

State of Washington.

State of Washington.

As such duties are prescribed by law.

As such duties are prescribed by law. Congratulations. Thanks, sir.

Corporal, please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, please state your name.

I, Eric Clark.

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

That you're a citizen of the United States.

That I'm a citizen of the United States. And the state of Washington. And the state of Washington.

And that you will support the Constitution.

And I will support the Constitution.

And laws of the United States.

And laws of the United States.

And the laws of the state of Washington.

And the laws of the state of Washington.

And you will, to the best of your judgment.

And I will to the best of my judgment.

Skill and ability.

Skill and ability.

Truly and faithfully.

Truly and faithfully.

Diligently and impartially.

Diligently and impartially.

Perform the duties of corporal.

Perform the duties of corporal.

In and for the city of Federal Way.

In and for the city of Federal Way.

King County, Washington.

King County, Washington.

As such, duties are prescribed by law.

As such, duties are prescribed by law.

Congratulations, corporal. Thank you.

Okay, you're both excused. Federal Way family members, this is your opportunity to leave, and the commander and the corporal will give you a tour of the police department. So spend as much time as you like, photographs, downstairs, okay? Thank you for coming. Congratulations, Commander, Corporal.

I know, I know.

Wow, the chief was right. What happened to everybody on the other side of the room? My goodness. People got the memo about the weather. All right. That's right. Okay, item B on our calendar is the Pride Month Proclamation for June 2026. Council Member Hamilton.

Thank you, Mayor, and I will be presenting this to Mr. Juan Juarez-Ramos. Pride Month, whereas the city of Federal Way cherishes the value and dignity of each person and appreciates the importance of equality and freedom. And whereas all are welcome in the city of Federal Way to live, work and play where every family deserves a place to call home. where they are safe, happy, and supported by friends and neighbors. And whereas we denounce prejudice and discrimination based on age, gender identity, gender expression, race, color, religion, marital status, national origin, sexual orientation or physical attributes as an affront to our fundamental principles and whereas it is imperative that all people in our community regardless of sexual orientation gender identity and expression feel valued safe and supported by peers and community leaders and whereas we appreciate the contributions of our lesbian gay bisexual transgender plus lgbtq plus community and now therefore we the undersigned mayor and city council of the city of federal way do hereby proclaim june 2026 as pride month in the city of federal way and i will take just a moment of personal privilege and i want to recognize mr juan juarez ramos's courage today in being here. He is a very good friend of mine that I've gotten to know. He's a very accomplished young man. He was on our youth commission and he serves as an elected official and he will be here to accept the pride month proclamation tonight and he will have a few words to share.

Thank you, Council Member Hamilton, for your nice words. It really appreciates me. Thank you, Mayor Farrell, Council President Honda, members of the council. I have been speaking to the council, to the people, for many years now since I was, I think, 15 years old was my first time ever speaking to council. Different shirt, thankfully. I've always spoken about policy. I've always spoken about personal issues from many things from police engagement in my neighborhoods to my personal life about my house fire that burned down in 2023. I've never spoken about myself and what I do in the private life. So this is my first time speaking about who I am as a homosexual. And I thought maybe this will be a little easy, but now just saying that right now, it kind of feels like it's starting to hit me. But you know, I've always believed that the truest measure of a community isn't found in its politics. It's found in how neighbors treat one another. And tonight, Federal Way is showing exactly who it is. I'm here as a neighbor. Someone who grew up on these streets, went to school in this city, and never stopped believing that Federal Way is truly something special. I'll share something more personal. I come from a very deeply traditional religious household. I came out to my parents when I was only 14 years old. Trust me when I say it's not easy. There was lots of hard conversations. Till this day, I still have them with my parents. But at the end of the day, my parents love their son and I hope they're proud of him too. They love me for who I am. And that experience taught me something that I'll never forget. That love is always stronger than disagreement. And that family, real family finds a way through. That's Federal Way to me. A city that finds its way through. Recognition exists because it matters. Because saying something out loud in front of your neighbors is how a community declares what it believes. I'm grateful for that tonight. These words are being spoken. Every resident of this city, every single one, deserves to feel that they belong here. That isn't a political statement. It's the oldest American idea there is. Thank you, Federal Way. You are a pretty great place to call home. Thank you.

And so, Mayor, Juan is also a Lake Haven Commissioner, elected official.

That's right. I think the youngest, probably in state history, certainly in federal law. So, thank you, Juan. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you, Council Member. Okay, now we are on Item C, Gun Violence Awareness Month Proclamation.

Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. I want to invite Betty to the podium, Betty Taylor and her daughter. I also want to invite Cynthia Ricks-Mocatan from St. Francis Violence Prevention Program and her son, Isaiah. And I understand, Mayor, that we have Winston from the Game of Life and Carlicia Bell from Phenomenal Street. They're en route to City Hall. So I wanted to invite these amazing individuals who do a lot of advocacy for our community, for a safer community. And so I will go ahead and read the proclamation, and then we'll invite you to say what's on your hearts. And I thank you for being here. So thank you, thank you, thank you. All right. Whereas National Gun Violence Awareness Day is to honor and remember all victims and survivors of gun violence, and whereas this day declares that we as a country must do more to reduce gun violence, And whereas Americans are 25 times more likely to be killed with guns than people in other developed countries, and whereas support for the Second Amendment rights of laws abiding citizens goes hand in hand with keeping guns away from dangerous people, and whereas in September of 2021, Ezra Nehemiah Taylor was tragically shot and killed, leaving family and friends in Federal Way and South King County in grief. And, whereas, to help honor Ezra and Americans whose lives are cut short, the countless survivors who are injured by shootings every day, as well as the families and friends who have lost their loved ones, As a city, we join the National Coalition of Organizations that have designated the first Friday in June as National Gun Violence Awareness Day and, whereas, we renew our commitment to reduce gun violence and pledge our continued efforts to keep firearms out of the wrong hands and encourage responsible gun ownerships to help keep our residents safe. Now, therefore, we, the undersigned Mayor and City Council of the City of Federal Way, do hereby proclaim June 5th, 2026 to be National Gun Violence Awareness Day in the City of Federal Way and encourage Encourage all citizens to support their local community's efforts to prevent the tragic effects of gun violence and to honor and value human lives in the city of Federal Way, Washington. Signed the second day of June 2026. And I invite you to Betty to share powerful words. And Cynthia and Isaiah and others, thank you. And I will meet you down there after.

So many of you all know that September 21st, 2021, September 21st, 2021, We would never forget that day. That day will always be in my family's heart as loss. But we have not allowed the loss to take over our lives. What we've done with the loss is to create change. What we've done with the loss is to embrace others that have lost loved ones. What we've done with the loss is we Talk to families. We find out about their situation. And we meet their needs. The city of Des Moines donated a bench in my grandson's honor. Is that the Midway Park in Des Moines? Really nice and really nice park. Really nice bench. And I think for, for two years, we on, on September 21st, we have had functions at the park. We invite the, um, residents in the neighborhood. Um, and we embrace them. You know, we, we have, uh, um, a lot of, uh, friends and family come together. It's just a time of coming together and embracing each other. So this has not been an easy journey, but we're here.

Good afternoon. My name is Selena Taylor, and I am deeply honored to accept this proclamation in memory of my son, Ezra. while I wish my family never had to experience the pain of losing a loved one to violence. But I'm grateful that Ezra's life is being remembered today. This proclamation is not only about my son, but it's about every family. whose life has been forever changed. Not just Ezra, but everybody's family who has lost a loved one by gun violence. Ezra's legacy lives on through the work we do in our community, through our efforts to bring people together, just as my mother said, to create opportunities for our youth, and promote peace, that's the key word, promoting peace, not violence, not retaliation, but peace and healing and hope. My prayer is that his story inspires and keeps inspiring us to all take action and support one another and work toward a future where no family has to endure this kind of loss I would also like to share that on June 28, 2026, from 12 to 7 p.m., At Seward Park, we will host our annual community celebration, Soul Cafe on the Water. We are expecting over about 700 to 800 people to come together in one location to celebrate community, collaboration, network, partnerships. More than 50 businesses and organizations dedicated to positive change will be joining us. The word soul stands for service, opportunity, unity, and love. That's the soul. This event is about connecting people, strengthening families, and creating opportunities for our community. There will be live music, entertainment, activities for the kids, community resources, and meaningful connections as we continue our mission of connecting with the world one family at a time. We welcome everybody to attend, including our city leaders and community partners. The event is completely free to everybody and open to the public. Thank you for the city of Federal Way, Mayor Jim Fowler, all the city council, love you guys, and y'all love me, and as well as everybody else. I know you do, I feel it. and for standing with families affected by gun violence. We accept this proclamation with gratitude, love, and commitment to continue making a difference in our community and to keep Ezra's legacy alive through service, unity, and hope. And without, and the last but not least, in everything you do, keep it easy.

Thank you so much. And I wanted to invite Cynthia and Isaiah, because I know Isaiah has been impacted by this as well. And Mr. Winston Bell is here, and we have Mrs. Bell here as well.

Just one moment, son. Tell me, how old are you?

Eighteen.

Are you a resident here?

Yes.

Were you raised here? Yes. And how many friends have you lost to gun violence in your 18 years? Fourteen. For those of you who didn't hear, my son is 18 years old. He was raised here in Federal Way, and he has lost 14 friends under the age of 18 to gun violence. This is the world we live in. I am Cynthia McEl-Tan, and I'm with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health. My office is right here at St. Francis Hospital, York local community hospital. And since 2008, we've had a violence prevention program funded from our parent organization, Common Spirit Health. And what we do is we connect We do capacity building. But most of all, we fund and support and help develop and strengthen those safety networks that people who are experiencing gun violence and other forms of violence are dealing with in our communities right here in your own backyard. And I'm happy to say that Progress Pushers, they're not here tonight, they're one of your organizations that deal with youth who are involved. Game of Life Mentoring with Winston Bell. Phenomenal She with Carlicia Bell with Phenomenal She. This is your safety net, homegrown, right here in your own backyard to help our youth and their families who are impacted by gun violence. So you can send folks their way. You can also support them. But more importantly, if you really want to reduce gun violence, there is one thing you can do. You can practice responsible firearm safety and ownership. And what does that mean? Lock it up. Baby, just lock it up. I don't know how many times people have brought their firearms to St. Francis Hospital, left them in the car, and there's been a theft. But can you imagine if it was locked up? Then no one could get to it, and that means that that's a potential life safe. How many people live in intergenerational families where a family member have a dementia or a pet who finds an unsecured weapon and then a casualty fatality happens? This is our reality. We can reduce those. So I encourage you. Reach out to us. We provide free firearm safety education, free lock boxes, trigger locks, and cable locks, because we want to make sure that if that is something you choose to do, that you have all the resources to make sure everybody in your house and everyone in your community is safe. And by the way, two years ago, our little cousin took his life by firearm, and we are still grieving that today. And how did he do it? An unsecured firearm in his friend's home. Thank you.

Hi, Council. My name's Mike McIntyre. I work with a nonprofit called the Alliance for Gun Responsibility. We work hard through advocacy, education, and policy to help with gun violence prevention. And I work really closely with Miss Betty Taylor here, other survivors and families across the state who advocate for gun violence. I just want to thank you all for dedicating the month for gun violence awareness. It goes a really long way. And I look forward to working with you on local solutions to help curve this problem that we all face so closely. But to the prior speaker's point, one thing that I'll be working on closely is passing a law at the state level down in Olympia next year, making it law. that people have to lock their firearms safely in both their homes and their vehicles. And I hope to work with you all to advocate on that down in Olympia, making sure it gets passed next year, and also will advocate to hopefully have you all fund the organizations here in the room to help make sure they have access to devices like that to pass out, and that can just continue their great work. So thank you so much for the attention on the matter today.

Winston, did you want to, or Carlicia, did you want to say anything? Yeah, come on up.

Thank you all for having me. This has been heavy on my heart for a number of years. I'm Winston Bell with the Game of Life Sports Mentoring, and one of the reasons we started our program was because of gun violence in about 2016. Around that time, there were about 11 or 12 deaths, gun violence, and I believe half of them were 14 or younger. And King County came to the area and they said, hey, we're looking for a group of stakeholders to come out and take back our community. I was the mental health person on that group. There was a group of educators. There were a couple folks from Boys and Girls Club. And one of the questions that I asked, I said, if I could get a gym, I could organize a group of young people. and and slowly but surely that turned into the game of life and what what i found was uh... this of course this was the new affordable uh... housing area and a lot of people were moving from different places uh... the hilltop in tacoma seattle renton and i said one of the reasons was that no one knew each other uh... and by starting a sports mentoring program i got to uh... introduce young people to one another and uh... accidental tragedies and the the violence amongst communities, we kind of worked it out because sports is kind of a microcosm of the world. And we were able to introduce folks through sports and they became acquaintances that became neighbors and that later on became friends. So we use sports to kind of connect those dots. and bring community together, and that's all we're trying to do. And we believe that with that same formula, we can help almost put a halt to gun violence in our community. Thank you for having me.

Thank you.

There was one more.

Thank you, everyone. All right. Item D in our agenda is the Sustainable Airport Master Plan Near-Term Project, the SAMP NTP Draft State Environmental Policy Act. Environmental Impact Statement, SEPA EIS presentation. Dave Kaplan, the local government relations manager with the Port of Seattle, will present this item. Dave?

Mr. Mayor, Council President Honda, and council members, first of all, after those two proclamations, it's a hard act to follow, to tell you the truth. Thank you for the time on your agenda this evening. I'm very happy to be with you. I think the last time I was here was about a little over a year and a half ago. With the release of the SEPA draft environmental impact statement, for the Sustainable Airport Master Plan at SEA Airport. We want to share directly with you information about the document and especially how to participate in the public comment process. I'd like to start with a little background about why we're doing the SAMP, as it's been quite a while since it's been in front of us. And you might recall that the FAA's environmental assessment of the airport's master plan was published in late 2024. Today I'll be talking about the port's work to conduct an environmental impact statement under SEPA, State Environmental Policy Act, and the environmental review process. A little bit about the history, about the airport. The original terminal was built in 1949 with an expectation of handling approximately 30 million passengers. Since you've been at the airport, we've made improvements such as checkpoint one, the end concourse. Alaska Airlines recently opened its expanded ticketing, flow-through ticketing area. And just next week, We'll be opening the C concourse expansion project, which added four floors to an existing building. All of these have helped the terminal do better in handling the continued demand, but our region's growth in air transportation, especially in passengers has continued year over year. Other than the understandable downturn during COVID. SEA handled nearly 53 million passengers. That's 52.7 million passengers in 2025. The Airport Capacity Baseline Study, which the Puget Sound Regional Council published in 2021, so that's five years ago, showed a strong correlation between the region's population growth and the airport's activity. The forecast for future demand is very strong, even when new capacity from SAMP is assumed, which it was in both the PSRC study and the state airport capacity study. Based on forecasted demand, there will be 27 more passenger boardings per year than SEA Airport can accommodate by itself at a comfortable level of service by 2050. And the new Washington State Aviation System Plan, which was released just last week, shows that Washington State's unconstrained demand forecast reaches 107 million annual passengers by 2050, well beyond what SEA Airport can accommodate. Without new facilities for future projected demand, people will still travel, but congestion at SEA will increase, causing additional delays, crowded facilities, and congestion in and around the airport. There are several key factors in our region which drive this continued demand. Business growth, international business, leisure travel, well-paid jobs, companies, and schools that are based here who attract residents. These are some of the reasons people travel to and from Washington State. Just as cities undertake planning to look at future needs and goals through your comprehensive plan, the port began developing the airport master plan. This work identifies future needs and proposes airport improvements to address those needs At SEA, one of the biggest needs shown in early forecasts of robust growth and later confirmed by the PSRC work and now the state study was to serve the forecasted future demand. And this planning work was one of the earliest efforts at an airport to include sustainability directly into the planning, not just as an approach later in project design, but in the planning. So the master plan at SEA is the Sustainable Airport Master Plan. The sustainability component of the airport master plan identified where we build, how we build, and how we operate in the existing 3-1 runway configuration. I want to briefly flag the updated timeline shown here since we completed scoping on the SAMP environmental review in 2018. The COVID pandemic and its effects struck in the middle of the analysis and extended the schedule significantly. Last year the FAA completed its federal environmental review of the plan and the FAA found no significant impact, which means that building the proposed new projects as compared to not building the projects does not cause additional effects that exceed applicable standards in the difference categories analyzed in the FAA's environmental assessment. Now, with the port as the lead agency under SEPA, the State Environmental Policy Act, we have published the SEPA draft EIS, which is now available for public review and official comment. As you may already know, environmental review under federal and state laws is done to assess how projects, if built, may impact the environment compared to the existing and future conditions if the projects are not built. and helps decision makers in the community understand how proposed projects may affect the environment before actions are taken. It compares the proposed action, in this case the SAMP, against other alternatives that could still meet the needs and against a no action scenario, as if no projects were built. The port is the lead agency for this environmental review under state law. The port environmentally chose to go to the more involved EIS for the SAMP near-term projects even when impacts could be mitigated. The SEPA review builds on the earlier NEPA analysis done at the FAA's direction. Then the port went beyond what is required under SEPA by examining a more detailed air quality analysis including a human health risk assessment a qualitative human health noise literature review, a qualitative literature review of particulate matter, environmental justice, and cumulative impacts. I have a short video.

In 2018, the Port of Seattle completed its Sustainable Airport Master Plan, or SAMP, for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, or SEA, which outlines the growth strategy for the airport. This plan addresses increasing passenger and cargo volumes through a suite of projects known as near-term projects. Longer-term projects were also identified, which will require additional planning and environmental review. The purpose of the near-term projects is to address challenges like crowded passenger facilities and cargo handling and outdated airfield design. By 2032, SEA is expected to serve over 57 million passengers per year. The projects include building a second terminal and roadways, enhancing taxiways and ensuring that the airport meets FAA standards while improving efficiency for both passengers and cargo. We're also planning for increased fuel storage, including storage of sustainable aviation fuels. These projects are expected to be completed or well underway by 2032. SEPA is expected to be complete by the end of the year. An environmental review is an important process. SEPA is Washington State's environmental review law and helps decision makers and the community understand how proposed projects may affect the environment before actions are taken. It helps determine how the proposed project might affect environmental elements such as air and water quality, climate, plants and animals, traffic, and noise levels in local communities. SEPA environmental review identifies impacts between action and no action alternatives. Impacts expected to exceed regulatory thresholds are considered significant impacts. Where significant impacts don't occur, it is usually because impacts are limited or minimal based on existing regulatory requirements. If significant impacts are identified, the environmental review outlines ways to avoid, minimize, or mitigate these effects, ensuring projects can proceed responsibly while protecting both people and the environment. In many cases, SEA has programs in place that require impacts to be addressed through regulatory requirements or voluntary programs. SEPA technical analyses were conducted to complement the rigor of the NEPA EA. Additional required analyses included greenhouse gases and climate, earth, transportation, housing, plants and animals, and cumulative impacts. Additional voluntary analyses performed by the port included air quality, noise, human health, and environmental justice. The environmental impact statement performed for the Port of Seattle analyzed 16 elements of the environment for potential impacts and found one with significant impacts that can be mitigated by the port below the threshold of significance. This is surface transportation. To offset the expected transportation impacts from the near-term projects, the Port of Seattle will invest about $40 million in improvements to ensure smoother traffic flow in and around the airport. Detailed information on the findings, elements of the environment, and how to submit a comment or attend one of our public meetings can be found online at sea-samp.com. You can also sign up to receive updates on SEA's Sustainable Airport Master Plan. We encourage you to participate in this important process. Together, we're building the future of SEA. In 2018, the Port of Seattle There we go.

Let me step through how the document is organized. The SEPA draft EIS evaluates 16 separate environmental topics which SEPA calls elements of the environment. It begins with a summary and then is organized with chapters on purpose and need, alternatives, affected environment, impacts and mitigation members, and cumulative impacts. Within each chapter, it spells out what information was in the NEPA document and what is new to SEPA. The full document and appendices are available at sea-samp.com. The document can be accessed electronically via the SAMHP website at sea-samp.com. And you'll see in the upper corner, you'll see materials. That'll be the selection you would make in order to access those documents. Physical copies are at the library shown at the Port of Seattle headquarters at Pier 69 and at the conference center at SEA. So you have a copy here at the Federal Way Library on 320th. Regarding the agency and public comment period, there are going to be four public meetings, which are shown here, and will be identical to the open house format offered in different locations near the airport and on weeknights as well as weekend date. There will be several stations at the in-person open houses. which will focus on the various areas of analysis with technical staff available to answer questions and provide more information. At each meeting, an official hearings examiner will take comments directly from attendees who wish to make official comment for the SEPA record, as well as printed comment forms if people want to write and turn in comments. Language translation assistance will be available at all public meetings in addition to child care services. The public comment period runs from May 22nd through July 21st, 2026, 60 days, and double the required comment period for a SEPA EIS. And you'll note that the open house in Federal Way will be at Wildwood Elementary School on Thursday, June 24th from 6 to 8 p.m. Now that the draft EIS is published, our focus is on encouraging involvement and public comment in the review. For that work, we're doing several things. We've emphasized using language that stays away from jargon as more conversational when communicating. In addition to what is on the screen and in the project-specific website, sea-samp.com, which you'll hear me repeat 6,000 times between now and the time the public comment period is over. We'll send out a community mailer to over 100,000 households about the meetings. The meeting boards and other outreach materials are translated into eight languages, two more than in NEPA, and we're emphasizing online translation of videos and boards with use of closed caption translation. We're expanding the port's network of community-based organizations, many of whom are grant applicants and recipients of our South King County and Port Communities Fund, and using community liaisons to engage further and help us meet directly with community members. This mailer is going out to the over 100,000 residential addresses in the communities around SEA Airport to continue to reach people. Translation tools are available for online resources and several printed materials are translated into the eight languages. Next steps. Next steps are shown here, and I want to emphasize that every comment that's received is reviewed and responded to in the final EIS, which we expect to publish before the end of this year, unless additional analysis is needed. Also, while the EIS will be completed, it does not authorize any of the near-term projects. Just as the Port Commission does now with our capital programs, projects need to be proposed and receive commission authorization to proceed. With that, thank you. I'm happy to take any questions you might have.

Council, any questions at this time? All right. Thank you, Dave. Appreciate it. All right. Now we're on to Mayor's Emerging Issues and Report. We've got the... All right. This picture there is a very special piece of art that was at the Federal Way Arts Explosion last Friday through Sunday and immediately caught my eye. But speaking of eyes, this was obviously a Sasquatch statue or piece of art. that immediately caught my eye because when you were walking around that thing, it looked like the eyes followed you. In fact, actually, it looks like it's looking at us right now. It was really, really fun. So anyway, I guess we're all...

I was just going to say, I knew you had a twin brother, but I didn't know you were quite so identical.

Exactly. I know, people have a hard time keeping us apart. Exactly. So it was a lot of fun. He actually had one end kind of sticking out, so one of the kind of horsing around shots had me shaking hands with him. So it was a lot of fun.

He also has a name.

Oh, really?

Fetty.

Fetty? Yes. Oh, well, thank you very much. I should know that. Fetty. Okay. That's fun. Okay. And he's for sale. Yeah.

And possibly for rent.

Yes. For engagements. We talked about that. We talked about maybe having him come to the... to the farmer's market locations and I'm open to all kinds of things. So I saw the artist there and that's a, thank you for the reminder. Okay, speaking about the arts explosion, there we have one of our award winners there and the really, really great job by our arts commission. They did a fantastic job, as did, I'm gonna point to our acting parks director, Jason Gerwin, Great job by you and your team. Thank you very much. It was an amazing turnout. And I have to tell you, this event gets better every year. So a great job by your staff, by the PAC staff, and by the commissioners, and just a lot of fun. Okay, next. Oh, other direction. Okay. Okay. On May 20th, we had the Public Works Rodeo. EJ, can you tell everybody what the Public Works Rodeo is?

Sure. So it's part of APWA's National Public Works Week. So we spend some time with our staff on typically Wednesday afternoon of the week out with a little bit of team bonding, and then our supervisors cook for the department. But then we also use it as a continuing education requirement to fulfill a bunch of our engineers' continuing education needs. So we have stations to cross-train members. We pull out some of the equipment, show some of our city hall staff how it's used, and then some of our engineers teach our maintenance operations staff kind of some of the ins and outs of what they do every day. So it's a great event. The mayor came out and joined us again this year, as he has the last several years. And it's very much appreciated. But it's a good community building event within the department and giving everyone a chance to kind of see what some of the other people in our department do.

Thank you very much. Then on Saturday, May 23, we had a very special and solemn occasion put on by the Federal Way Rotary for the Field of Honor. memorializing Those individuals in our country, in our region, in our city who have given the last full measure on behalf of their country. The individual to the right of that picture served in combat in Vietnam. And then several of the two other soldiers there had served in combat as well. A big, big thank you to the Rotary. The Rotary has been very involved in making sure that we bring bringing the community together in ways that are nonpartisan in nature, but also ways to really bring us together. And I believe there were over 150 people there for this very solemn occasion, and it was very special. That's Sally Lindsey on the far left, and they had good speakers, and it was a very special event, and like I said, very solemn. Next. Okay, we had last week on Saturday, excuse me, on Wednesday, May 27th, our King County Council Member, Pete Von Reichbauer, hosted another one of us, what he calls the Good Eggs Breakfast. We heard from Pierce County Executive, Ryan Mello. He had served previously on the Tacoma City Council, the Pierce County Council, and now is serving as the Pierce County Executive. He's in his first term, I believe, first year, and we heard about he also is on the Sound Transit Board of Directors, and we heard a variety of things about different things happening in the region and Sound Transit and Pierce County and it was good Pete and you could see there the elected officials John Daniels to the far left there is the I believe the vice chair of the tribe for the Muckleshoot and then there were several council members with the city there as well as a local elected officials of South King County our key County Councilman people right Bauer does a great job bringing the community together this is at Emerald Downs where we've been having where he has been hosting these breakfasts Okay, then the picture below that, the next day on Thursday, May 28th, was the PSRC, that means Puget Sound Regional Committee, Council, excuse me, Puget Sound Regional Council held its annual general assembly. They passed a budget, they passed a transportation plan, We heard they had elections for board officers. Dave Summers of the Snohomish County Executive was re-elected as the chair. And I believe, let's see. Was it Ryan Mello, the vice chair? Ryan Mello, vice chair, again, Pierce County executive. We actually heard there was a really good discussion. We got a welcome from the mayor of Seattle. This was in downtown Seattle at the Summit Convention Center. Just a massive series of discussions. of convention spaces in downtown Seattle. The mayor of Seattle, Katie Wilson, welcomed us. We heard from former Governor Chris Gregoire, and she heads up Challenge Seattle, an organization, she's the executive director of some major business interest in the Puget Sound region. We also heard from the COO of Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft, as well as the CEO of of Nordstrom, Eric Nordstrom, and the regional representative of JPMorgan Banking. There's a lot of discussion about economic development in the region and what's happening in the region, somewhat of a focus on what's going on in the legislature, what's going on with business in the region. Como 4 was there, Chris Daniels was there, and a lot of what, much of what was discussed at that was on the nightly news that night. So it's always interesting to hear those folks talk about areas of interest. And again, the Puget Sound Regional Council is made up of the executives of Snohomish County, King County, Pierce County, as well as the mayors and elected officials and representatives from the cities in those areas as well and some of the ports. So very, very informative to be part of that discussion and those presentations. Okay, next. Then on this past Saturday, we had the Public Works recycling event. There's Amanda Miller there, and the folks, that was the truck where they were bringing in recycled mattresses, but they had all kinds of things, whether it was you know, mattresses or other difficult to recycle items. Amanda and the folks at the Tool Library are just doing a phenomenal job. And it's an area that we work with quite often with Public Works to, you know, make sure that we're helping our community recycle and like for, I was talking to the gentleman there, they were talking about how every piece of that mattress gets reused and and broken apart and a really good example of just, you know, recycling those when instead of putting it all in landfill, it gets reused. Later that same day, we were at the Pickler ribbon cutting. This is on Pacific Highway just south of 272nd on the west side. It was the former LA Fitness location and Pickler is a is a chain of pickleball courts, and yes, your council and myself engaged in a little bit of volleying back and forth, and it didn't get too heated, but it was a lot of fun. They gave us, I have to tell you, when you first walk in, they have really invested a great number of resources. It was beautiful, very, very nice and new, and how many courts did they have for me? 14 courts and really, really nice. They've got all kinds of different rates and yeah, competition courts. I was really cool. I was really, you know, pickleball was founded here in this. I think it was the former lieutenant governor of the state of Washington that was actually one of the founders. I think it was found on Whidbey Island, maybe. So really kind of one of the growing sports in America. And the next day, I actually was watching something on a news program where they were talking about a woman that competes internationally with pickleball. So this is something that it's great to have it in our community. And it was really nice to see all those people there. And a big shout out to our partners at the Federal Way Chamber, the Greater Federal Way Chamber of Commerce. Becca was there and her team. They did a great job, and several of my colleagues up here were there. And like I said, they gave us paddles, and we battled it out for a precious five, ten minutes. All right, now next.

It did get hurt.

Exactly, that's right. Okay, upcoming events. Let's see here. Yes, before I talk about those things, I want to let everybody know. Our King County Executive, Girmay Azlai, is coming to the City of Federal Way. That'll be next Wednesday, June 10th. He is providing the state, the city address at our very own Performing Arts and Events Center here next Wednesday, the 10th. Did I say state of the city? Sorry, it's a state of the county address, just by habit. A little bit bigger space. Exactly. He's giving the state, he's not giving my state of the city. He's giving the state of the county address. He's chosen Federal Way as that location in our Performing Arts and Events Center. And he's asked me to introduce him, and I think the door's open at 5. And then he will be giving his state of the county address. And then immediately following that, the Public Issues Committee is going to be meeting in the room upstairs. So I was talking with Robert Feldstein, Executive Director of Sound Cities, and he wants to use the facility because a lot of people that are going to be at the State of the County will turn around for that. So that's a really interesting thing to be able to hear directly from our County Executive, see our beautiful Performing Arts and Events Center again, and just to be able to hear what those plans of vision are. Okay, then we've got Kickin' It Federal Way right around the corner, Friday, June 19th through Sunday the 21st. It's going to be, we're having food trucks. If you haven't driven over to where the Performing Arts and Events Center is and where you can see the field that has been put down, it's absolutely amazing. There's going to be all kinds of games and food and They're going to be showing the games as well on the big screen. We're expecting about 10,000 people per day. So just at that location. So a lot of fun and really a lot of great work by our folks to get that accomplished. Then we've got Movies at the Park. That means Town Square Park. The first one is on June 27th. And that is going to be, I believe... I think that's a, what day of the week is that? Is that a Saturday? Yeah, it should be a Saturday, of course. So Saturday, June 27th, Town Square Park, totally free, and it's Zootopia 2. So I'm told by my wife and my son that Zootopia 2 was not to miss. Very good. Okay, next. Oh, the time for that is about 9 o'clock, 9.15.

Yeah, dusk is what we shoot for. We're thinking 9, 9.15.

And how big is that inflatable screen?

Oh, it's at least, I want to say it's like 65 feet.

Yeah, pretty cool. If you haven't done that, it's really, really great. Just, you know, make sure you bring a blanket, some chairs, and we give out free popcorn, and it should be a great event. Okay, then on July 4th, well, we'll start the day off at 9 a.m. with the Miles for Mesothelioma 5K Walk and Run. That'll get started first thing in the morning at the community center. And then later that day at 4 o'clock, we'll have the Red, White, and Blues Festival. Earlier in the day, we'll be at the North Lake Parade for the 70-something version of the North Lake Parade. That's always fun over there by the IRG Weyerhaeuser area. And then at 4 o'clock, starting at 4 o'clock on July 4th, we'll have our Red, White, and Blues Festival at Celebration Park. Fireworks start at about exactly 10, 15. So that's always a great thing to be a part of. Okay, next. Next. Okay, then the next movies in the park, the next one will be the new Superman, the DC Studios Superman on July 25th. Again, you know, probably around that time when it starts to get a little bit darker. And that's the newest Superman. Then we've got Kids Day at Steel Lake Park, which is always a great, you're really, really nice. Just right next to, you know, right next to the lake and see all the kids and they perform and all kinds of great things. So... Jason, what are the times on Kids Day?

It usually starts at 11 and I think goes to 3.

Yeah. A lot of fun. And I think that's where we found our – well, it was the hot dog vendor two years ago that we found because we had the hot dog vendor in place for July 4th last year.

It'll be at both again this year.

And what I mean hot dog, I mean corn dog. Exactly. Okay. Sorry. Okay, community festival August 8th. That'll be a lot of fun. That's over at Town Square Park. There should be more details on that as we get closer to that time frame. Okay, that is my report. Now it is time to hear... What's that? Oh, yes. I wanted to also update the community... There's been a lot of mention in regard to the future of Wild Waves in the news, and while we're not going to talk about that per se right now, what I do want to let everybody know is that the owner of the land where Wild Waves now sits, and the individual has owned that land for a while, has gifted or will be gifting to the city the historic 1906 carousel to the city, the carousel that's been sitting out there. That historic carousel, like I said, was built in Abilene, Kansas in 1906. It's historic for a number of different reasons, for the company that did it, but also because a future president from Abilene, Kansas that – President Eisenhower actually worked on one of the horses that's part of that. That historic carousel was in Seattle for the World's Fair. It was in Seattle at Woodland Park Zoo. It came down to the South Sound and was part of Point Defiance. It's been in its current location at Enchanted Parks and Wild Waves. for over four decades. And so that's as a result of this pending gift that we're going to be receiving, I have pulled together a steering committee to answer some very important questions about where are we going to store it and how are we going to take possession of it. It's about a 15 person committee of people in the community. Where are we going to store it? What are the plans for it? We need to keep it somewhere safe while we're working on it and getting it. It's been outside for quite some time. We'll need to find an indoor location. and make sure it's secure. But then also we'll need to talk about the steps we're going to take to preserve it and then ultimately where it's going to be for the long run. Council President and I have been working on this and we had a first a core group, and then we're expanding this into a larger steering committee. So this is something we'll be updating the public as time goes on. Very exciting for the community, and we'll be discussing some locations, hopefully in or around our downtown. Okay. All right. That concludes my report. Now we are on to Council Committee and Regional Committee reports. Council Member Walsh with Land Use and Transportation.

Yes. The Land Use and Transportation Committee met last evening. We covered a number of great topics. Three items on our next council meeting agenda will go on to the consent agenda for our next council meeting. Our next Land Use and Transportation Committee meeting will be July 6th at 5 p.m. right here.

That's my report. Thank you.

counselor sessions apart recreation human services in public safety yes the parks committee met on may twelfth and our next meeting is on next tuesday actually june ninth at five p m all right thank you cancer coachmark finance economic development regional affairs committee and thank you mayor are we met on the twenty sixth and the three items on our agenda on the consent agenda were from that finance meeting that we have

is the item B, janitorial contract for the parks, C, accounts payable and payroll vouchers, and D, the April monthly financial report. There is also a budget amendment ordinance that due to public notice timing will come to the City Council for hearing on June 16th. Our next Finance, Economic Development, and National Affairs Committee meeting will be June 23rd at 5 p.m. in Council Chambers.

All right, thank you very much. All right, Council Member Sefa Dawson, Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, and the Sound Cities Association Public Issues Committee.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. As we all know, our lodging tax staff, community development director, Meredith left, I think her last day was Friday, and so there's nothing to report. I think our next meeting is scheduled for July 14th, but I don't know if we're going to have it, so I'm going to assume it's going to be canceled and We'll have the next one in April. I mean, in August, sorry. And for the PIC meeting coming up, there's nothing to report except for what you just said, that it's going to be a hybrid meeting, and some people are going to be at the PAC to attend that meeting starting at 7 p.m.

It's going to be a really fun space, the Patron's Lounge overlooking Town Square Park, so this should be good. You're welcome. Okay, now a Council President report. Council President Honda.

Thank you. Council members, AWC is offering some budget classes, which even if you've done a budget for a few times, it's always nice to refresh your memory. July 15, there'll be an online class called Foundations of the City Budget. And it's pretty basic on what to expect during budget season and what is expected out of council members. If you've never attended the Municipal Budgeting and Fiscal Management Workshop, I would suggest you try to go to it. It is being held August 5th and 6th in Leavenworth, and it's a day and a half of very intense workshops on budgeting and the different parts of a city budget, and it is really worth your time to go. I've been twice, and I learn something each time I go. So if you're at all able to make the time to go, I would highly suggest that. And if you are able to go, let Amy know so she can register you for either one of those sessions, or both. As part of one of the transportation committees I'm on, I got an email today about FIFA, which is just around the corner. It's less than two weeks from now. And Metro is talking about what they're doing to provide service to our visitors and to those who live here during FIFA. They have a website, and it is SEA26soccer slash King County, Washington. And it's a communications tool on how you can get around the city or the region. They have match day shuttles, waterfront shuttles, bus services, metro flex, water taxis. But I will ask if this can go on our Facebook page so that at least the people in Federal Way know how to get around because they are expecting 700,000 people. in the county, which is a whole lot of people. And Metro has been working and Sound Transit have both been working for quite a long time to make sure that people can get around safely. And so the more information you have, the better. I did not go physically to the Puget Sound Regional Council meeting, but I listened to it online in the comfort of my own home. And it was fascinating to listen to the discussion on economic development. We have a lot of work to do, not just here in the city, but throughout the state. A lot of what was mentioned wasn't things that happen that a city does, but what the state does. And so there is a lot of work to do. I also attended a regional transit safety task force lunch and learn session. And there's been a lot of work on transit safety in King County. And we learned what has been done and what is needing to be done and how that's going to happen. And Metro and Sun Transit really are working to make transit safer in the region. And other than that, I will say the rest of, um, Oh, the sound transit board meeting was last Thursday. It was nearly six hours. You can watch it on zoom. It took me two days to watch it, but it was very, very interesting that the discussions that they held on, things are going to move forward with Sound Transit and light rail and other things that they are providing for us so if you're interested in that you might watch the meeting but I would like maybe the next meeting if we could have an update on just a synopsis of what was decided there okay let's do that because it does impact us

That sounds good. Thank you very much. Thank you. So Heather, can we make sure that we get that on the agenda? I would have just pointed to EJ, but momentarily, exactly. There he is. There he is. See what happens? All right. Thanks, EJ. So maybe, you know, Kent Smith, we've got a liaison with Sun Transit. Maybe we have, you know, we'll leave it to you.

Sure. You want that at the next meeting?

Yeah, that'd be great. And Heather, let's just put that up there maybe in the front part of the meeting. Okay.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Okay, now for the most important part of the meeting where we get to hear from you, the people that we work for, the public that we work for. Everybody gets three minutes. Green light means go. Yellow means you've got about 30 seconds. Red means please stop. And normally everybody gets three minutes, but if you've got four other people with you, you can talk for five minutes. And I see the second group, or the second sheet I have, has five folks that are listed. Okay, so I'll go ahead and list the folks that have signed up. If you could sort of queue up politely toward the rear. We've got Jeffrey Tancredi, Suzanne Vargo, Mike Bullock-Ziegler, Barbara Kuhn, Jan Barber, Paul McDaniel. And I see one that's going to be making its way here. Okay, so Jeff Tancredi. Jeffrey.

Thank you, Mayor, Council President, Council. And I'll also thank you for the two proclamations. Jeff Tancredi, Federal Way resident for 29 years. 38% of Americans do not have access to the equities market, meaning the stock market. But that's about to change, thanks to, in large part, to Michael and Susan Dell of Dell Computers. They've donated $6.2 billion, billion with a B, to the Trump accounts. What is the Trump accounts? It's a savings slash investment account for babies born from 2025 through 2028. an account with $1,000 of seed money from the US Treasury for these babies. It is invested in select stocks and ETFs, which is exchange-traded fund. Buying a single ETF share instantly gives you fractional ownership in a diversified portfolio. Tax-free growth until withdrawal at age 18, Who's eligible? US citizen babies born between January 1st of 2025 and through December 31st, 2028. You'd fill out IRS form. The parents would fill out IRS form 4547. How do they work? Parents can contribute up to $5,000 annually. Employers can contribute up to $2,500. Money can be withdrawn at age 18 for education and other qualifying uses. After age 18, the account functions like a traditional IRA. Robinhood Markets and the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation built the mobile app for the federally backed Trump accounts. It launched in late May, and the account officially opens July 4th. Over 6 million families have already registered. Children under 18 can be enrolled into these accounts. Parents can enroll them. Now, there are some restrictions. So people that have a certain income, and please see your tax preparer or your CPA, because they'll have more of the details. But I think for some of these folks, you have to have income of $150,000 or below to receive some of this money, especially since Dell is contributing. So they want to try to help the folks on the lower end to get into the stock market. But anyway, see your tax accountant if you have questions. It's the greatest government investment in kids since the GI Bill.

All right, thank you. Suzanne Vargo for five minutes, please.

Hi, Council. It's been a while. Thanks for letting me speak. Tonight I'd like to talk about the cumulative impacts of traffic and our high levels watershed based on the Wild Waves proposal, the three new warehouses coming in being proposed at the Forever Weyerhaeuser campus. I'd like to be eager to share information with the council about the lower uh... lower puget sound high levels watershed plan this is developed by twenty two minutes unit municipalities uh... back in the early nineties when massive floods affected i five and uh... due to thoughtless development in the south and here in federal way and uh... this plan that was created specifically by federal way uh... the watershed ninety two percent runs through our city and it is a thoughtful development plan going forward when we talk about uh... two warehouses that have already gone up on the warehouser campus one of the headwaters of the east branch has been destroyed leaving one left this branch supplied water to the Green River as well as our high levels. It runs through our south side, runs down back behind wild waves into our highly sensitive spawning area known as Spring Valley. developing and allowing a warehouse to be built on the Wild Waves property. And I'm sorry, I haven't written all of this out. I'm just going off my brain here. Would be critical to our conservation lands that sit on the lower plateau back behind Wild Waves. When the development of Wild Waves happened, there is now an impervious water feature called Mud Lake, is what it was, and that is a critical part of our Hilo-Bose watershed. My concerns is that when we go and put a warehouse on that, what that exactly means for the waters flowing to this highly sensitive spawning area down below. Milton allowed four massive, and I mean massive, warehouses on the old Lloyd's gravel pit, aka a landfill. Not sure. Where or how much water is flowing through the high levels at this point now? We have four major warehouses. We have a proposed warehouse at wild waves we have five Two already built three proposed at warehouser wiping out the last of the headwaters For this east branch we talked about the high levels we promote the high levels it is aquifer it is our wildlife it is our recreation of course the West high levels wetlands Park very important but we need to start talking about and thinking about all of these impacts that's going to be happening coming up in the future for the council that don't know about this high levels plan It is imperative, part of this plan says, it is imperative this plan be implemented on a very short time schedule. If the communities of South King County are to remain economically viable, as well as aesthetically pleasant, more attraction needs to be given to the environmental systems. In this report, it literally says, we will never develop another Home Depot, Lowe's, Todd Beamer, or Wild Waves in such thoughtless manner. If this plan developed by 22 divisions surrounding cities costing us millions of dollars is not followed and has not been followed, where are we going to be in the future? It's just so much folks. It's just so much I'd like to. I'd like to know why Jeff Stock was allowed to come into this Council late on a meeting and. Plead that economic problems were happening on his property and. that he needed to put a hotel. He sold a hotel, being great, Great Wolf Lodge, bringing an economy to our restaurants and other places in Federal Way, and yet now we have a warehouse. We're going to have a warehouse go in. He sold all of you a bill of goods. Where was the public comment? Why was I not notified so I could come and speak? You voted. You approved. This local celebrity having ties to our state representative and our mayor preferred... I could go on for days. This is important. Please talk to me in the future about this. I will be back and talk more about it in the future. We need public input, and I thank you greatly.

Mike Bullitt-Siegler.

Good evening, Council and Mayor. My name is Mike Balik-Ziegler. I'm a resident here in Federal Way. I'm happy to follow up that comment. A lot of people in our community are angry and sad to learn that the Wild Waves property is turning into a giant warehouse, myself included. I want to talk about why a warehouse is even possible on that property. I went back to watch the December 2023 City Council meetings where our Council and Mayor at the time, many of you, supported and voted to allow 100 percent of the property to be used as a warehouse instead of keeping a 25 percent restriction. The vote also extended the development agreement an additional 30 years as it sounded like that change was essential to supposedly secure a long term contract for wild waves. The change to allow warehouses to occupy 100% instead of 25% seemed to purely be a personal insurance policy for the property owner as a distant just in case change. Two years later, here we are. The owner is cashing in on that insurance policy and we are all paying the price, especially those who live close to the property. The property owner was looking out for his interests, the city council and mayor were supposed to be looking out for ours, and you failed. I commend the city staff at the time, specifically our community development director and our city attorney, who repeatedly explained, almost pleadingly in my view, that if the council passed the changes, the Wild Waves property could turn into a giant warehouse at any point, and most importantly, that there would be nothing the city could do to outright block the project. The changes were recommended by the mayor and the council passed it five to one. Thank you Council President Honda for voting no and looking out for the future of our community. The city traded away all of its power to determine if this project was right for our community and for what. Even if Wild Wave stayed for five or ten more years, the city had no reason or need to change the warehouse restriction. Federal Way is now yet another story in a long list of city governments that have traded away our valuable land for industrial uses that pollute our community and benefit the wealthiest and big businesses like Amazon. instead of helping build up local businesses and create vibrant community-centered spaces. You were all warned this day was possible, and you voted for it anyways. Our city, especially the residents near Wild Waves, deserve better.

Barbara Kuhn.

Good evening. I'm considerably shorter than him. I decided to put on my accounting hat today, which is my background, and take a look at our monthly disbursement summary submitted. And I was looking at some of the amounts because it's our money. We all want to know where it goes. So the first section that I came to is consulting contracts, which is $633,000. And the second one was professional services at $897,000. And I looked at some of the items just to find out what's going on. And I found an item called parametrics for items, actually. Parametrics is getting a considerable amount of money, around $400,000. I tried looking up parametrics. They are very vague. I assume they are something to do with planning, but I just wondered why they are getting so much money in one month. Also looking at some professional services, I noticed that there is Robert Edinger, which is a settlement of some kind, and I'm uncertain exactly how that affects the city and why we are paying them $35,000. And I also noticed that the city of Auburn, there's a housing capital fund of $127,000. And I'd be curious to know why we're paying money for housing in Auburn. And I looked at, I saw that there's auditing going on, energy audits from the Washington State Department of enter something. And that was a considerable amount, too, a couple of hundred thousand for parks energy audits. And I'm wondering if this hasn't been done before and why it costs so much. And finally, we have the King County Treasury. I understand that some of this is taxes. but I'm looking at tiny amounts, dollars and cents, and all of a sudden I run across $90,000 for first half Knox weed, whatever that is. I understand that I am not, you know, up on the City of Federal Waste finances very much, but I really want to understand where the money is going and how we come up with the numbers and whether somebody is getting bids on some of these items to see if maybe they could get a lower bid or how that would work. So I encourage you all to take a look at the numbers and keep on top of them. Thank you.

Thank you, Barbara. Barbara, we're going to have you ‑‑ Steve, can you get ‑‑ we've got it right here. Would you make contact with her and make sure either through email or phone or however we do it that you get the answers to these questions, who is Parametrix, what were those contracts, the Rob Ettinger settlement payout, and anything that she wants to know about the financial issues. Does anybody over there know what Parametrix is or who they are?

Yeah, they're a consulting engineering company that works on multiple projects. The large project that they're working on right now is actually associated with Sound Transit. So they're designing the BPA tower relocation for Sound Transit, but that's passed through us. So they bill us, we pay them, then Sound Transit pays us back effectively. So the invoices she's talking about are associated with that. It's not city-incurred expenses.

Okay. With regard to housing in Auburn, Keith, can you...

Yeah, the Housing in Auburn is our partnership in SCIP, South King County Housing and Homeless Partnership. Because they're located in Auburn, they actually host the organization. So our payments are part of that association goes to Auburn.

Okay. Steve, did you grab any?

There's a lot of questions in there, and that's why we put our voucher register out so that everybody can see it. Everything has to go through every department. It's coded. It has to be budgeted and approved. So I'll make contact and make sure that we get those questions answered.

Each and every one. Okay, thank you. And Barbara, thank you for the work you took to look into that. It is, you know, this council, and we encourage everybody to do that. I know that Council Member Moore was actually very interested in making sure that we had very public tools to make sure people could navigate that and figure out where our tax mayor is going. So we're going to get you each and every one of those answers, okay? Thank you. It's your money, it's our money, and we'll do our absolute best. Okay, so, oh, Jan Barber, next.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm sharing something tonight that I'm a little surprised at, but I'd like to talk about possible solutions as well as what might be going on. On March 27th, I discovered that the money and the staff that were taking care of Sharpe's disposal in a safe way at both in Auburn and in Federal Way, that the contract was being discontinued by the county hazardous waste group. The freestanding box that was supposedly to collect sharps was being used for apparently lots of other things, including medicine as well as sharps. But I did want to talk about a possible solution. And some of you may have seen the article. By the way, thank you. Thank you, Federal Way Mirror. There was a very excellent article written. The solution. I have a temporary one, and we need to have a long-run solution as well. There was an article in the, an ad in the Sunday paper a couple of weeks ago in Mar Intelligence, Time to Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet. safely dispose of unused or expired medications. I started hunting. I was formerly a computer systems analyst. So when you start trying this and trying that, sometimes, sometimes, you can get a surprise and you actually learn something new. So this is what I requested and found. It was mailed to me. through something called safe needle disposal. And I typed in my zip code. I live in Federal Way. I don't know if it was unusual or what, but I asked for it on Saturday and on Monday they delivered. This is legal and one of the few ways in Federal Way in the state of Washington that is legal for disposing of sharps. I have learned a lot more about what's going on with sharps People don't know. There's a serious need to be educated. That was three minutes? Okay. Anyway, I would like to see something happen. Perhaps a committee could be created to get information out because people know. Your neighbors need to know. People have been coming to me with their bags of needles and the needles they have stuck under a carpet in their car. You would not believe. Fine people, upstanding citizens, they don't know how to get rid of this. Thank you, and I really would like to see some action taken just to share what's already being paid for Through our taxes. Thank you.

All right. Thank you mayor.

Yes We have a down in the police department There's a box that you could put unused medications in and I was wondering if we could put information On that so people could take it as to how to get one of these boxes for sharps.

Okay, thank Chief, let's talk about that tomorrow, about maybe just an information about how to get that information, how to get that.

Thank you. Just a sheet of paper that people could take.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Very good. Thank you very much. That's actually a really good idea. Okay, Paul McDaniel. And then we've got Harold Brooks. I'm sorry, Harold Booker. Paul?

Thank you. Good evening. Paul McDaniel, resident since 1990s. I've got three things today. My first one, I'm going to talk about money. I'm glad to see other people looking at the money, too. First one is the expenses are favorable by 11%. My question at FedEx, the same as now, is what projects are potentially being carried over? What's kind of not being paid for right now that we're going to push off for a little bit longer? And then underneath the revenues, they were unfavorable by 20% year-to-date. My concern is not really on the sales or the REIT. It's more on the red light and the investment income. I feel those to be some concerns you guys want to really take a good look at this year. And then my last one is the ending fund balance for the general budget or general fund was $4.8 million, but yet it states that there are supposed to be required fund balance of 9.5 million. I don't know when that's supposed to be 9.5, like if it could be off a while or not, but I'm curious to know on that one, too. It's something new for me. My next thing is the farmer's market and the arts explosion. I agree, the art explosion was phenomenal. It was better than last year. I'm curious to know what they could do if they had more money, but that's another question for later. And then the farmer's market also. I thought the farmer's market is doing really good this year. I like the new location. I heard a couple people in the last couple times I've been there, they'd like to see the food trucks on the same level. The stairs are killing it, getting up and down. I think there would be a lot of benefit for that one. And the other one is people who have long-term contracts, same spots. I heard their complaints about how they get moved around from week to week, and it does kind of throw them off a little bit. So bringing food trucks down and then actually keeping the same spots for people would probably be a benefit. The last one is something I didn't even plan to talk about. It's not really a positive, and it's going to go with public safety. On Sunday, my wife and I went to the Safeway in Federal Way that we go to most often. And we pulled up from the west side, which is 11th place, not through 20th, but that side. And as we pulled into the place, there was probably eight to ten people huddled on the side of the building, smoking out of a glass pipe and selling stuff, pushing around shopping carts, pushing around clothing racks and all that kind of stuff. I'm just fed up with it. So I went inside. I talked to the lady who's the cashier and asked her about it. She said that she sometimes has security, but security will make contact every now and then, but they're not there consistently. I wasn't done with that, so I went to customer service. Customer service got me a manager. Manager came over, talked to me, and pretty much the manager said the same thing. They'll call 911. Cops may come up, may not show up. They leave for a little bit and then come back. When I left my wife, we were driving out, I was getting ready to call 911 because she said I could to make a non-emergency phone call. And I watched a police officer pull in. So I was like, cool, I'm going to sit around and see what happens. So the police officer pulled in from the same side that we did on the west side and drove past them to the front of the building. So I pulled in to watch, then took some time, drove around the whole parking lot, came back around, drove past them, never stopped, drove out of the parking lot and left. Go ahead. Actually, would you give him another minute, please? I'll make it quick. I like what the policy is. I'm upset. I like points of contact. If someone's going to be sitting there doing drugs and using drugs, I want my police officer to get out of the car and talk to them. I want them to actually make contact. I want people to know that they're not allowed to do that here, and they can go to some other city if they want to do that. I called 911. I got my recording on it. And like I said, I'm just disappointed. It reminds me of the maintenance facility. It's $250,000. Police officer didn't get out of the car at that time either, and it costs $250,000. Thank you for the extra time, though.

Paul, thank you very much. You know, that's why public comment is so important. The chief heard you say that. We're going to talk about it. Who knows what the officer actually saw? But that kind of feedback is really important. I go to that Safeway all the time, too. So thank you very much. And I want to do let you know that the council president and I, we've been working. Kevin Hutchinson is running the market. Just to give everybody an idea, while we're really pleased with the current location, We were trying to work on exactly what you're talking about, about moving the food trucks down to the level. And what I was hoping to do is get all those food trucks in the middle aisle. But because we've got one group up on a side, well, one side on the sidewalk. and the other on the street level, we need to make sure that we looked at it, and we think that we'd have an ADA violation if we put the trucks there. So Bill and I have been, we were literally talking about that, not last week, but the week before you and I were talking about it. Bill and I were looking at it. We're trying to figure out a way to get at least one or two of those trucks down to the street level. So no, we're working on that. Cause I, I think you're absolutely right. When I showed up on day one, you know, and our, our team with the, with the public park and Jason and Kevin have done a great job. But my first thought when I got there was, ah, God, the, the, the food trucks were up above and we don't, we, we know that even though it was a ramp, there are some, you know, there are some issues with folks, you know, being able to, to get up that ramp. It's steep for some folks. So it's a work in progress, but thanks for the feedback on both fronts.

I'll check in on the police stuff later.

Okay, thank you. Hey, did you want to hear back from Steve Groom about some of those issues?

Yeah, I'll check in with him.

Okay, great. Thank you. All right. Harold Booker, sir.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council. My name is Harold Booker. I'm an original. My family moved to this community in 1962 and was the first to integrate federal way. Since this state became a state. Last year I was honored and humbled to be asked by the mayor to participate and speak at the Juneteenth flag raising ceremony. Having lived in this community 60 years. It was the first time that day that I had publicly spoken about growing up in this community to have my representatives, my city asked me to share comments that was special. It troubles me that this body is limiting future opportunities for citizens. to share their stories and experiences. My suspicion is that you really don't understand the message that you are sending to individuals and groups who feel out of the mainstream, who feel marginalized, who feel overlooked. I suspect the concept is so foreign to your experiences that you just can't understand the power of that simple gesture from their representatives. I understand we are in a very diverse community with many opinions and feelings on the matter. So be it. But to just say you're tired of talking about it, you just want to push it under the rug and move on to more important matters. Wow, just wow. It's so ignorant, it almost blows my mind. Moving on, during the May 12th meeting of the Parks Rec Human Service and Public Services Committee, I heard some statements by members of this body, which I'd like to respond to. One council member asked, ooh, what's the purpose of moving something to the council to be voted on? If I'm a, quote, if I'm a marginalized community, a low income community, I'm going to worry about food on the table and how to get gas and how to go find a job. I'm not going to be worried about flags. I'm not sure I've ever. Eh, not true. It's been since the 60s since I heard a comment that was that ignorant.

Let's go 30 more seconds. Go ahead.

Okay. I'll just jump to the end. Just look around. Auburn, Des Moines, Kent, Tacoma, none of our neighboring communities have policies as restrictive as Federal Way's current policies. The city wishes to stand proudly as an island of not being inclusive, of not encouraging the stories being shared. The city seems to embrace the appearance of inclusion, but not actually the substance of inclusion. Federal Way, an island unto itself. What a sad web we've created here. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Booker. All right, that concludes our public comment. Do we have anybody online? Okay, thank you very much. Okay. All right, now moving on to the, I want to say on behalf of everybody up here, thank you, everybody, for your comments. We very much appreciate it. Please know that you've got a really hardworking council that hears all that and the staff as well, and we'll work on those items. Okay, we're on down to, and like I said, the public hearing from the public is the most important thing we do every time we meet. Item five, consent agenda. These items have gone through committee, can be passed all at once. After I read them, I'll ask a council member, I'll ask the council if there is a council member that would want to move an item for a separate discussion. Item 5A, approve the minutes for the May 20th, 2026 City Council special and regular meetings. Item B, approve award janitorial contract. Item C, approve the AP vouchers and payroll vouchers April 1 through 30, 2026. And item D, approve the monthly financial report April 2026. Council, are there any items you'd want pulled for separate consideration? All right, Council President Honda.

I move approval of the consent agenda items A through D. Second.

It's been a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Those matters pass unanimously. Okay, now we are on to the public hearing. Item A, public hearing for consolidating permit review in the Community Development Department. Kent Van Alstyne, Assistant City Attorney, will provide a presentation.

Good evening, Mayor, Council President, and Council Members.

I'm sorry, Kent, I needed to say something. I will now open the public hearing at 8.19 p.m.

Sorry, I should have caught that.

That's okay. The open public hearing is now open. Kent, you may proceed. Thank you, Mayor.

I'm presenting on behalf of Brian Davis this item. It's a Mayor's Office item. And specifically, we're at a public hearing here because this item is linked to the ordinance, which will be coming directly after this public hearing. The ordinance involves changes to Title 19, which is the city's zoning and development code. In order to modify Title 19, the city has to hold a public hearing on the item, which is what we're here doing tonight in this item. So my presentation will be brief. Council's already been briefed on this item as well. The proposal from the mayor's office is to consolidate permit review into the community development department. Currently, permit review is somewhat split between both the community development department and then some portions of Public Works as well. The proposal here will be to move all of those permit review functions and associated reviews from the Public Works Department and entirely consolidate them within community development. The idea being that that will streamline the process, which will result in greater permitting efficiency, reduced timelines, and other positive impacts on the permit process. Um, As part of that, there have been several comments from the development community, all of whom have been in favor of this consolidation into the single department, which is probably reflective of the purpose of this change, which is to streamline the permitting process. In addition, recently several jurisdictions in the surrounding areas, King County specifically, have done similar streamlines or restructures into single departments. To implement this proposed change, as I mentioned before, the code needs to be changed. There are references that give authority to public works and community development with respect to the permit review authority throughout the code. And so this ordinance changes everything from Title II to Title XIX. And so you'll see quite a lengthy ordinance as part of the next item. The lengthy ordinance is essentially every change is to accomplish the same goal, which is to consolidate the permit review in the single department. With that, that ends my presentation, and I'm open for questions, and I believe after that there will be public comments specific to this item.

Very good. Thank you, Kent. Council Member Walsh, do you have a?

I'm just going to make a motion to close the public hearing if there's no comment.

Before we do that, Council, any questions for Kent?

All right.

I'm sorry. And Council Member Moore?

Yeah, so just to kind of remind or just maybe kind of help educate the folks that are here, the reason why we're doing this, and it's kind of a yes or no and whatever you'd like to add, Kent, but the reason why we're doing this is to improve efficiencies, improve economic development, and business development as well. I mean, essentially that's the sort of it. Is that correct? That's correct.

Yeah, the idea here is that instead of having two places that a developer has to go to get answers from the city when they have a development project that they're working on, it'll be a one-stop shop, and the one-stop would be community development.

Okay, because I think it's important to note that I'm optimistic that this is going to work because I know we've gotten a lot of feedback. And I know that when we talk, many of us, but I'll speak for myself, I know when I'm talking to developers and people that want to build in Federal Way, they often get frustrated with... interaction between City Hall and and their business and so I'm I'm optimistic and I'm really hoping that the changes that are being proposed in our codes and our ordinances will help make that a lot easier and I'm hoping to see that come to fruition relatively soon to see the benefits from that later this year so Thank You Kent okay council anyone else

Okay. Do we have any public comment on this? Okay. Council Member Wolf? All right.

I move to close the public hearing.

Is there a second? Second. It's been a motion and a second to close the public hearing. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The matter passes unanimously to close the public hearing. Now we are on to Item 7, first reading for Ordinance 937, which is essentially the same item, the Ordinance Consolidating Permit Review in the Community Development Department. We've heard the presentation.

Once again, any questions for Kent on this issue?

Okay. And let's see here. I think we may have a pink sheet.

It's coming in.

Okay. Paul McDaniel on Bill 937, public comment. Do we have any other public comment on this? Okay.

Mr. McDaniel. Thank you. I'll make it quick. I actually like this. I know exactly what you guys are doing. I think it will streamline a lot. My question is, when I left council, there was a piece of software that should have been tied in. Amanda and my building permit should have been tied in for, I believe it was single-family, multi-families, and construction like that larger size. I'd like to know if that was done. I mean, this is a great motion or a good move, but if the software's not tying it together, it's a 14- to 15-step process, something like that, for builders to build in the city, and it is a big, big red tape for a lot of builders. So I'm curious to know if that project had been completed, because that would really benefit on top of this move.

Let's check on that. Keith?

No.

No, not yet, or no...

No. No, my building permit is still not where we want it to be. The hope is maybe by the end of summer. The Amanda upgrade, I don't have, I haven't gotten an update on that one. That would be a Thomas if he's in the building question.

Just to let you know, it's been multiple years. That's a really, real big deal. Thank you for the time.

Oh, actually, here comes Thomas. Step right up.

Good morning, or good morning, yes. Good afternoon, good evening. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Do we need to reopen public comment to be able to accept, to make sure it's part of the record?

Mayor, what I understood the public comment was the public comment to be on the ordinance as opposed to the public hearing. And if that's the case, then we do not need to reopen the public hearing.

Very good, I want to make sure that it's part of the record. Okay, Thomas, please.

This is a long, long project that started back in 2020, 2021-ish. Long story short is, no, it's not complete yet. It's been a lot of challenges over the years trying to get to the point. We are actively working on it. The target initially was June. Well, Target has moved a lot. But June for this next revision, which would answer Mr. McDaniel's question about single-family, multifamily, and commercial being folded into my building permit. We are struggling. I've been working with my resource on my team. Kim has been doing a good job working on kind of keeping these projects moving forward. However, we do have some challenges in the permit center with some staffing that has prevented some testing to happen. And I think that's kind of the struggle that we're working on right now to kind of hit the June timeframe. So I think to Director Niven's point or comment that he had made about kind of late summer, that's probably what it's shaping up to be. But again, we're trying to stay kind of tightly working well with Permit Center to make sure that we get those things tested. There's a list of about 120 different workflows that we have to work through to make sure that when somebody applies for a single family home and it involves electrical and plumbing, that all of these processes work appropriately. Because if they don't, then it's going to be more problematic for the applicant and more problematic for our staff, which would be even worse than the 17-step process that Mr. McDaniel had said. So that all being said, we've got about, I think, 19 of these 120-some processes completed and tested and ready. A lot of the other ones are in the work. We have a consultant engaged. We have a lot of processes, but we just kind of need more bandwidth. And so that's kind of where we're at right now on that. So any further questions? All right.

Any further questions of Thomas on this issue? Okay. All right. Thank you very much. All right. And would the city clerks please read the ordinance title?

Council Bill 937, Ordinance Consolidating Permit Review in the Community Development Department, an ordinance of the City of Federal Way, Washington, relating to consolidating permit review in the Community Development Department, amending Federal Way revised code, and amending ordinance numbers as detailed in the written title.

Okay. All right. Council Member Walsh, do you have a motion?

Yes, and I'm thankful that we don't need to read that whole thing like we used to do.

Right, right.

Yeah, I move to forward the proposed ordinance to the June 16, 2026 council meeting for second reading and enactment.

Second.

It's been a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? All right, matter passed unanimously. Thank you very much, Kemp. And then we're on to item B, second reading and enactment, Council Bill 938, ordinance final approval to vacate a portion of 16th Avenue South. Would the city clerk please read the ordinance title?

And Mayor, if I could just a brief comment before the ordinance title. if you recall i presented on this item at first reading at the last council meeting and i said that there were two things that the school district needed to do one pay the fair market value of the property and to execute the public access easement and that we were imminently expecting the public access easement to be executed it has since been executed and recorded so i just wanted to report on that so it's appropriate at this point for us to go through a second reading all right thank you very much all right would the city clerk please read the ordinance title

Council Bill 938, ordinance, final approval to vacate a portion of 16th Avenue South. An ordinance of the City of Federal Way, Washington, vacating a portion of 16th Avenue South and Federal Way.

All right. All right. Council Member Walsh, do you have a motion?

I move approval of the proposed ordinance.

Second. It's been a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Matter passed unanimously. All right. Now we're on to council reports. It's the first meeting of the month, so we'll start with council position number one. Council Member Sefa Dawson.

Thank you, Mayor, and I'm glad we're ending this meeting early, so I'm not going to take anybody's time. I have nothing to report on. All right. Thank you, everyone, for being here. Thank you.

Council Member Moore. Okay, well, I typed up my speech. It's going to be about ten minutes. So, okay, I'm just kidding to my colleagues, to my rights. Uh, gosh. Uh, so, um, you know, one thing, um, where do I start mayor? Um, so I just sent an email. Um, I had a, it was suggested to me that maybe we look at, uh, shuttles, uh, at the farmer's markets, um, that may make things a little bit easier for people that, uh, have a, uh, more of a challenging time. Um, with their movements. Also, I know that I'm confident that you're working pretty hard on this with Bill and Kevin. I don't know who else I'm missing, but ADA accessibility is really important. I think it's interesting because we've got a great start to a new year with the farmer's market. Inevitably, there's going to be some more additional changes, and inevitably we're going to be getting some feedback. And so I'm hopeful that we're constantly working through that challenging bit of providing more accessibility for parking and with people with disabilities as well to make it more of a – uh good experience because it's such a great opportunity on saturday i tell you i coming from the other side of the freeway i am now resident in north lake um and um i i really love the the new uh neighborhood that i live in um my my wife uh texted me and said that it's uh it's like living uh in the United Nations because we have a very diverse neighborhood and I'm just incredibly excited about that. So that's that. And I drove, crossed over the freeway, and went into all the things that were happening last Saturday. And I still couldn't catch all of them, but it was just a lot of fun. I mean, it was pretty epic being at the farmer's market, coming from the pack, looking down at the farmer's market, looking down at Townscore Park, where it looked like another organization was using it. I'm not really sure. And then you had the arts explosion. I mean, it was just a bustling little place. And it just really energized me quite a bit. And so that was a really good experience and moment that I kind of sat back and kind of thought, wow, this is pretty epic. also I do want to thank our city staff and our arts commissioners for putting together the arts explosion pretty it was so much talent from our residents to regional folks and it was just a lot of fun I brought my son to arts explosion later that afternoon so we can experience cultural dances, and he loved it. He really, really enjoyed it. So that was that.

What do you think of the Bigfoot?

You know, Sasquatch, you mean? Yes. Yes. He was mesmerized, Mayor. He kept wanting to give it a high five, but, you know. So it did catch his attention. That seems to catch everybody's attention. So it was fun. I mean, the arts explosion was fun. I heard a comment earlier that what could they do if they had more money? So that's a question that really should be valued and it really should be taken to heart because art is incredibly important. I don't want to be just talking about it. I want to be doing it. I want to prove it and show that to the community. So that's that. It is Pride Month and while I am grateful for the proclamation, I do think I do think it's sad that we're not raising a flag and sending out the signal to all of our brothers and sisters that we care about you, we celebrate you no matter who we are. And I can tell you that I strongly suspect that the LGBTQ plus community is feeling a bit disappointed. And I think it was stated earlier in the comments that And it kind of caught me by surprise too because I noticed it as well that all the cities around us are celebrating and They're promoting it And here we are as a city You know we are Taking a different approach so that's something that needs to be that I wanted to kind of share and I hope that will change, personally. That's my personal opinion. I hope we can find a way to... to celebrate everybody in our community, not just through a piece of paper, although that's very, very important, but visibly and be proud of it, because we are a community for everybody. So I think there's a few more things I wanted to say, but I'll end it on one more note. I invited the other organizations to come Because you've heard me talking about how the answers are within the community. We have a lot of amazing nonprofits here in Federal Way that are part of the cause. The cause to keep our youth busy, our adults busy. And I'm thankful of the advocacy of Betty Taylor. I think what she's been doing since the loss of her family member is just extraordinary. And the work that Cynthia Ricks-Macaton has done at St. Francis and in our community has been phenomenal. And Winston Bell, Carlicia Bell, and Jeremy Windsor are just a few of the people that are really trying to be part of the solution. They're trying to play a role in you know, reducing gun violence. And I know we just had a gun violence incident just in a matter of a day or two ago. And that just is a reminder that the work keeps going. We have to be steadfast. We have to be aggressive at doing what we can as a community to reduce gun violence. So with that, I will end it on that note, and I will pass the mic back to you, Mayor. Thank you.

All right, thank you. All right, Council Member Hamilton.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for excusing me at the last meeting. I was on a family vacation, and so we enjoyed going down the California coast, and one of the reasons why we went on vacation was to go see a BTS concert, and that's been kind of a long... dream of my daughter and I to go see BTS in person. So we got to see that, and that was fun. But then when I came back, I did get to go to a few city events. One was the Arts Explosion. Big thanks to the Arts Commission and all the staff who worked on that. I feel like it gets better and better every year. So keep up the good work. And then I attended the Good Eggs with King County Councilmember Pete Vaughn-Reitbauer, with Ryan Mello, the Pierce County Executive, was our speaker, and so it was good to hear from him. And then probably one of the most fun things I did was attend Director John Hutton's retirement party, and man, that guy has had an impact on this city. And what a... what a fun event hearing just all the memories people shared and i have a few memories too and and uh got to share those and uh congratulations to jason gerwin for picking up that mantle and and uh the good news crew lives on i'll just say that and so big thanks to john hutton for all that he did and thank you jason for stepping into this role And then lastly, I was invited by government affairs person at awc to participate in a statewide public safety caucus with the awc and so i did accept that invitation and the goal of the caucus is to gather city's thoughts on legislative proposals around policy and budgets especially during session. So I look forward to being a part of that. And Mayor, maybe we'll talk some more about that. And Police Chief, obviously, I'd like to hear his thoughts, too, and the Council's thoughts when I get to be part of those discussions. And with that, I end my report.

Great. Thank you. Council Member Walsh.

All right, the very most important thing. I wish this could be put up on the big screen. Right here is a little one born 19 hours ago right now, the most beautiful baby. I mean, my 11th grandchild, Wilder Joseph Stewart. And afterwards, come up and take a look and see if this isn't the most beautiful baby you've ever seen.

She looks just like it.

Only, amazingly, he has more hair than I do. So anyway, so. Was that my outside voice?

I'm sorry.

Hey, it's been a busy week. I'd almost forgotten one of the things that Council Member Hamilton mentioned, John Hutton's retirement. Wow, how great, that was a blast, that was a blast. And the things that John has done for the community is incredible, and hats off to him as well. Saturday was a busy day in the community, as the Mayor said with his report. You know, my wife and I started it off going down to the Camp Kilworth open house. How lucky we are to have a place like Camp Kilworth that, you know, that the Boy Scouts, the Kilworth family turned it over to the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts weren't able to maintain, but fortunately a land trust that preserves property got it and has it on a 50-year lease to YMCA. And the YMCA is doing a marvelous job there. How blessed we are to have that. And then we went on to the Arts Explosion. Fantastic. I mean, it gets better every year. I agree with all the other accolades that it's been given. You know, your twin brother there, I mean, the way his eyes followed you. I mean, so many cool things on it. And, you know, visiting the farmer's market and standing there up by the pack, coming out of the arts explosion, looking down at the farmer's market, and then looking down at the celebration that Martin mentioned there at Town Square Park. I'm not sure just what celebration it was, but, I mean. That is the way a downtown ought to look. And we were capturing that, and may we capture that many, many more times. Going up to the pickler, ribbon cutting, it was great. Well, the four of us right here were, were you there too? Okay, four of us right here. The only problem is that they have some defective rackets there. You know, the one that I had, for some reason, it suddenly gets a big hole in the middle of it when I swing it. I'm not sure what the problem is there. But I'm sure it has something to do with some sort of racket defect. So anyway, after that. After a couple of other things, a lot of you, the rest of the council knows, and some of you out there know, that with the Federal Way Community Festival, I've been a big, big advocate of making the Federal Way International Community Festival. And I think that we need to really celebrate the international aspect of our city. And so Kent had an international festival. Went over it. It was the show where Senator decided to go take a look and see what it is. It was good. We could do so much better, though. We could do so much better. I hope that a year from now we're able to truly make it the Federal Way International Community Festival. would be really celebrated. And speaking of celebrating different things, the comments that Harold Booker made, you know, I support only having the three flags flown. However, just because we have the three flags flown doesn't mean that we can't celebrate other things. We have a big Fourth of July celebration. We have other celebrations. You know, Juneteenth is a national holiday. I think that we should be doing more to celebrate Juneteenth. I mean, a very, very important part of American history. And it means a lot to a lot of people. It should mean a lot to every one of us. And so I would hope that in the future we can do more to celebrate Juneteenth. Let's see. And lastly, Mayor, I want one request. With the red, white, and blues coming up, with the fireworks, this year is the 250th. Let's see. It is called the… Semi-sesquential? Semi-sesquential or something like that. I mispronounced it.

Semi-sesquential.

Semi-sesquential. Semi-sesquential. Yes. And, you know, I hope that during the fireworks we have a lot of patriotic music playing. And I mean, we definitely need to have a lot of patriotic music playing there. And I know that you take a lot of pride in picking out the music. Let's have a lot of patriotic music. You know, a lot of great stuff. That's in there. And anyway, and with that, what a great community we live in. And thank you for all of you who come here. And tonight, you know, there's more than just Doug staying here for the duration. And thank you, so. And that's my report. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Councillor Sessoms.

All right. I attended the arts explosion at the pack. It was a lot of fun. Hats off to Tom Bostic and Karen Brigado for their leadership, making sure that it was, and also the other commission members, making sure that it was an A-plus event. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience. Lots of artwork. One thing about the farmers market, I think council member Martin mentioned that shuttle buses should be implemented. A comment I had from someone who attended, I bumped into at the arts explosion was that the former place where the farmers market used to be, she lived walking distance from there but now that it's relocated she finds it very difficult if not impossible to to be there so maybe shuttle buses making around the downtown core dropping off her seniors and disabled people at the market and then taking them home I think that would speak volumes. We would enhance participation from all sectors of the community. Looking forward to the community cleanup. If you haven't seen one of these, I'm sure they are posted all around. But in case you didn't know, the community cleanup of Federal Way is Saturday, June 6th from 10 to 2 p.m. 10 to 12 that's only a two-hour Timeframe, I'm hoping that everyone can join me roll up your sleeves bring your gloves out You know just let's make our community even more beautiful than it is and That's led by our Public Works Department. So thank you for your leadership EJ Yeah with that I You know, Juneteenth is actually a very, very big deal, at least in my family and my friends. And I'd like to see the city celebrated appropriately. That's why if you come to the next parks meeting, June 10th, Tuesday, 5 p.m., it is on the agenda. I don't know if it will be voted out of committee or moved out of committee, but we're going to try. We're going to discuss it. And if it makes it out of committee, then we're going to vote on it as a council. If that doesn't happen, I still want people to join me in celebrating Juneteenth. If you go to blackpass.org, you can find out all you want to know about the history of black Americans in this country. Juneteenth is just a small fraction of our history, of our illustrious history. We've got FIFA coming in a couple weeks. If you go to their website, They even have a whole section on Juneteenth. And why is it significant? They just happened to be playing a match on June 19th, 2026. So that organization felt it was important for them enough so that they had to highlight this holiday. And yes, it is a national holiday. And yes, it will be celebrated. We may not be able to raise a flag. I don't know what the outcome will be of that day. But I will be here in front of City Hall. I will probably try and get a flag of my own personal property. And I will hold it up front for people to see. I'm a history buff. And if you come down and join me, we'll have a great time talking. about Juneteenth and what it means. So that is my report. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Kirchmar.

Well, thank you very much, Mayor. So the only thing we've not talked about all evening is August the 4th, the first Tuesday of the month, we'll be having a national night out. and that's when we will not be having a council meeting right we'll have our national night out that's a pretty important thing i think for all of our community to come together and talk and get together and talk about you know how to prevent crime in our community uh and mr booker i wanted to explain to you that my com we all come from different things points in our lives we've all had different experiences and and we all think that we've all had different Things that are very, very important. And as a woman, I can tell you that some of my experiences have been very difficult. And came to this community in 72. I was widowed in 81. I had three small children. And then I did a really dumb thing. I married a widower with three children. So then I had six. I can tell you. I did worry about food on the table and gas in the car and how it was going to pay for clothing. And so coming from my experience, it's not that I'm not caring about what other people believe. It's that coming from my experience, that was what I had to deal with. And for me, it was extremely difficult. And that was a time when women couldn't get barely got bank accounts, couldn't get a job as a doctor my gosh you could only be a nurse you couldn't be anything important you had to be a social worker a teacher or or a nurse that they didn't have you wouldn't get hired as an engineer so you couldn't go into that so so for a lot of my life i've had some hard things to get over but you know what Now I have six. Some of my children have passed away. But I have children now that take care of me. And so I had one kid, one adult son, who said, I'm building you a railing. And I said, no, no, I want my lawn mowed. I can't mow the lawn. I'm building you a railing. So he built the railing, which is just wonderful, except he built it on the wrong side. I've got one hand that doesn't work. I can't grab the railing. Now, if you had built two, that would have been good. So it works half the time. So just to let you know, we all have different experiences. Thank you.

All right. Council President Honda.

Thank you. So the Federal Way Library down at First Avenue is celebrating Juneteenth. It's called Juneteenth, the Freedom Celebration. June 13th 1130 a.m. to 430 p.m. I attended last year was a really nice celebration a lot of community groups were there and so if you can possibly go it's it's a nice nice celebration the um arts explosion was amazing as a past arts commissioner i know how much work it takes to put on events like that and they did an amazing job but what was even more amazing was the amount of people that walked into the pack for the arts commission there was a staff member at the door with the clicker counting and on friday they had believe 300 folks there on Saturday it was well over a thousand and on Sunday I can't remember the net the number but it was a very significant amount of people who came into the arts explosion and they were from around the world they were from different countries that came that heard about it and came to look at the art so I had a few favorite pieces but Fetty the Sasquatch was one of my favorites I watched I was in the artists workshop when he was just being formed and to see him being finished is really amazing just to see that so pretty cool I at the farmers market I We have senior vouchers and it's a grant program and we have $10 vouchers that we hand out to seniors. You have to be 65 years or older. We don't ask for any ID. You just have to write down your name and put down your age. That's all we ask for. We have 56 of them every Saturday and they can be used on food and vegetables. Last summer, sometimes we went through those vouchers in a matter of 10, 15 minutes. On this last Saturday, it was 45 minutes, and we did have to turn people away after that. So if you know of anyone who is 65 and older and could use some fresh fruits and vegetables, I would encourage you to have them come and get in line early. The line starts to form about 8.30. And anyway, it's nice to be there and to talk to our friends every Saturday. We also have kids vouchers for $5. And it's two to a family. So if you have four kids, you can only get two vouchers. But that's pretty cool, too. Then the kids can go around and get an apple or a banana. Well, not a banana. We don't have anyone with bananas, but a cucumber or something. On Friday, June 5th, from 6 to 8, there's a seniors night out, and it is live music, dinner, and dancing. It's at the community center. It's $15 per person, and it's for those who are 50 and older. So some of us qualify. And it's Dress Up or Dress Down. Excuse me. But it is a seniors night out. And if you'd like to go, it sounds like a really fun thing. You do need to get tickets. And you can call the Community Center for more information. And my last thing is graduation is coming up for our high school seniors. And as someone who's been at Federal Way High School for our Key Club, which is at Kiwanis club for high school students and Melissa Hamilton is Thomas Jefferson's key club advisor. I'm going to miss my seniors. I'm going to miss my kids over the summer. And I hope that graduation goes smoothly that there's everyone is safe. And it's it's one of my seniors came here two years ago from Afghanistan. And She was near tears the other day because Federal Way High School welcomed her to this country and helped her graduate. And anyway, she's going to the University of Washington with a lot of scholarships. She's extremely smart and will do well in life. So anyway, congratulations to all of our seniors. Thank you.

All right. With that, we are adjourned. Thank you, everybody. Good job.