City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to welcome you and call to order the Port Orchard City Council regular meeting for March 10. And I'd also like to remind us of our guiding principles and the actions we're about to take this evening. Are we raising the bar in all of our actions? Are we honoring the past but not living in the past? Are we building positive connections with our community and outside partners? And is the decision making process building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community? Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge allegiance. To the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Alright. We have a published agenda this evening. Are there any proposed amendments to this evening's agenda? May

I move to approve the agenda as presented? Second.

I would like to discuss removing b c from the consent agenda and moving it to business item C. Second.

And a second. So I guess I'll table the prior

Oh, Also F, meeting to move. Okay. Sorry. We could do one at a time.

There a reason to pull the the minutes or there's some is there a script that there's

was yeah. There was changes amendments that need to be made. One word that needed to be stricken and three words that needed to be amended.

Alright. So we've got a motion to remove consent items C and F and make them business items C and D.

Second.

It

wasn't. So we've got a motion and a second to move the items that I just stated. Is there any discussion? All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Hearing

none. Mayor has the initial motion. Maker, I'd like to have the agenda approved as amended.

Second.

Motion by Council Member Rose Pepe, a second by Council Member Dehner to approve the agenda as amended. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye. Anyone

opposed? Hearing none, the agenda has been set for this evening. We're to our first citizen comment period for this evening. Is anyone wishing to address the council? Please step to the microphone.

And if you're online, use the raise

your hand feature and the clerk will bring you into the meeting to address the council. See no one rushing the podium. There we go. Here he is. Alright. And if you could just state your name for the record.

My name is Daniel Potts, p o t t s. I'm here on behalf of First Baptist Church at Port Orchard. The subject I want to talk about was the stormwater charges for stormwater remediation. Our we are current as like a lot of churches and stuff. We have a large parking lot and a large building and we are charged on a on a per ISU basis which ISU being 3,000 square feet And we currently are, they were charged for 18 ISUs.

And I was asked to look at how much or if we could reduce this, somehow. And so, our parking lot is perhaps unusual in that it it tilts down into a a drain, and the drain goes out on the back on some woods in the back there. And so I talked to one of the people in your the people who look at these things and they and I said, well, considering our water doesn't even leave our property for the most part, why are we being charged so much? And he said, well, it's as much water runoff as it is pollution that, for example, parking lot, obviously, cars parked there and, you know, oil runs off, so on and so forth. And so doing a little more research on it, we I it all comes out to a single pipe, and the pipe could be fitted with a with a filter, which would filter out all oil and other types of things.

And roughly, we would be capturing about 75% of the of the impervious surface area that we're being currently being charged with. And so my question to the city council is if we could show that get the correct numbers of you know how much how much is being captured and that is being appropriately filtered. Could we drop our ISU to something that was more representative of how we're taking care of the environment.

Right, well thank you for your comments and I would recommend that you leave either your name and number with the clerk and the public works director can reach back out to you.

Very good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone

else wishing to address the city council?

Hello, everybody. I'm John Underhill representing missus Sparkle's Laundry. Same thing, the storm water charges. Where where it boils down to with the business is that we serve more lower income folks that have to go to a laundromat and and are not able to have that within their unit of their apartment complex or maybe a rental home of some kind. With the increase, it is cutting into revenues even more, so the percentage is higher that we're having to pay per month.

Due to that, we're gonna have to consider increasing our charge for the washers and dryers because of that, because we have financed the purchase of the store as well as the remodel of the store. When the store was purchased, it was old, so that incurs a lot of costs. Our fixed costs of what we know, what we have to pay no matter what are very understandable. We know what those are. But each month, with the water increasing and and these costs increasing, our variable costs are a lot harder to cover because of this.

We understand, you know, helping the environment, fixing the storm drains, bringing them from old outdated to to new and more efficient. But again, this is cutting into what we are currently doing and making margins even thinner. And again, those costs have to go somewhere, and that somewhere is gonna go to more low income folks. We don't wanna have to do that, but to be able to still operate and pay our bills, which are not just utility costs, electricity, what have you, but also financing again of the business and the machines. So we'd like to see if there's something that the city council could do to be able to help mitigate this, to lower some of these costs.

Because in terms of what we're getting back for this, it's not really much to the business. So we're having to to fork up these these fees, these costs upfront on our own. So, just trying to see if there's some type of remediation that the city council can help us with because again, we do not want to have to increase costs on lower income folks that come to use our services.

Thank you for your comments. I believe the last I think yours were referring to the sewer charges.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yes.

Correct.

The last gentleman was referring to water, which is different utility. Sewer. Sorry.

Thank you for the correction.

Which has gone recently to a consumption charge.

Yeah. It was a rate per machine before, which made it very, very doable. And now with the consumption, it's it's getting out of hand.

So Thank you for your comment. Just wanna make that clarification for you. Alright, anyone else in the room wishing to address the council or online? Brandy says there's no hands raised and I see no one else approaching the microphone so we'll close the first citizen comment period. We have a modified consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve?

Is everybody online? No. Okay.

Council Member Rosepevi. Mayor move to approve the consent agenda as amended.

Second.

Motion by council member Rosapepe, second by council member Fenton to approve the consent agenda as amended. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Hearing none, the consent agenda has been approved. We have two presentations tonight. The first is by chief Brown, and I will let him step to the microphone and make that presentation.

Thank you. We have a bit of a crowd here, so I appreciate that. So mayor and members of council, thank you for allowing us a moment tonight to recognize a member of our team who has quietly strengthened this community for more than a decade. And Dustin McClure joined the Port Orchard Police Department in 2014 as a reserve police officer. This is a volunteer role that allows community members to directly serve public safety

Chief.

And art.

Maybe Dustin wants to step up for river because you can see him. I don't

think he's finished. On

the TV.

Alright. I'm being shy.

You're welcome to stand here uncomfortably next to me. Being a reserve police officer is a volunteer role that allows community members to directly serve public safety and our efforts to reduce crime and the fear of crime. Reserve police officers don't step forward for recognition or compensation. They do it for the genuine desire to serve and give back. Dustin's service has made a positive difference here, often in ways the public may rarely see but absolutely take benefit.

He is a servant's heart and embodies our values of service, honor, and integrity. And for twelve years, he has shown up, supported our department, and helped ensure our community is well taken care of. But I also wanna thank his wife, Christina, his children, Aidan, Owen, and Olivia. His service required twenty hours of patrol time per month along with multiple full days of training throughout the year. He often worked late and at the city's special events.

And over the years, Dustin volunteered over five thousand hours to the city. I'm gonna say that again. He donated five thousand hours to the city. His meaningful contributions to this community would not have happened without his family support and their willingness to share him with us. So often officer McLure, Dustin, thank you. Thank you for twelve years of service, sacrifice, and steadfast dedication to this community. You truly embody our values of service, honor, and integrity. And on behalf of this department and the city of Port Orchard, we extend our sincere gratitude. Our community is better because of you. Thank

you.

Sergeant Maine would also like to to say a couple of words.

Yeah. Thank you for letting me to say

a few words to Dustin. It's a bit emotional. Sergeant Mee, if you could check

It's bit emotional for me. I have known Dustin his entire career here for twelve years when he was just a little baby. And for someone to give twelve years to an organization without getting paid in a very dangerous job that we do, but very meaningful, He is literally epitome of what our values are. He serves our country. He serves our community. And I am blessed to have met you and worked alongside of you. He doesn't remember this, but we took a bow. That was he was gonna come work for me. Therefore, I was not going to retire till he came to my team. Now I guess I have to stay on forever.

This is wrong. But I am truly blessed to have met you. You make me better. We had long, long talks about leadership, the police job, life and family, and so thank you for that. Christina, thank you.

Yeah, I don't know how to follow any of that, but I've been doing a ton of reflection lately. This ended up being a way more more emotional event than I anticipated it being, and we had some surprise circumstances, really good circumstances for a family that is gonna have us moving out of state and pursuing something different. But as I was reflecting, was like, I I would be remiss if I didn't took the take the opportunity to speak directly to you as the mayor and the and the leaders of the city, chief Brown, because I I know that you guys understand how remarkable of a police department you guys have in this community, but I wanted to share anecdotally what my experience was. So thank you for giving me the opportunity to celebrate both a closing and an opening of a meaningful chapter in my life. Like I said, I've been reflecting a lot about my time here in Port Orchard, and I've been I I wanted to start specifically by thanking the mayor, chief Brown, and the city council because I know that the support that you guys provide for this department is felt downstairs.

Right? And so I I just encourage you while you guys are up here and you're making decisions to always keep this department in mind because this department always has this community in mind. During my time here, service to the to this community became an inescapable calling for me. I I'm in love with the city of Port Orchard and the people of Port Orchard and our very unique culture. Having the opportunity to make a positive impact in the lives of community members here in Port Orchard reinforced my passion for this type of work.

I take great pride in knowing that our efforts help to build and maintain trust within the community that we serve, and that that is on display everywhere we go. Any member of our society of our community that's in crisis, Whether they need our help or they need our direction, by the end of those engagements, every one of those people know that the police officers here in the city of Port Orchard are there to serve the community. Your cops are some of the best people I've ever met in my life. The values of honor, service, and integrity that guide their day to day activities and the activities of the officers in this department have become a self evident personal commitment that every one of the officers embodies. As I look back on my time in this department, I wanna recognize the investment of leaders like sergeants Donna Main, Trey Holden, John Alberts Ibrutson, Josh Horsley, and others that invested in me.

And then mentors that I've been mentored for by with peers such as officer DJ Huberix and officer Josiah Gaps. There's so many others, and I I don't wanna skip any names, I don't wanna keep you here for forever. And if and if I started listing individual accolades, I'd take the rest of your meetings. All these officers rushing to danger on someone's worst day, providing them protection and support, and it's delivered with professionalism and empathy. I can confidently say that if I ever find myself in crisis or danger or if I'm having the worst day of my my life, I hope that one of the men or women from the Port Orchard Police Department are the ones who respond to my problem.

I I I don't like I don't get in the habit. I'm a sergeant major in the army, so it's dangerous to give me a microphone. Sure chief Brown's already nervous. But but I'd hate to leave here without sharing my biggest takeaway while I was here. My major lesson learned here in Port Orchard and also probably just the benefit of getting older is I find myself grouping things into one or two categories.

It's wish I had moments and I'm glad I did moments. This has been one of the best I'm glad I did moments that I've ever had in my life. And I encourage everybody if you get the opportunity to to take calculated risks, seek out opportunities to fulfill as many of those glad I did moments as you can in your life. I wanna thank chief Brown again, the mayor, and and the city leadership for giving us opportunity to come and talk to you today and for being a part of celebrating something that was really special to me. Thank thank you so much.

And so the last thing we'll do before we get out of your hair, but this is from us in the guild to kinda commemorate your time. Wow. This is fantastic.

How do you follow that?

I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Erica. You've gotta follow that.

You're adjourning. Alright.

How many can I ask? How many more reserve officers do we have?

I don't I don't Hey, chief. Chief? That's alright. Don't hold

this up.

He he's doing his thing.

He'll be back in a minute.

I'll ask him later.

Yeah. I don't, man. I don't believe him.

I don't think so either. I was just curious.

It's so amazing.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. These were useful.

Alright. We have another distinguished guest. Erica, I'm sorry you have to follow that.

I know.

It's okay.

I expect a hug when I get done.

Don't. Erica Anderson. Okay. The president of our Farmers Market is here to talk about Port Farmers Market. So welcome, Erica.

Welcome to me. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council members. Thank you for inviting us to share a quick update on the Port Orchard Farmers Market and impact over the past season. Before I begin, I want to extend our sincere thanks to the city of Port Orchard for your continued partnership and support, your time, energy, and, your membership, and your presence at the market has been really felt this year, and it helps to ensure that the market remains a vibrant economic and community asset for our city.

Next slide, please. So we have updated our mission, vision, and purpose this year. So you're seeing our new mission here. It's driven a little bit more towards food access now. At its core, the Port Orchard Farmers Market exists to strengthen our local food economy and local economy while increasing access to healthy locally grown food.

The market also serves as a community gathering space for neighbors to connect farmers and small businesses to thrive and people experience the unique characteristics of Downtown Port Orchard. You can skip through too. Next one, yeah, thank you. So I am also a member of Kitsap County's Council for Human Rights and the Port Orchard Farmers Market recently decided to adopt their resolution for food resiliency and to have food access be a human right in Kitsap County. We're as food access is a key part of our mission, we're working to align with the broader community effort to recognize access to nutritious food as a fundamental human right and to build a more resilient local food system that benefits everyone in our community.

As the city prepares for future comprehensive plan updates, we encourage consideration of stronger food access language aligning with the county policy and recognizing that many Port Orchard neighborhoods are still experiencing food, desert conditions where a gas station cannot realistically provide the fresh, nutritious, locally grown, and culturally appropriate foods our community deserves. Next. Our market is run by a small but dedicated team, including our market manager, our community engagement manager, and our market assistant that are listed here with their contacts in case any of you wanna reach out to them. Together, they coordinate our vendors, our volunteer programs, and events that keep the market running smoothly throughout the season. Next.

And then we also have a very dedicated board of volunteer directors who provide leadership and strategic direction to ensure the long term stability of the market. Next. We have our work is made possible through strong community partnerships. We are especially grateful to our presenting sponsor, the Port of Bremerton, along with many other local businesses and organizations that sponsor programs like Music at the Market and our Power Produce Pop Kids Club. In addition to sponsors, the market receives more than $14,000 in in kind community support that helps extend the programs while keeping participation accessible for vendors and the public.

Next. Volunteer impact. We have Ty up here. He got our volunteer of the year award. He came down just about every morning and helped our elderly and disabled vendors set up their boost, which was really amazing. The volunteers are the backbone of our market. In 2025, we had 55 volunteers contribute more than twelve hundred hours helping with operations, programs, and community engagement. Their dedication reflects just how deeply the market is woven into the fabric at Port Orchard. And next. You can go one more.

Vendor sales is one of the most measurable successes of our market. In 2025, our vendors generated quite a bit of money in total sales over a million dollars representing, it's an 8% increase over the previous year. That equates to roughly 36,800 in sales per market day flowing directly to local farms and small businesses. Next. The market hosted a 137 vendors including farmers, backyard farmers, crafters, processors, prepared food vendors, and youth vendors.

These businesses represent a wide range of local entrepreneurship and agricultural production in our region. And next. Attendance continues to grow each year. In 2025, we welcomed over 47,000 visitors, which is a 12.75% increase from the previous season. That steady growth shows the market's increasing role as a destination for both residents and visitors. And next. Oh, next. I guess we missed one. And one more. There we are.

The market also plays an important role in improving food access. Last season we facilitated over $18,000 in nutrition and assistant benefits including SNAP which is the supplemental nutrition assistance program. SNAP Market Match, which is where the market is able to match so many dollars of people's electronic benefits and Wick and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Programs. Next. And one more.

Community engagement continues to grow through events, programming, and partnerships. We also donated 89 booth spaces to nonprofits, community organizations, and partners so they can connect with the residents and share resources. We were really glad to see Port Orchard down there using their booth space this year and telling people about ADUs and other upcoming events in Port Orchard. That was really amazing. Thank you.

Okay. Power of produce. So our power produce kids club continues to be one of our most impactful programs. In 2025, over 400 kids participated learning about fresh food, local agriculture, and healthy eating. We actually had two kids this year that made it to every single Pop kids club which this was our first year of having like a continued participation through the entire season so that was really neat.

And next. Music at the market is also a big driver down there. The music helped create a lively atmosphere with over with 20 local musicians and bands promoting throughout the season. The programs like this help to make our market a vibrant community gathering space. And next.

And one more. And one more. There we go, word2dot surveys. And one more, thank you. Visitor surveys also show that the market has a broader downtown impact.

The majority of respondents reporting that they've come downtown specifically, so next, to visit the farmers market and nearby local businesses. So you can see that dark blue line, that's people that responded. How many weekends was this, Sally, for this? I wanna say it was two weekends that many people responded. They came specifically downtown to visit the farmers market.

And then the next lighter blue one, that's to visit local businesses in downtown. Next. So this graph is showing that the visitors have come from all across Kitsap County throughout Washington State and even internationally. So this one is showing the oh nope, next one, I'm sorry. And another one.

These were all things we had talked with the city about previously, so you'll have this slide available to you, but like how parking affected people and all of those things. So the green is Washington State or Kitsap County, and then all the little ones are other neighboring counties. And if you go to the next slide, this is all where in Conceptive people visit from. So green is Port Orchard, and then other cities are in the other colors clearly. And then the following slide is showing all the different states people responded they came from and there's a list over there on the right hand side of all the countries that people came from.

So you guys can have a look at that afterwards. It's hard, I can't see that far away. Next. Alright. So in closing, mayor, council members, here's what this means in practical terms in just one season.

On public space in Downtown Port Orchard, the farmer's market generated over $1,000,000 in direct small business revenue, increased attendance by double digits, and brought nearly 47,000 people to the waterfront in downtown district. That's small business incubation. That's downtown activation. It's tourism and visit visitor draw. That's community infrastructure working exactly as it's intended.

The Port Orchard Farmers Market is not simply an event. It's a weekly economic engine that supports local farms, small businesses, and brings thousands of people to the heart of the city. We are proud to do this work in partnership with the city of Port Orchard and the Port Of Bremerton, and we appreciate your continued leadership and support. We look forward to building on this momentum together in 2026 and beyond. And if you all have any questions.

Thank you, thank you Erica. Greatly appreciate your presentation and everything the farmers market does down in our waterfront during the summertime. It's wonderful. You. Councilmember Rose Pepe.

Erica, thank you for the presentation. I know we have two council members that are involved a lot with the farmers markets, and they speak very highly of it. Curiosity question is with the World Cup coming this year, I didn't know if there's anything that the farmers market is doing to additionally attract or do a, hey. Wow. We're here type thing.

We have been having some discussions with PAWA, with the Waterfront Alliance about how we might be able to align and help bring additional events or things downtown. As far as marketing goes, you just brought up something that I don't think we really had in our radar. So thank you.

Yeah. I just didn't know if if, you know, possibilities putting some notices or advertisement on the ferries, both

We actually so just last night, I had a meeting. WSU's small farms team hosted a meeting for markets in all of Kitsap and Kitsap Fresh, and that was one of the things we talked about is trying to get some cross advertising onto the ferries. It's something that had been happening years ago, when Kesap Community and Agricultural Alliance was a stronger organization, and we I'm on that board as well. We have gained a lot of board members this season, so there might be some ability for them to be a fiscal sponsor and help support some of the local farmers markets to do that.

Super. Thank

you. Yeah. Any other questions?

Counselor Morse.

I'm I'm gonna echo some sentiments that I hear. You guys are killing it when it comes to the markets. Right? I hear, we have the best market. I used to hear in Kitsap, but now I'm hearing, like, in the on the Peninsula. So way to go. Keep killing it. I love it. My wife loves it. We love to bring our dog down. I just have a quick question. This was probably the best slide in your presentation, but what do you think caused in '21 this trajectory up? Right? What what did what did what did guys There was There was a some difference that's been made, and you continue to do that. And I wanna continue to see that growth. But I just I'm curious if if you know what that catalyst was because we want we want more of it here in our city. So

This this gal here, Ingrid, was hired in three years ago and really did help a lot having this additional position where somebody is super focused on advertising, on community engagement. She has exponentially, like, increased our sponsorships, giving us more income to have more employee hours, to have access to more signage, more social media advertising, all of those things. So that is a huge part of it. We also Sally, that opened up time for Sally to be more involved in our events and our promotions committee. And now we're actually at a point where they're able to work together, which is even more amazing, but I wanna say just having that one extra employee.

So we're looking at trying to apply for some grants so that we can have more less volunteer work employee hours so that our board can actually focus on business. We're finally getting our first five year strategic plan in place this year. Hopefully it'll be approved at our next board meeting. We've gotten a lot of like, the, handbooks and things like that that we've never had are finally being put in place. So having that employee manpower has really freed up time for the board to concentrate on the business of the market.

That's awesome. Thank you. Just continue doing it. I'd love to see that growth that you had from 23 to 24 every year, and come back here and let us know how we can be a partner.

I was gonna say we also have a great opportunity this year. We're looking at expanding into second market on Wednesday. We're kind of solidifying that plan right now. So hopefully it'll just kind of keep that trajectory going upward.

I just have one comment.

Council Member Diener raised his.

Oh, yeah. Just wanted to say that this was a very eye opening presentation and I think the best presentation I've ever seen on the farmers market. Really like what you're doing. It makes me want to be more involved in addition to purchasing power but and then, you know, Jay had mentioned marketing and and maybe I have an idea for you and it's a pretty quick idea. But until last year, family had a boat and one of the things we like to do is to go to different markets. We'd go to Ballard, we'd go to Bainbridge, Poulsbo. Where are the different places to shop? And and I wonder how you could reach out to those kinds of people. I'm not sure what the answer to that looks like, but there's an opportunity perhaps?

Perhaps we that's our partnership with the port is really important for that, and I think that's part of seeing some of this growth too.

That's

awesome. They're really good at advertising when we're having events and things like that as long as we get the information to them in a timely manner.

Yeah. And hopefully that's advertised at other ports, Port Of Kingston, Palm Beach,

and are best. I was gonna say we could probably do better even going down the waterfront. There's many marinas going down, not just the Port Of Bremerton.

Yeah. And they're all collaborative. I don't know what the parent port collaboration's name is, but there is a super port authority that maybe you could look into.

Look into. Yeah.

Vice Mayor Devon?

Yeah. Thank you. Between this presentation and the one previous that blew us out of the water, I think just showing what longevity creates and how you have these just amazing community members that just are so dedicated and for such a long time working and volunteering their time. Like, how long have you been doing the Farmers Market now? Me? Yeah.

I started with the Port Orchard Farmers Market fifteen years ago as Just a

saying. And Just saying. This is this is the kind of dedication this community brings, and that's amazing.

Yep. And look where it's at.

Council member Warden. Yeah, to answer Morrissey's question about the growth, I'm part of that. My wife sends me down there to get

So am I.

To answer your question John, it's

in this vest right here. But thank you so much for all Thank you I'm actually joking, but I'm not joking. I mean, I'm set down there too because I'm an early riser. And so everyone's setting up, and I'm the one yapping at them while they're setting up. But I enjoy seeing my friends. I enjoy seeing people down there and different businesses that you know, some where they're always there and some come and go and but it's always full.

Yeah.

And so and being on the water right there is terrific. So I really I

was gonna say, right now, we're still the least expensive market to participate in on the Kitsap Peninsula. Oh. And we have we have really started changing our application to really hone in on finding vendors that are specific to the Kitsap Peninsula so that we're keeping that money local and just really try we're trying to find creative ways. Like, at that meeting I was at with WSU last night, we're talking about ways to host a, like, a workshop or roundtable for farmers in the winter to try and help our local Kitsap farmers find resources, grants, whatever they need to make their businesses more successful so that they can hopefully hit more outlets like ours and Kids Up Fresh, the other markets locally. And we're continually trying to find those partnerships where we can be a stronghold in our community.

Thanks for all you do. Appreciate you.

Yeah. Then opening day, the April, April 4.

Gotta put that in.

Thank you.

Any

last questions for Erica? Thank you, or Councilmember Frayer? I've lived

in the community almost forty years. I've been to the Farmers Market since they started. The last ten years or so, we've seen a huge improvement in the market in in attendance as well as the vendors that are down there. It's great work you guys are doing. Thanks for coming and presenting to us. Keep up the good work, and we all look forward to seeing you down there this year.

Thank you. I was gonna say I just saw pictures of myself back in, like, '79 probably sitting in the back of a van at on the Sydney when the market used to be right down there at the bottom of Sydney my watching the music play with

little Rad.

Things on my headband. Awesome. Thank you all.

Thank you. Thank you. We're on to our business items now. The first of which is adoption of a resolution authorizing the mayor to ex execute a contract with Balmwell PLLC for the Gibbons Park master plan. Mister Ryan, this is you.

Good evening, mayor and council members. The city issued a request for qualifications in December for the Gibbons Park master plan, seeking a consultant team to guide long term improvements at one of our most heavily used community parks. The scope includes planning, conceptual design, preliminary engineering, community engagement, accessibility evaluation, cost estimating, and the preparation of a final master plan that will position the city well for future funding opportunities, particularly with the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office. Gibbons Park plays a vital role in local recreation, including athletic courts, the playground, picnic areas, and the Gibbons Active Club building. As we begin the master planning process, it is important to note that preserving the athletic fields for their respective leagues is expected to be a major component of the plan.

The assumption may have future implications for city maintenance commitments, and council will likely need to consider those during later stages as recommendations are refined. We received the statement of qualifications and received five statements of qualifications. A review panel shortlisted and interviewed the top two. Bonwell PLLC emerged as the most qualified based on technical expertise, project approach, and the understanding of the community priorities. Staff has since negotiated the scope, schedule, and terms. Professional services agreement is now ready for consideration. The consultant is prepared to work immediately, including developments of materials needed for upcoming RCO grant cycles with applications currently closing on April 30. Thank you.

Councilor Deener. Mister mayor, I

moved to adopt a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a professional services agreement in a form acceptable to the city attorney with a Balmoral PLLC for the development of the Gibbons Park master plan in the amount of $149,925. Second.

Motion by Council Member Dean or second by Council Member Morrissey. Any questions for mister Ryan on the ground? Council Member Dedmon, go ahead.

I was a was it ever considered to bring this to a work study or a committee?

Sorry, what's that?

Was there ever any consideration to bring this proposal or for this design work to a work study or a committee?

So there will be a public process as part of the master planning process. So the final product will be presented to city council for consideration before

Not specifically this design.

What's that?

But not specifically this what's being asked

This design will be consistent of a public outreach process. We are gonna identify some community stakeholders, and it's gonna be a working group involving the community, members of the league, and we're looking at was it land use committee? A participant from land use committee to be

And before land use committee, yes.

This was part of

the 2026 budget process approval.

Okay, so you were saying in the 2026 budget it was approved for $150 to have, go to this design of a potential park.

This master plan park.

Master plan park. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm still trying to bring it up. My computer, like, focused. But I'll wait for my next question.

Pastor Troenery. Yeah. I would just like to ask

that during this planning that we make sure we have extensive preemptive marketing to the public so that they can come in and we get as high a percentage as we can of our public coming in and making comments and giving us their opinion as well.

Our consultant has committed to make this the greatest public outreach exercise we've ever seen. Also want to note too that That's I said. I also want to note this is one of the great processes where it doesn't matter how old you are. You can be eight years old or 12 years old or 80 years old and you get to participate in the planning process.

Yeah. And I'm pretty sure this went to who was on the land use last year. I know we just deliberated this in the budget process for sure. And whether it was at land use or not, I'm sketchy, but Since

was land use chair, I don't remember this coming to the land However, in the process and, Sharad, just to let you know, we're part of the process and that we can attend and it will come to us before anything's satellite. This is like the start of a design on that. So I mean this is how we've worked before, but I do have a separate question, Mayor. I'll take wait my turn.

Go ahead. Go ahead.

Oh, okay. Dennis, I know this is kind of a a tangent, but just because that you know, part of the building that you know, the building belongs to the county and some of that. Are they going to look a little bit outside the box about what may come down the road or are they just looking at the existing footprint now?

That's something that we could expand in the future. There would likely be an adjustment in this $150,000

No, don't know. That may be something that we might want to look at and I would defer to The take

is aware that that could be a future possibility.

Thank you. Do you have a question?

Yeah, a couple. So I see that in the scope there's volleyball courts. How did we come to the determination

With sand too.

Sand. Sand court, yes.

For Washington?

One opportunity, and I don't recall if I saw that as something that we saw in our recent pros plan. I I do know that we're gonna look at every opportunity. The only preconceived notion that we have going into this process, and the consultant is well aware of this, there's ball fields there. It's used by Little League. It's used by kids at PeeWee. That's what we're prepared to hit the ground running with RCO applications.

K. So then you touched on my second question, was I'm I'm very hopeful that the that Balmwell will take a look at our pros plan. I didn't I searched for that in in the contract, and I didn't see it mentioned at all. So and I think that's a very important document to reflect upon when we're enhancing our parks.

I I've had that conversation. That is something that when we start the visioning process, that is something that they're gonna reflect on that Yeah. What they learned from the community in that last process.

Right. And that last process, just for everybody's awareness, was 2022. So it's still pretty fresh and it had great participation. And so we should be mindful

of that. Thank you. Member Ward?

Yeah. I definitely read over this really, really well. And some of the stakeholders reached out to me because they read it as well, which I'm thankful for. There concerns. I know we're not in a design phase that's coming in the future, but we are putting dollars out there to get a design, and those baseball fields you're not changing literally any aspect of those baseball fields as far as the bleachers are all concrete that cover a whole side of it.

The outfield's concrete that covers the whole side of it, right? I mean it's literally a historic baseball field. It's been there since I think 1950 in the middle of our city. There are some real concerns. Turf.

The questions will be, I know I'm getting into the weeds, but the questions are gonna be like who maintains that turf? Because baseball is one of the worst for turf for wearing in specific areas. And you're replacing those areas all the time.

If you just go to

a Mariners game you'll always see the outfield has a certain square that's always cut out in each area because at sport wears on specific areas. So turf is holding our conversation. I don't want that involved in it. I can go through the whole thing. My point of that though is for $150 of capital dollars, I'm glad about that, I really don't know if that needs to be the scope of the work.

I think it's a planning effort It giving us

makes people a little bit nervous out there.

I

definitely think that for sure what you're talking about, this hasn't been discussed at land use but the Gibbons Master Plan has definitely been a plan for that part for a very long time. It serves a huge portion of the community right there. So I'm looking forward to it for sure.

Go ahead. Yes. I was first.

I'm just kinda curious though with this master plan because we already have brand new courts and a nice area for the kids to play. And the picnic area, it looks like that even got a new roof. And and then, yeah, you got the little league I mean, the down where you were just saying where they play baseball, and then the grass is also nice there, and the peewee football play there. They need a great big field, and so I'm just looking why are it's it's a beautiful park already, so to spend 150,000 for, it says like possible field reconfiguration, active club building assessment, what does that mean? Traffic future road improvements.

You have plenty of parking. There's like almost 90 parking spots right behind the field, and then along the side they got side parking there too. And it's maybe you just need more paint. But I'm just kinda curious, and irrigation, didn't you guys well, that's for the the lawn, but down that one road on the other side, well, you already did all that, sewer or the water down that one road just last year.

It's potable drinking water.

Yeah.

So much goes into this facility, this park. This park doesn't have a current ADA. It's not accessible park. The new courts are accessible. Mhmm. That's the only component in this entire this entire park that is currently meets accessibility requirements. That building does not meet accessibility requirements. If the building was no longer there and we wanted to build something else or if we needed to make a major renovation, we're gonna have to bring it up to current code and current ADA, American with Disability standards. Same with the ball fields. If we need to do new bleachers, if the bleachers rot and fall down, then we have to replace them. We have to have them because it is a public park. They have to be designed and built to meet the ADA standards. This process, the biggest priority, is gonna get us an ADA transition.

I think those bleachers over there by the baseball field, I think they're cement, I believe.

But doesn't change the requirement. It's

a public

park and it needs to be assessed. But

do we have to pay a $150,000 to get it ADA? I mean, I don't understand why we're doing the whole thing when only maybe some things that need to be addressed.

There's several things that were identified in the city's PROs plan, the park recreation and open space plan. One of those things that they're gonna look at, it's gonna be something that's gonna be discussed in the the planning sessions, which everything 100% comes in front of the city council, and there will likely be a work study session that will review this, what the input of your stakeholders are. One of those things we've heard is a pump track. Do you know what a pump track is?

It's like

a little it's kinda like a little skate park, but it's like bikes and little ramps. It's really popular in sports, but that's something that community said that they wanted to see in our parks.

Oh, probably down on the one end. I don't know where it'd be at. But yeah.

We don't know either.

And that'd be great. Like you said, let's get the public in and get their perspective and their input.

And and when we when we talk about the ball fields, I mean, we might have a project that delivers brand new fencing around all the facilities, enough traded score shack, maybe a snack bar, but something to improve the athletic use amenities to that facility.

Thanks.

No further questions?

Thank you for your explanation because for me, at least I'm starting the way I read this, it doesn't read the way you explained it at all. And then I would say, especially like when it says program elements at a minimum. So the fact that a lot of the budget seems to be going to subcontractors, whereas the primary contractor is a landscape designer. And so I was just understanding now that it's ADA compatibility. So I'm still trying to work my head around that.

So if can explain that a little bit more by why it makes sense to have sort of a primary landscape designer as the primary contractor with like a lot of subcontract work and how does that work in helping in the control that we have over what's happening getting

the job done?

So the answer about the landscape architect, so we solicited for competitive architect. We solicited for a master plan, a park master plan. The only firms that submitted were landscape architects. This is their niche. It's very common that these are headed up. Sometimes you'll see it like an engineering contractor. You'll see it vice versa or they'll take turns. You'll see a sub be the lead one time and the engineer firm's the lead, the architect firm's the lead. It goes back and forth. But this is who responded.

Our top two finalists were actually landscape firms. I also want to note that I can't promise that we'll get grant money, but there's also a grant for this planning process. So some of it could be recoverable. That's a hope. There was a second part of your question. I'm sorry.

When it discusses program elements, I was curious to know where those program elements because or better yet, they talked about accessible well, actually, you guys explained that to me, so thank you. And then you said somebody had mentioned a pump track. And then and only because I I my kid uses a pump track, so that's why it caught my eye. And I was thinking, in Port Orchard, we're fighting for an indoor. We need we need an indoor BMX track now, pump track. That's the least of our worries. But, anyway, I think in totality, again, thanks for explaining a lot of things to me. It's it's helpful.

Just one more. Yes. So I'm familiar with the area. My kid played ball there for a while. Over the years, there's been a lot of lipstick put on this on these facilities. And it's my hope that with this, we'll see something that becomes more of a destination for Kitsap County at large. And I think this will help get us there.

Oh, yeah. I mean, even the courts right now have already have you seen how many kids have been out there? Yeah. It's I mean, it's just it's crazy.

Yeah. It's awesome. Futsal Court.

Alright. Back to this matter at hand. And any further questions of mister Ryan? Hearing none, we you will be voting on a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a contract with Baumwalt pl l c for the Gibbons Park master plan project. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, that passes unanimously. For item b, the approval of the February 17 work study council meeting minutes. Is there a motion to approve? Councilmember Warren?

Yes. Mister mayor, I move to approve the work study meeting minutes of February 17 as presented.

Second. Second. Second by motion by council member Morrissey, second by council member Ternary. I think I'm going to get abstentions from council member Roscoffey. Yep. All in favor of approving the work study minutes from February 17, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? And two abstentions. Abstention. Okay. We're to our new business item c which was previously consent item c which is the adoption of a resolution authorizing the city of Port Orchard to participate in the interlocal purchasing system. Mister Ryan, this is you.

Thank you. The city of Port Orchard routinely purchases materials and equipment and services to support daily operations and project delivery. Along with traditional competitive bidding, state law allows cooperative purchasing or piggybacking as an efficient and cost effective alternative. The interlocal purchasing system or TIPS is a national cooperative program that offers competitively bid contracts across many services income commodity categories. Participation requires council authorization under RCW 39.34.

By adopting the proposal resolution, the city would be able to use the tips as an additional procurement tool, helping streamline purchasing, reduce administrative workload, and to potentially secure better pricing through nationally aggregated contracts. And I will just add on this particular one, we're looking at tips. The city is members of several different cooperatives. We take advantage of interlocal agreements that we piggyback off the county, off the state. It's a great way that we are able to do business and deliver products and services at the lowest possible cost to our taxpayers.

This particular one, we are it has to do with our operations utility, the Lumpston Building. We're doing the card readers and the doors that we source. The product is available. The hardware we need. It's a Tukwila vendor, but we are looking for cooperatives because we want it to be transparent. We wanna know that it went through a bid procured process that follows all of our statutes. This one happens to be tips, and so that was the the reason we went with this one. So just some background.

Mayor, I move to adopt a resolution authorizing the city of Port Orchard to participate in the interlocal purchasing system for the procurement of materials, equipment, supplies, and services.

Second. So

motion by council member Morrisey. Questions for Mr. Ryan on

this? I had a couple of questions to help explain when we talk about I think right now you mentioned that you wanted to use a Tequila vendor, that's actually how this came about. And that's what my question was going to be to is this is a Texas based cooperative and you know, the previous local agreement we had was with the city of Seattle. So on its face, it was, you know, something that was local, whereas this is with a Texas based, entity. And so, you know, I had questions about possible concerns about what that meant, like would we be able to use local vendors.

But it sounds like you just explained right now that we would be able to use local vendors so it wouldn't take that kind of local benefit away from us or that it even would take away flexibility. We're not required to use TIPS, right? Is that correct?

We're never required to use the interlocal agreements. We're not obligated. I do wanna caution though that if we did go out competitively to look for something, this was like a large volume purchase where it was triggering procurement. We have to go with the lowest vendor no matter if they're in the state of Washington or if they're in the state of Illinois.

Thanks for the explanation.

Other questions? Alright. You'll be voting on resolution authorizing the city to participate in the interlocal purchasing system. All in favor please say

aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Resolution passes. We're to item D which is business item D which was formerly consent item f, approval of the February 10 city council regular meeting minutes. Is there a motion to approve them?

Go ahead. Mister mayor, I'll make a motion to approve the meeting minutes of February 10 as presented. Second.

By Council Member Morrissey, a second by Council Member Fenton. And I believe there were amended minutes, red line minutes that were emailed out this morning.

Yeah, in fact, I would like to make a motion to accept the amended meeting minutes. Here the agenda says to accept the meeting minutes.

It doesn't say amended. Okay.

We need to accept the amended. Okay.

I second that.

To the original motion maker

I assumed we were operating off the one we were emailed, so that would be my that's a friendly amendment. I have no issue.

So we already have a motion on the floor, and the motion maker is comfortable with the words amended minutes. No, Heidi was

second. On

John's Morse motion? Okay, I'm sorry.

You sound like me.

There was a voice over here. Alright. Any other questions of these minutes?

I think you sound

the amended ones were right. Okay. But they were the right words? Okay. Just make sure.

Alright. So we've got a motion and a second to approve the city council minutes from February 10. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Minutes. The Thank you. Alright. That is all of our business. We're to council committees. Economic development and tourism, have you met since our last council meeting? No? Alright. Utilities met this evening. Council Member Rose Pepe, you

had a report? We had a an update and review of the sewer rate structure, there were not any major questions. It was just a nice review of what we had approved last October. We had an update on the foster pilot program, the fact that discussions continue, and this will continue to be a topic over the next several months. We had a talk about the old Clifton intertie that we're going to we're 30% design, so we'll be moving for that and construction in 2027.

And then we just had a quick discussion about our various wells, an update on those, and that was the end of the meeting. So pretty good, mostly informative.

Thank you for your report. Finance meets next week. Transportation, did you guys meet or I think you met, gave a report possibly in our last

I think so. Yeah. Last

meeting? Yeah.

Because you would have met Right before. Just ahead of the last meeting of the month. Land use, Nope. Have you Nope. Okay. Lodging tax, know hasn't met. Supervisory, anything to report there?

No. That's June. Okay.

And I don't recall anything for outside agencies. Kids have

transferred me. It was pretty general meeting. Wasn't anything that was updated on that. Pretty much FIFA tends to rule what's going on, and there was an update also on our people utilizing transportation and how that continues to go up. So nothing

nothing I was ear shatter. Better memory than I have because I didn't recall anything significant. Alright. To the mayor's report. Okay. We've got a special guest in the back room and maybe Megan, our new communications specialist started work last week. She's in her second week and maybe Megan will come out and introduce herself. Step on up to the microphone. Don't be shy. So Megan's in beginning of week two, and so if you wanna say a few words about yourself, maybe where you're where you're coming from. Sure.

My name is Megan. I grew up in Bonney Lake over in Pierce County. I come with about twelve years in community journalism experience, and then I moved into government communications, most recently working for Pierce County's local workforce board. And now I'm here, and I'm happy to be here. It's been a whirlwind of a week and a half.

Had multiple meetings already about the website. I know that. She's written a few communication pieces, and I think she did the flyer, I think, today on the McCormick Woods town hall meeting went out today too.

So Yep. And we actually, yesterday, approved the general layout design of the new website. Oh. So that's exciting. The next step is creating the how it's gonna flow in the outline for the developers.

Wanna make an introduction. You'll see her face around. I know she popped out at one point and was taking some pictures and Yep. So I'm trying to get some stock photos in in in her hands.

Yep. You'll see the camera in my hand

taking pictures of you guys.

Well, welcome.

Thank you. Thank you, Megan. Alright. Brandi, could you bring up that mural image? Adam Smith got a little surprised when he went down to start the prep work for the the mural that we saw had an AI generation an AI generate so not only was the image generated in AI, but so was the wall.

AI is not perfect.

So remember

the right side of that wall was about eight feet tall and had a great big Carlyle on the side of it. That just unless we're building a new wall, that isn't gonna work. So this is Adams. It will have the mountains and the shipyard in it. This is just a mock up just showing the Carlisle and the sunset and how he could lay it out. If no So longer nobody has any objections. I think it still looks nice. Like, It's you're still you're really sticking to with have him start painting it and everybody comes screaming to my office and go, but it doesn't look like the picture we saw. And

That's perfect. It looks good, but

I thought that it was put I thought when

we had our discussion that we were all stoked about a a seagull, not a a heron.

Yeah. I think we had a We

were all

like seagull too.

Okay. Maybe maybe there'll be a seagull.

I do think Dennis feels that that's a pelican, though, from what I've heard.

He says we we don't listen to Dennis when it comes to this kind of stuff.

Because isn't it the seagull call that

we were talking about,

the event? We we Yeah. And we were like, oh, seagull. Seagull's Port Orchard. And it looks like I'm like, the heron's still there? Thought I we had

a discussion. Mean, herons are cool,

but we we need a song.

Things are cool. That tree is a weird tree that post all

those her yeah.

I know. I know. Know. Yeah. Know. We all talked about that.

So alright. I just I just wanted to share that before he starts putting paint on on the

Tell him that heron. We that's what we talked about. We talked about a seagull.

He is the artist so I'll everyone will let him That's true.

But he

was taking into weight that we were like, this has to represent Port Orchard.

Alright. Moving on here. I've I, I've shared some information about the Kitsap Community Foundation potentially doing our philanthropic giving or gathering those resources for us. When I followed up on that I had misunderstood the emails that she had sent me. She is pursuing a grant for us and I've still got to get her some information from Rice Fergus Miller of the cost breakdowns on the community center and that's the only thing they have the capacity to do.

They do not have the capacity to do a fundraising campaign for us. So we're going to bring that piece of it back to the work study next week and chat about that some more and whether we want to pursue those opportunities or not it involves hiring somebody to do that activity and she gave me some guidelines for that. Yes sir. As a term limited position? It would not be a staff person, it would be a contract person and then I'll get into some of the details was shared with me last week.

And it's just a decision whether we want to enter into that kind of per contract or not. They get paid by the hour and I'm told that there's a return of about 10¢ invested gets you a dollar is a typical formula for that and Tina from the executive director from the foundation says she believes we could raise some money in this capacity, doing that. So just want to talk about it some more because it's different than what I thought. But we are pursuing the grant opportunity but that is a one time event that she's helping us out with. Alright.

Downtown improvements Councilmember Warden and I and Councilmember Fenton were at the Waterfront Alliance meeting last week and Farmers Market were there too and we've seen each other a lot. And he shared some renderings of some buildings and was marketing our downtown improvements. So hopefully that was well received and a lot of great questions were asked.

Just trying to get the motivate the businesses to encourage

owners of

the properties

of the

buildings to reach out to us. And got some really good leads while we were there too. I'm sure you heard them, I'll talk to you about them. Yes, just same thing as that wall. It's pretty easy to AI something and what it could be.

And I actually got some I won't steal your whole time here. I actually had some contractors come and give some bids because they're actually realistic bids of what refacing a specific building would be because they're not we're not paying the bill. So we're not paying an exorbitant amount to a contractor. The billing owner would be paying and then we would pay our share in reimbursement. So it actually has some pretty good potential. Go ahead.

Did they throw out any numbers on refacing? Or they just

Yeah, like example like one was like $50. Hardy plank and stone in the bottom.

Nice.

So it's all concrete, right?

Can you imagine? But that's a

whole another conversation of what as a council we would desire. I was just trying to get a feel so I could bring something back to finance as we were discussing it. We had some questions of is it $500,000 what is it? But actually pretty realistic. And I think if I could bring some of those that are to them when you talk about it. They could actually see what it could be. So that was all.

That was pretty cool. He showed up with some pictures. Okay. Spurred conversation. That was the It was great. It was great. And so now remember, most of these folks are the tenants. They gotta motivate their landlord. Absolutely. Were there

any actual renderings of what downtown could look like?

Just a It building. Just a building. You took a building and and generated it with AI.

Yeah. I think it'd be a fascinating rendering if we could get like one side of the street just shown what that looks like.

I'll show you something. Yeah.

Yeah. Alright. It's how you sell it.

Yep. And it was it went over very well. Was just wanting to share that. So, I'm going to over the last I've got a bit of a message here talking about the feedback we received here a couple of weeks ago. So over the last two weeks I've taken a deeper dive into the concerns that have been raised regarding the permit processes at the City of Port Orchard.

I've learned that the pain points our customers experience are multifaceted and are being caused by several factors. Over the past few years the city has seen unprecedented growth that has stressed our staff and our systems beyond current capabilities and that's not an excuse that's just our reality. I have two specific points I want to make. This one is the first one is process related and the other is customer service. Director Bond has previously mentioned process improvements.

Currently the city utilizes two pieces of printing software, one that's customer facing and the second that's utilized by city staff to route and review and approve permits. Transferring the data between these two systems is a manual process that consumes a tremendous amount of staff time. Unfortunately once the applicant submits their permit request they have no way to see or track their permit other than to reach out to frontline staff. The city has already started improvements that will move the city to a single software system that will allow applicants to track their permit and know specifically who's working on their project. This improvement will allow the applicant to reach out directly to those staff members working on their permits.

Director Bond also intends to publish typical permit process expected timelines so that applicants have an idea how long their permit should be taking. Implementation will take most of this year but once implemented they should improve process timelines, improve real time information to customers and free up staff time. To customer interactions, I've recently attended permit coordination meetings with city staff. These meetings are typically scheduled for an hour and provide applicants with an opportunity to meet with staff and our plan review consultants to resolve outstanding items without the typical back and forth of electronic for pleased to I'm a that company. Company.

This project forward. Unfortunately time spent on this endeavor didn't help the backlog of other permits or the building inspections that need to be completed. Fortunately we've made a job offer to a second building inspector who should start soon. In other meetings I've attended, I see a common theme where applicants don't understand the building code, the fire code, or the energy code and want to argue the necessity of these regulations. These codes and many other laws are mandated and placed upon local government by the state of Washington.

While we continue to lobby in Olympia to stop housing mandates and allow for local control, this simply isn't happening. The biggest opportunity I see for improvement is for our staff to listen and to be empathetic about the frustration that applicants have. Customer service training should help city staff handle these objections creating an opportunity to lessen these adversarial interaction. In closing, I see an immediate need for customer service training with a focus on the customer experience and to evaluate the staffing needs to implement the process improvements while serving our customers' needs today. I'm confident in the abilities of our city staff to learn new ways, learn new skills, adapt our processes and conquer the challenges before us.

I'll continue to keep the City Council and the public aware as we make these necessary improvements. Ends my Mayor's report. Go to the order.

Yes, certainly. Oh, question with yours. What's that business that took three hours that you guys took What your time to business is that?

It was an apartment complex project, mixed use project.

Okay. And then will we get to know all those people that came here, the 17, will we get an update on all those businesses?

As Mr. Bond has done in the past where he's provided you information about particular applicants, we can absolutely provide that if there's any in particular that you haven't previously been briefed on. I'll go back through and look and make sure that the ones that we haven't briefed you on will address and provide you the data.

Yeah. That'd be great. Absolutely.

I think most of those we have, but I'll have the city attorney confirm that.

Although very particular Triple check. On the one that was the 50% discount store.

Okay, happy to look into that one.

We just said go to the order, but we

other comments.

If you have other questions, yeah, go ahead. Oh, I'm I'm reorgging it. I'll keep that quiet. I'd

like

to echo something that and I think everybody acknowledged this last when we had this meeting, a comment that you made, Eric, and that was in the X number of years that you've been working, hadn't had this because of your how you interact with customers. And I think, Mary, you put this at the bottom of the report, but it's probably the most important part of part of that. I think you acknowledge it, but I think that we need to emphasize as a council how much we believe in it, that it's not just the process focus that we're doing, but also the interaction focus.

I've said I've

already said I understand that, but I mean, you know, that they hear it over and over again because obviously we're at a breaking point, and we need to move forward. I appreciate you addressing it. I appreciate Nick addressing it. But I think we heard more than we needed to last, two weeks ago.

Casper Dina?

I'll lead with I I think the the applicant definitely has responsibilities and we shouldn't under emphasize that. That should be one of the pillars that we're trying to build up here because I I sometimes think that applicants just don't know what they're getting into and that's both big and small projects. Also I add that

And before you move on there, you're spot on in that we need to do more on the front end of this process so that the app And we're doing some things and if you saw the posts we're putting out there but we also need resources to put out because that's a lot of this frustration is coming. They're frustrated before they even submit their permit. So we've got to do a lot more education on the front side. And Charlie and I were talking about this earlier today and I wish Mr. Bond was here, he's off on vacation.

There's work to there's absolutely work to be done there because so that the applicant knows what all these steps are before they apply. And then the process improvement is being able to track that as it's traveling, making its journey. That's the other

thing I wanted to touch on. Jurisdictions that have adopted that portal so you can track where your permit is. It's been very well received by the public, including neighbors that just wanna if they can get into that portal and there's ways to do that, sign up and so on for neighbors to see what's going on around them as well.

When Nick did his outreach to the stakeholders, that was one of the criteria and the software we chose and why. Questions? Thank you.

Yeah, I might just add my 2¢ and it kinda goes back to some of what Scott said too. While they think there is some onus on our applicants applicants as as well, well, this is our community. Right? And we don't want it to be so onerous in our own community to be able to operate a business or to get that up off the ground. So I hope my my my fellow dais members up here hear me when I say and we heard from from the mayor that a a lot of it is enforcing things that aren't things that the seven of us chose to enforce.

It was the, you know, what is it, a 100 and some, when you get both houses down down in Olympia, people that are enforcing this. I think it's a 146. But it it is imperative that we do our job to educate those who represent us down in Olympia how their decisions impact us. And pile on each other. And and and in Yeah.

In multiple faceted ways. But, again, I fully believe, and I'm always up here to state my claim, that I believe local control is the best control. That's just my personal belief. I hope you join me in that because I think the seven of us know right here what's best for Port Orchard better than all a 146 people down in Olympia.

And I I just wanna add one more thing.

Well said, councilor Morse.

Yeah. Thank you for that. I I think I've I've been in a jurisdiction where we have said that if you're gonna tell somebody that they have to do something, that you've gotta provide the code site for that. So, it's a local code site or it's an IBC code site. So, there's no dispute and it's clear that we're not asking for something that is not already required by code. I think that's a very important cultural shift. And then I've mentioned this to you Mayor

As matter my redeemer in the meetings I am, trust me that is going on. Where I think it's lacking and I had to reinforce it is that piece where it isn't it's something that's mandated upon us and the applicant just doesn't understand that and wants to argue that point. This is the one point in that meeting where I spoke up and I said I hear you and I don't like it either. But we're the enforcement agent of a mandate that's coming down from Olympia.

Yeah. And

let me just. Yeah. Sorry. Let me just finish and then. And I've mentioned this to you before. We heard when the when the 17 came and testified that sometimes they were being asked to do something after a previous inspection and I've mentioned to you that I really believe that if something is found because you can continue to find things throughout these inspections. But if it's not life safety related or not

Counsel, I've found no evidence to that to be true. So I've only heard that one time and from in a reinspection. Anybody that has, I welcome that feedback from them and we'll definitely look into that.

I think it should be a standing practice that you don't get to go back and ask for things that are not related to life safety or won't lead to a life safety issue.

And why

not keep the business open and let the business

Count Count Hill Smith. Yeah.

You know?

Johnson Margetinen.

Thank you. I just want right now, I think we're all saying we don't We heard the people who came, and right now, I'm hearing a reiteration of what has been told to them time and time again. I don't want them to have to feel I'm gonna use a word because I don't know what other word to use. Gaslighted. When you keep saying that there's an issue and somebody says that's not a real issue, there has to be a point where we acknowledge that there's gotta be some kind of issue in what they're saying.

And and so it's not about, yes, we know that there are other issues, but when you have people who are opening businesses in multiple jurisdictions and they keep saying that this is the hardest jurisdiction, it cannot be just these processes, especially when they deal with other jurisdictions and they're stating this is the process we have here. This is why it's so radically different. We can't just keep coming back to the same language. Thought that we were moving past and it just seems right now we're starting to reiterate the same language. That's it. So I think we all agree that we're trying to address what was brought forward, and I think we're all just we're there, and let's not circle back.

Can I add thirty seconds to all this? Because I think we all feel the same way from different pieces I've I've put together out of all this, kind of the same way, and that we do acknowledge that that there there are issues that we're working through. And I think I think I speak for all of us. You can speak of it if you don't. That whatever resources you need, mayor, come ask this council. Right? We want this fixed. And whatever you need to get that done, we're here to support it.

Well said.

And I'll just add five seconds. This is gonna take a while. This is not

gonna But be something it's gonna be a process and I've already signed one contract for some customer service training. We're moving forward. Mr. Bond and I have some things that we need to talk about and structure in the process of improvement and I just don't want to come with a plan to you that's half baked. In a few weeks, it won't be months, I will be back. We'll be talking about what these needs look like and what they are.

Sounds great.

Alright. Go to the order.

You want to do department heads?

Want department heads? Guess so. Mr. Ryan what do you got?

A few items tonight. The first off, we talked about this at utilities tonight. Our well seven which is an artesian well down here next to City Hall. The wellhead is at the boulevard. We are in the last few weeks we've seen significant reduction in the water gallons per minute. So It's productive. The production out

of it. Yes. Yep.

So we did a TV inspection. The TV inspection looks good. The casing looks good. So the next steps is we started a contract today where they're gonna be installing modern equipment for the next three weeks so we can see if it's certain times a day. We don't know if it's being impacted by another agency's wells in another area. The shipyards has several wells over there that they do not have to report their usage and consumption. So we're gonna rule that out as far as we before we go to next steps. If we have to look down at putting an in line pump in the the well, we can do that too. So we're just getting our ducks in a row and wanna keep you up to speed in case we need to come back in front of you for any other needs.

The next one

And and I think the outcome is could be this summer during peak usage, we might have to buy some water from Bremerton because this system isn't connected with what's up the hill. Well there's some improvements that need to be made to reduce pressure as water travels down the hill. And so we've got those items are being expedited to design and the cost for those so that we can wheel water back and forth between our reservoirs more efficiently.

The next item is I just want to keep everybody up to speed. I'm hoping next week we will bring in front of our sorry, next regular council meeting the S R 16 water realignment of our transmission line associated with the fish passage culvert for washdot. We do not have pricing yet. I'm hoping to have that next week, but that will be coming in front of you very soon. And the last thing is we learned Friday that the Marina project, it's not another change order.

We learned from the Association of Public the National Association of Public Works, the APWA, is recognizing the Marina Pump Station as environmental project of the year for 5 to $20,000,000 range. So it's it's Nice. Statewide recognition. So Yeah. Everybody in this room and all of our staff, we had some great engineers and a lot of value engineering and we talked about it a lot in this room. So it's it's it's it's great that it's recognized throughout the work.

That's great. Awesome. That

Yes. It's done.

Rocker?

Nothing tonight. Thank you. Rocker.

Just a reminder that I am here all day usually on Tuesdays for council meetings, and I'm always available for coffee or chats or just to answer any questions. I find that can be really efficient and effective for my clients. I come and have office hours, so feel free to stop by. Next one will be obviously the twenty fourth, so hopefully see you

then. Wallace.

Yes. Good evening, council, mayor. So I thought I would provide to you guys a, rough, first quarter of what the clerk's office is is handling this first quarter. So as you know, we've hired our communications specialist, and she's hitting the ground running with all kinds of communications being submitted out to the public and internally as well as handing over the redesign of our city website. As part of that new web design package came with two software programs, one that is revamping our public records portal online as well as our agenda management portal.

And so the website timeline is about six to eight months out before we finally get a full version of it and switch over from our current vendor to our new vendor. If you want a sneak peek of the design that we're looking to go towards, you can search the city of Lincoln Park, Michigan. That's kinda the look and feel that we're going for, so feel free to peruse that site. I'll send you a link.

Okay, thank you. Yep, thank you. Sorry, go ahead.

The public records request portal, we expect to go live here middle of next week to the public and then internally working with staff staff to get everything on board internally and to hopefully transition to the final component of that March 31. We're about 75% done. The agenda management solution program, we are about 50% through the process. We plan to go live on that probably April, again towards the public. There is a component that's a better version of Legislate, which you guys I think use now.

I think you'll be pleased with the version that we're gonna come out to you guys within April or May. The timeline is that is to be currently away from the current vendor by mid to beginning of mid April to the May. So in the next couple weeks, early April, you'll send an e see an email from me about the link to where you guys can go in there and play with it and look at it and let me know if you have any questions.

Miss Wallace, that that's a replacement of Granicus?

Correct. Okay. Yes. It's a Civic Plus package. And then the as you may have noticed, the first special event for road closure for the season has started, so it's on the agenda. You'll have a handful over the next few months. My goal is to get those to the council and processed in a more efficient and timely manner this season. We have received five applications, and so we've put out our first round of publications to the public, bringing awareness to those events. We also had our first meeting with our first applicant with law enforcement and public works department. Just being briefed on that event and getting ready to move that forward.

That'll be on the next regular council meeting for your approval for road closure.

Mine's coming. I said wait to

I saw sure

the road was closed.

Yep. And then lastly, just kinda giving you an update of where we are for public disclosure requests. So as of today, we have received 189 public disclosure requests. Typically on any given day, month, we typically have about 40 to 60 active public records requests. 60% of those are law enforcement, 30% are clerks, and 10% is the other departments. So I'll just kinda give you an update of of where we're at with the clerk's office in the first quarter of of twenty twenty six.

I have a question. Are you able to characterize what kind of questions are being asked of the clerk in in in those PDRs? Like, what is it that you see most out of the clerk's office?

So clerk's office, mainly, it's related to building and permitting. Okay. Emails. So we respond to when they want any and all that has to do with the building permit Okay. Or location. A lot of them, they're doing their due diligence before they purchase the property. They wanna know what the building permit looks like. They also want to know for the commercial standpoint if there's any contaminants soil within the building structure for businesses. That's all I can think of right now.

They're looking to buy a piece of property and code enforcement actions. Parking. All kinds of that type of things.

Engineers are using them now for drainage calculations. So they'll see if you have them first versus them having to create them all. You were to them, why do you duplicate the work? Let's go to and get them.

Like that. Engineering requesting maps of the area.

As a result, the clerk's job just keeps growing and growing and growing.

Yeah. Sounds like you're the clearinghouse.

Alright. Anything else, Brandy? Alright. We're to our second citizen comment period. Is anyone wishing to address the council or and if you're online, use the raise your hand.

I would like to acknowledge the two gentlemen in back who have been here the whole meeting and thank you

for Oh, being can't even see them. Hi. Thank you. Thanks for being here. Hello.

Right. I'm gonna close the second citizen comment period and is there anything for the good of the order? Councilmember Trenary.

Yeah. Got a couple of public works out of boys. In case anybody's driven by Cedar Heights, we got new beauty bark in the center center areas there. They tore up the old the old weeds and whatever's been there for twenty some years. Looks really good out there. Hope we can keep it that way. And also had several citizens, couple primarily from McCormick Woods, but they're thanking the city for their improved maintenance on the cold patches that we've got on the roads, keeping them from becoming craters where they can potentially damage their cars. So thank you Public Works for that.

They're actually paving.

And road patches, you know the construction project there in front of the grade school. That's nearing completion. There's one steel plate left on the road towards Ruby Creek that's got to be there until they pressure test the line and then that will get closed up. Because of the depth of that and the private contractor that did the work there were concerned about settling. And so we might require that contractor come back and redo some of that work unfortunately because it wasn't the fill material wasn't to specifications. We Without change order.

What's that? Without a change order.

No. It's their it's private there's two there's three projects going on there.

Got it. It. Thought you about

sidewalk project, our sewer line project and a private developments. So going on it's the private development that didn't potentially meet the specifications. So as a result we probably won't pave that until mid to late summer because we don't want to pave that road and have a whole bunch of settling and have to tear up new asphalt. But it's much better than it was before.

So while we're talking about public works, any idea how long Lund is gonna be torn up?

That's a county project. But do we know how long

it's gonna be torn up?

My understanding is it's gonna be through summer.

Through summer.

We did meet with the county staff. And that's the first phase. I think there's it's either three or four project segments that are through there.

Right now it's water lines being put in by West Town Utility. Ahead of the county's construction. Yeah. Yes ma'am.

Do you think it would be possible or maybe if you know people at the county how to get this done and that is get like a summary or like their latest meeting minutes or anything because I've tried going on the website, very, very hard to navigate. And so as a city, like it would be really helpful if we know what's happening at the county level. Especially if, you know, I think we always get these updates about what's happening with the state. You know, that's relevant to us. So, it would be awesome if we could get what's happening at the county that's relevant to us also as well.

Good to see if the clerk can.

Well, maybe that's communications. Okay.

That would be awesome. Thank you.

Anything else for the good of the art? Yes. Member Gordon, go

ahead. So, I saved it for the good of the order but I got bombarded in the last couple weeks regarding everybody out front that was talking and curious why council never speaks up. Why isn't council talk? They came here to speak to council. And they are they are they are correct.

So I did reads, I did write something to read because they're correct. They should hear from city council. They came to a council meeting. So, I heard the mayor's statement loud and clear. I appreciate it, but the residents who spoke at our last meeting deserve to hear directly from city council members. This council member. I don't speak for anybody else. I'm taking the time tonight to address the community members who attended our last council meeting and voiced their concerns about the permitting process. Two weeks ago, our council chambers were full, 17 permit applicants came forward to testify about their experiences with the process. Not one testimony was positive.

We're fully aware. Every individual who spoke addressed the mayor, director, and city council. Unfortunately, because the meeting ran nearly twenty minutes over the ordinance time, those residents never heard from council that evening. Many tuned in to YouTube in record numbers. There's a lot. And while we can't respond during the public comments, we can take the opportunity during the good of the order to respond. The community deserves to hear from council. We're more than a mute seat at the table when residents come forward pleading for help. When people take time to stand at the podium and share their concerns, they deserve a response from the people they elect to represent them. And I wanna make one thing clear, I hear you.

Public service is challenging work and the employees in our departments carry significant responsibilities serving this community every day. I for sure know that firsthand. As council members, hey yo. Sorry about that. Each time the concern oh, as council members in the city of Port Orchard, we do not oversee staff.

We are not involved in internal personal matters. What we do hear regularly from the public is through coffee with counsel, emails, phone calls, conversations throughout the community. Each time concerns have been brought forward, they have been passed along to the mayor who oversees staff, process hiring, and firing. That is the role of the mayor in a strong form of government. Several council members can attest that these concerns have been raised repeatedly over time. We've had multiple conversations. Each time, we were assured they are being addressed. Members of this council have raised concerns about all aspects. Councilor Morrissey has supported lean lean process improvements. Diener, modernizing software.

Trenary's encouraged tone and communication. Rosa Pepe asked about permit timelines. Fenton's push for stronger oversight of inspections all at public meetings. When these issues have been discussed behind closed doors, council members have at times been encouraged to remain positive and avoid addressing these publicly because people wanna know why or not we express these publicly. Our goal is not to be upsetting city employees who have said that they watch these meetings.

Maybe remaining silent wasn't helping. When these issues have been discussed, Council has supported all improvements that have been asked. We approve funding for everything that's been asked and that's our job on Council. Council is doing what we can within our role and clearly we must do more. Hundreds of applicants are out there currently. After years of conversation, work studies, emails, testimony, the community is no longer asking what's the problem. They're asking when it will be fixed. Mister mayor, I'll say publicly what we've said privately, the time has gradually changed has passed. People have lost money. Business have lost momentum.

Perhaps most damaged of all, many have lost trust in the mayor's office, city council, and the permitting process. The community needs quick movement, not government speed. That's it.

Anything else for the good of the art, Councilmember Osmooth?

A couple of things. Week and a half ago, I was a last minute replacement, I believe, because they called me on Thursday night and asked if I could speak Saturday at a at a training session that was going on for state folks. It was political in nature, but that wasn't the question. They wanted to know about serving on city council. We got a lot of I got a lot of questions. It wasn't so much about interactions on city council. They were very interested in Port Orchard since we're a very dynamic and and growing city. And, you know, a lot of it was how do we forecast? How do we get back? We know we have a lot of of, concerns about infrastructure.

So it was a very positive session. But part of the was I got to talk about our police force and our police chief, and they're going, what's so different? And I talked about and I wish that the chief was here because I talked about his recruiting. I talked about, this is not the right word. It's not certification, but the process they went through and his Accreditation. Accreditation. Thank you. And his vision, and and how they've embraced it. So they were very interested, and I said they should get hold of the chief because I think he's done a wonderful job for our community. So it was very interesting.

A lot of questions about the ferry system or interaction both with the state ferry system and with Kitsap Transit. Very you know, people were very positive about what was going on. So it was it was it was good. It was a good time. You get a chance to get to one of those opportunities. Please take it. The other thing I had was, next week we have a work study. Eric and John have done some suggestions about town hall and format, and I was hoping that at work study we'd be able to flesh that out a little bit more. On the agenda. Okay.

So thank you very much for doing that. And last last thing was, you know, Eric, I appreciate the statement, but also one of the things I wanna hear that we don't always get or we can't ex you know, we can't go out publicly is, you know, sometimes and this is very few, so I'm not downplaying that. I completely go with that. Sometimes we get a complaint, then when we get the background information on it, we find out that wasn't quite the story also. This stuff here. No. No. No. No. I'm just saying, you know, on that.

And that's a tough one because we can't go out on those side of the coin. But you're right. I'm hoping we're moving forward, and I feel confident. Yes, that's council. Yep, no, we're good. That's all

I have. Thank you. Councilor Bernardino.

So I'll just stay on this thread. I also think it's important for the public to understand how many successful permits are processed by DCD. And it by many multipliers outweighs the bad experiences people are having. So, can't remember that or can't forget that DCD is in the business of processing permits and they they do a lot. Mhmm.

I think it's important to to to remember that many of those that they do most probably are I know, I believe that they don't get complaints on. The other thing that I wanted to talk about is we had a great presentation about the farmers market. And I'm curious, we had set aside space with the community center. Last year, we had as many as a 121 vendors, I believe the number was.

147 on any given weekend. We have generally between about sixty and seventy five vendors down there.

So up to a 147?

That is our overall. So they kinda rotate out on it.

Okay. Got

it. In the Port parking lot where we are currently located, we can fit under current city code about 60 to 75 vendors with really creative spacing.

And that makes sense when I think about the size down there now. But I just want to make sure that the community center can plan for the growth that we're seeing year on year.

And and The Orchestra Street Plaza. Is there and a matter of fact, I I I gave Erica a rendering of what that's supposed to look like. That's that's envisioned as their home unless they pull some miracle out and and find some property and building to do a year round, you know, you know, market.

Well, what's

what's the capacity of

the I don't know. I'll pop my some video.

You know, it made me realize we gotta we gotta plan for growth.

Yeah. Yeah.

We have to measure it.

Council member Marcy.

Yes. Thank you, mayor. You know, we are just I mean, they might even be counting down the hours now till a funky thing we call in the state called signee die. That's when the legislative session is over. This is also where the craziness happens right now. So a couple of things I just wanna call out because they're almost done with this short session. One, I didn't get the opportunity. I know the mayor got the invite too. We influenced the process. Right?

I was down there one of the days when rep Addison Richards had his HB twenty one ninety nine, which you know the chief came and talked to us about derelict vessels. Actually ended up having conversation and a teams meeting with somebody over at the county who led that. I can't think of her name off the top of my head. But she led the whole advocacy for the region that got this job done. That bill was signed into law yesterday morning at nine a.

M, somewhere around nine You can watch it online. I didn't have the opportunity to go down there to be part of that process, but it's cool, and you really can make a difference. And two, just pay attention to what's going on between now and the end of the week when when they finalize this. Even things that are dead in this period can now be they call it a resurrected bill. So and and it is. And

Nothing's ever done.

They're generally the worst kind. So it it it also means that we have to be on it. So if I see an action alert that I can sign up or or or send, I I may be jumping at the clerk's office or the mayor to kinda rally some folks. I think most of the stuff that's gonna hit the city is I I think there's just two items out there that I had seen earlier today that that that may still pop its head. But thank you.

Thank you for bringing that up. So

all right. I had one more thing that I'd forgotten to mention.

Two bites

of the apple.

Two bites of the apple, yeah. And it was about good of the order. Eric, think you bring up a good point. I don't know that good of the order is the best moment to kind of reach back out to a public whether they're here or not, maybe we need to think about maybe it's not just good of the order, maybe it's good of the order in miscellaneous comments. Something that really kinda

It's really the only opportunity.

Yeah. I like it at good of the order.

It was the right Good.

Okay. Alright. I should too.

Yep. Alright.

I have just had a different vision of what

good of I second his.

I I agree.

I think

John John did it and it kind of sparked. Was like, I guess we could respond

but He's in a hair.

That's right moment. Yeah.

Okay. It was captured.

So Yeah.

Okay. Alright.

We're adjourned. Alright, Charlie. Do you have two minutes?

Yep. Recording stopped.