City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. As it is 1 p.m., I will call the city council workshop of May 12th, 2026 to order. Reminder that today's meeting is both a physical and a virtual meeting. The meeting may be viewed on YouTube and on Facebook following the meeting. Public comment is not normally taken at workshop meetings, although the council may allow or request public participation on action items. We have one action item on our workshop agenda today. Welcome all in attendance. I will now call upon council for your reports on any boards, commissions, or committees that you would like to report out on. Yes, Council Member Romero.

With respect to the transit district, we now finally have a schedule with regard to the automatic passenger count and that's going to begin uh on or about September. It's incredible how long these things take just to get them done. But that's uh that's the status. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Yes. Council member Stucky, regarding Island County Transit, I had a request, if you don't mind passing along, the uh the bus station next to Spin, it was requested to have a larger trash can because it often overflows and that's often what is being used out there. And once it overflows, it's just everywhere.

Yeah. So, I am just passing along the request. You got it. Yes, Council Member Arms. You

know how I love the marina and the fish. Anyway, um thank you, Council Member Stucky for coming. Uh we had several park board members come. Uh we had about 100 people when we released the salmon and they were busy. For some reason, they kept swimming up by the uh the harbor master's office. I'm not sure where they were going. Um and then uh on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, uh at least the harbor master and some volunteers will be at the Anacortis boat show. So if you can stop by that would be nice. And so and also I want to mention uh Sabrina and Elise for the excellent uh Marina Advisory Board last night. It was excellent. It was thorough, efficient, answered the questions, and I I was really impressed by not only the board, but those two bringing everything to um the advisory board. Thank you for that. So, um in speaking with Sabrina this morning, I am going to ask for you and the chairman of that board, who is um Mr. Jones, I believe, as well as Elise, to have a meeting with me in my office.

Yeah. Yeah. Anyone else? Anyone else?

Oh, sorry. Council member Marshall. Thank you, mayor. With parks board meeting yesterday, um we were had some discussion about updating the league agreement, master fee schedules, individual contracts for each uh league, and so they're not just one blanket. Um the garden club is donating a bench to be installed at Holland Gardens Park. So we're excited about that. U we received some funding from the legislature to make improvements at Catalina Park. And so we're looking at options for what that looks like. And then received a summer camp update from uh the recreation coordinator. So

great. Thank you. All right. Is that it? Oh, yes. Mayor Prom,

this isn't really an update of any substance, but it's just something I thought was interesting. I was down at the marina this weekend on Saturday, and it later that afternoon, I know this the baby salmon had been released that morning. Later that afternoon, a a sailboat had come in and they were unloading and walking down the dock and I was, you know, just saying hi and they were all excited because they had seen orcas and I was like, where where were you? Where were you? And they said they were literally just right outside the harbor. And I was like, I mean, I know they they're there sometimes cuz they go back and forth to Pen Cove, but they generally don't hang out right outside the harbor. I mean, right there. And then I thought,

how did they know? Like what are the chances that orcas would randomly show up in a place where they don't really hang out on the exact day that we released 30,000 baby salmon? So they might have some inside information. Yeah, they may have been following the seals. It may have been salmon from a few years ago coming back and they were following. I don't know. But that was a hell of a coincidence. I'm just saying. A little mermaid explains it all. Yeah, we we've got them all.

Very good. All right. Is that it for the good of the order? All right. So, that will conclude council comments. We'll move on to community partner presentations. And we have a few of those today. And the first up is our Oak Harbor Gary Oak Society annual report presentation. And here to introduce that is our Oak Harbor Oak Harbor Gary Oak Society board member and director of special projects, Kyle Reninger. Awesome. Hey, thanks. Thanks so much, Mr. Mayor. It's so nice to see all of you. Some friendly faces for those of you um who I don't yet know. I'm Kyle Rener. I'm a fifth generation Woodby Islander and one of the founding board members uh of the Oak Harbor Gary Oak Society. Uh today I really wanted to take some time uh in our community update presentation to um just give you uh an overview of the Gary Oak tree protection code in Oak Harbor. And then I'm going to try to move through this presentation at a good clip. I know that you already all received it in your packet and I'd like to take some time at the end just to have a conversation or if there's any uh questions or conversations uh that you wanted to have with me.

Do you mind if I close the can I close the door? Oh, okay. Thank you so much, Mr. Sloic. Um all right. So, uh the Gary Oak Society was founded 11 years ago. We were founded primarily to serve uh the people of the city of Oak Harbor as well as be good strong partners um with the city. We are so pleased and so proud that that partnership um continues uh and that is uh is stronger than ever. One of the one of the things that has kept Gary Oaks in our community for so long uh is our Gary Oak tree protection code. So that's chapter 20.16. Uh and I really think it is it is both a short, elegant uh and flexible code. It really has three parts. Uh the first part is that uh no harm can come uh to a Gary Oak tree. Uh permits are free. So if you do need to do some trimming, if the tree does die or becomes a hazard, free permits, the city is required to respond uh within 10 days. Uh and then of course there's plenty of flexible variations within the code. So if your arborist thinks that you can develop that piece of property better and protect that tree better um or uh if you're saving that tree, there are are numerous variances around parking, landscaping, things like that um that are afforded. So in our opinion, the Gary Oak tree uh ordinance continues to do a great job. One of the new pieces of information uh that just came across my desk that I wasn't able to put in this presentation since I had to provide it earlier um was we received a copy of the urban tree forest uh community survey uh that the city uh is conducting as part of its urban forestry management process. Uh and I was really pleased to see when we analyzed the results, uh specifically looking at those who responded who are residents of the city of Oak Harbor, uh 85% of those folks said yes, we support the Gary Oak tree protection ordinance. Uh of those

residents, interestingly enough, 60% of them said Gary Oak trees need all the protection that they can get. So we would assume they mean yes, this and maybe then some. So really um really good empirical evidence. Uh we we of course um you know have circumstantial evidence that Oak Harbor loves its oak trees. But now thank you thank you city of Oak Harbor for running that survey. We now have that good hard empirical evidence uh that shows that number one that the citizens are behind it and number two uh a majority of citizens would like to see it both retained and potentially even strengthened. Um there is, you know, we we do uh in in terms of our conversations with community members, some people some people might say, "Oh, you know, the Gary Oak Tree Code isn't flexible at all." And so I wanted just to take a moment to highlight that actually it has a lot of flexibility baked in. So those of you who may remember Steve Powers, uh when he was at the city, he was really instrumental in the last time um this code was strengthened. And so he his his words I remember distinctly said there are plenty of relief valves. So this is not a unilateral code. There's plenty of flexibility, setbacks, variances, parking reduction, landscape credits. Uh and then again if the homeowner or the property owner's lands uh arborist said we think we can do it better um you know that is that is available as well. So really the flexibility uh is already baked in. One of the other um one of the other pieces that I wanted to draw your attention to as well is just the innovation in both building construction methods and maintenance. So um uh things like pin foundations, air spading, you can see the air spading um technology there that's been able to preserve all of the roots while removing the soil to allow for maintenance. there's been some really incredible uh innovation that allows both trees and development and

maintenance to to coexist and allow those um both to be compatible. One of the pieces that we commonly hear is about sewer lines. And you might have heard about sewer lines, too. People might say, "Well, darn it, I'd really like to remove this tree. It's in my sewer line." Here's the interesting way that I think we need to be looking at this. The sewer line tree root I is really a symptom. Okay, it's the symptom. It's not the problem. The problem is that these old sewer lines, many of them are actually failing. Tree roots, they can't drill. There's no drill on the end of a tree root tip. It's just looking for water. So, what's actually happening is these sewer lines have failed. They are either cracked, their gaskets are blown, their clay tiles, and they become weak after a hundred years. Um, and the tree roots again are just a symptom. The sad part is that when sewer lines fail, that means soil can get contaminated. Groundwater can potentially be contaminated with this raw sewage. The good news though is that there's modern methods. No longer is it the case that you have to go in and dig up your whole yard and excavate and all this crazy stuff. There are methods now where you can blow in liners to failing sewer lines. You don't have to dig anything up and it's actually cheaper. So, all this to say, the methodology, the innovation has really been incredible to make it so that if homeowners are struggling with with things like tree roots or they need new lines, there's innovations and ways in which the Gary Oak trees and any tree really can be um compatible um and still ensuring that our infrastructure is safe and up to-date. Um just again another look at this. Uh so the um the diameter of the protection zone is based upon the critical root zone. Some some codes go back and forth between should we protect the drip line meaning just everything underneath the branches compared to the critical root zone. The city of OAR code now uses the

critical root zone which is just a measure of how big is the trunk and that determines then how big is the protection area. That's that's in our mind pretty reasonable and rooted in best available science. uh meaning that a really big tree is probably going to have a bigger critical root zone or or an area that needs to be protected to ensure that the tree uh the tree will be healthy. Oak Harbor 0% permit or a $0 permit fee. That's that's really generous. That's really wonderful. So, a zero cost to a homeowner if they need to to be able to um prune or in the unfortunate case of removal, the city will respond in 10 days. That's nice and quick. And then um we're really grateful to the city for having a city arborist on staff. That was a position that we did not used to have before and that has been a a real beneficial asset both to our city parks um as well as homeowners. And we really would like to encourage you if that is not a a permanently funded uh in perpetuity line item um that that the city continue to have a city arborist because uh as a Tree City USA uh and as a city full of beautiful trees and hopefully many more uh we'd love to see that continue. Uh real quick just how our code compares. The thing that I want to point out here on this slide is that other communities protect every single species or almost all species. So, Carour has made a compromise or at least in the past has made a compromise where we say we only protect what is most special to us and our identity which is the Garyio uh compared to say other communities there that may pro may protect all species of tree. So again this is speaking to that that flexibility uh and that compromise. Let's see. All right model how many just out of curious how many people of you have been to Oak Bay BC right across the water. We got we got a couple we got a couple here. Um, so I I think I I I think this is a really interesting

community. They are not very far from Oak Harbor. They too have Gary Oak trees in their community and they have been discovered as a tourism destination and I think there's some really incredible learnings that we can take away from their success that we can very very easily emulate here in our community. So, if you if you aren't familiar with Oak Bay and some of the things that they have done uh with their Gary Oak trees, both their urban canopy as well as the uh the the urban canopy in their parks, uh certainly check them out. This is what I'm really excited about and I I hope I hope you all are excited about it, too. So, this is what I would call the lowhanging fruit for Oak Harbor. People are coming to Whby Island for unique natural experiences. They want to come here and see what's different about Okar than I can't see in my hometown. And I I really feel like this is this is a this is an untapped opportunity for us. We did a little bit of a test. So you all, thank you again, generously funded an ELTAC grant. And what we did is we placed those two brochures, the free Ocarbor Gary Oak tree tour that takes you around Oldtown Oar as well as the giant acorn um scavenger hunt. We placed those aboard Washington State Fairies. I ordered thousands of them. My thought was, "This is going to last more than a year. We're going to have some on hand. It'll be no problem." We ran out in 6 months. I doubled the order, placed it again, and at the end of the year-long contract, went and picked up the remainders. We had one small box left. We even saw people in Smith Park with the tour in hand, and we said, "Hey, where where'd you get the tour?" They said, "Oh, we're actually from British Columbia. We saw it on the ferry and we were so intrigued we had to come and do it. The cool thing about these offerings is they cost $0 for the visitor. What that means is that they still have coins in their pocket to be able to shop downtown, to eat downtown, and hopefully leave some of

their money here because they've been attracted by a Z offering. I'd love to have more conversations with the city about how we could potentially promote this and use this and leverage this. It's not something we have to spend millions of dollars to build a new facility for. It's it's what we have. The opportunity is is right in front of us now. So, what is the Gary Oak worth besides its intrinsic value and of course connection to deep connection to our community. Um just some, you know, some general statistics. We've lost almost all of our Gary Oak ecosystem throughout its growing range. We now estimate there's about 3% intact left. So, it's actually pretty rare. Uh it takes hundreds of years for a gerry oak tree to become a large tree. The USDA estimates about a 10 to 20% bump in property value with mature tree canopy. Um and again that untapped tourism potential that I think Oak Harbor is just so uniquely um poised so highly valuable to our community. And then back to the city's own goals, right? Right. So, I went and looked. I was like, "Okay, how how does protecting the Gary Oak really feed into the goals that this council uh and and our staff have approved?" And goal one, goal two, goal four, and I think that says goal eight here. Um, you know, it it all connects back. It's all ciruitous into these these beautiful amazing living things uh that we now steward in our city. So, I think our our ask here um is to keep chapter 2016 intact. And the reason why I'm making this ask um so we saw in the city's comprehensive plan draft update, unfortunately, the Gary Oak mentions were pulled out of the comprehensive plan. Uh and we saw that the scientists at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, you know, pushed back pretty strongly uh against making some of those uh edits. And we know there have been some internal staff conversations about um potentially changing the Gary Oak tree

code. I I think you know based upon the survey results of the city's survey and how strongly the people of Oak Harbor and the people of Woodby Island value these trees uh and value these uh this this protection code that it is absolutely worth keeping intact as we go uh as we go through this process. So um our offering to you is we'd love to sit down. We'd love to have a conversation either with any of you individually if city staff would like to sit down and have conversations. Um we'd love to be collaborative. Again, you know, those first slides about partnership th that wasn't just a talking point. We we truly are here for you and would love to to collaborate uh and be successful together. So, uh thank you so much again for the 11 years and I'd love to answer any questions or have a conversation.

Thank you, Kyle. Um, questions, comments from council for Kyle. Mayor Proch.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, this might not be a Kyle question so much as a Stacy question to be totally put on the spot. Um, thank you, Kyle. Great presentation as always. Your PowerPoint is expertly done. Is really interesting. Um, one of the things that we've had conversations about over the years, Stacy, that you may or may not be aware of is adding the Gary Oak location map to having a GIS layer that includes that because the Gary Society has gone to the trouble of identifying every Gary Oak in the city. And so we have the advantage of already having an inventory and because they're protected when it comes to the um property development and permitting and stuff. If we had a Gary Oak GIS layer when people are doing their research, is that something that you think would be helpful or feasible? I don't know how labor intensive it would be to create that or how that works like how do we incorporate

that? I can I can actually speak. Would you would would it be okay? I can actually speak to that. So we have um data sharing with the city's GIS team currently and I think it's every week they come and pick up any new data from our GIS. So we to your point we are we are fully integrated assuming that no changes have been made on the city side um we continue to share all of our all of our information uh with you all uh for for GIS if you need it in a different file format or if there's any changes we are certainly amendable. Just please please let us know. Thank you. Thank you Stacy. Do you have any anything additional on that?

No, I don't. Um, thank you for that information. Is that file sharing? Is that done through planning or the parks department? We worked with a GIS analyst and I forget the gentleman's name, so forgive me. It's been several years.

Yeah, I can talk to that. So, it's uh Jonathan Pollock, our engineering technician on my staff in engineering. We have uh a what weekly bi-weekly sit down with uh parks, let's say bi-weekly, uh to go over uh that that inventory and it's part of their uh urban forestry grant program. Okay, I may have misspoke on that point, but yes, we've received the information. We sit down with parks and wreck so that information is available to us.

Yeah. Want to make sure that since we have the benefit of that information that it's integrated into the system in a way that's efficient and yeah, I'll have to look into see if that's publicly presentable or if that's an internal map. Correct. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Any Yes. Council member Councilman Peterson. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Um of course I'm curious partly because I'm ignorant of most of this. You talked about the permit is free. Mhm.

The permit requires that the city arborist and the Gary Oak Society arborist collaborate on the permit. Uh the Gary Oak Society is in no way involved in the permitting process. Um so the code currently says the director. So I, you know, I think that's the the specified point of contact within the parks department is responsible for coordinating with the homeowner. Okay. So they but they have to have arborist come out. They have to have the city's approval. Whether or not an arborist is required, I don't believe so. I think I think it's just uh I think it's just the permit. Okay. So if a person had to have an arborist come out, it would be it would be out of pocket though.

Yes. Just like any maintenance on your home or or any other piece on your personal property that would be at the cost of the homeowner. Correct. Yeah. But I don't need a arborist to tell me I can cut down a tree on my property unless it's a fur unless it's a Gary Oak. Right. You don't need a city permit currently for any other species besides a Gary Oak. Correct. Okay. Um I love the um tourism thing. That that's that's really kind of cool. I like that. That's a great idea. Um and um I'm curious. It seems to me that out by Pass Lake there are a lot of trees going in. Are those Gary oaks? I've heard they are.

Yeah, abs. Absolutely. So, we worked with Washington State Parks uh and the Deception Pass Park Foundation to plant out by Pass Lake. And the trees that are closest to Highway 20 that you can see there, those are all Gary Oak trees. And then they also planted additional shrubs and other native uh native species within the within the meadow there. And how long will it take them to grow up? it be big trees?

You know, that's kind of the magic question. That's what everybody wants to know. How how quickly will it grow? You know, it really depends on a number of different factors. Uh how how good the soil is, how much water it receives. Uh so the more the more water, the faster it will grow. They need full sun to grow. So if you plant one in the shade, it will typically grow, but grow um pretty small. So it really just depends. But in our lifetimes, you will likely see them see them become trees. Will they be towering giants? Not quite yet. that'll be the benefit of future generations, but you'll see them grow. That's interesting. And then they seem close together. Is that typical of a Garyio growth?

You know, that's a great question. So, it kind of depends. Um, it depends what you are managing for. So, there's all sorts of different types of Garyio ecosystem. So, what they planted out there seems to be more of like a Gary oak woodland. So, a higher density. So, think more forestlike. Whereas some Garyio plantings, for example, can be a little fewer and further between. And that would be more reminiscent of a Gary Oak Savannah. So they can be planted close together. The cool thing about it and you can see there's a tree down on Fidalgo Avenue uh that's colloquially known as the jewel of Fidalgo. And the cool thing about Gary Oaks that is that is I think two Gary Oak trees each with three trunks. And the neat thing about Gary Oaks is that the way that they the way that they collaboratively grow it looks like one canopy even though it's three trees. So an individual tree will grow up and typically have you know a big beautiful mushroom canopy but sometimes when they are planted close together the canopy that they create is also really fascinating. So you can see a higher density example in Smith Park for example.

Thank you so much. Yeah of course. Thank you Sandy. Yes. Uh we know we have a Gary Oak. It was there but we who planted it there? I have no idea why they planted it there. Uh we've had trouble with it for the last two years. Uh and what we've done is uh the person who trimmed it is an arborist and our arborist came out to look at it. Wonderful to give them uh the guidelines of what they could trim, what they couldn't trim, and how much and all that. So that's been our experience with it for the last two years because they did not plan it properly. And so now it's there

right next to the garage.

And so I think that is the important thing to remember is the instructions to people where it should be planted so that it gives it room and space and everything it needs. Our Gary York somebody planted like a patio around it. And this time they they we said they said, "Uh-uh, you have to remove a lot of that to give it more breathing room." But so I think that's an important piece to remember if we're going to have them and we're going to encourage people to get them is that we give them proper instructions where to plan them and what not to do because we've had to have that trimmed two years in a row. And this last time we uh dropped a 12t limb.

Ah. Oh, okay. Well, at least the permit was free, right? At least at least the free. And you're you're absolutely right. But I mean, you know, it's important. So, I'd like to see it done, right? And I think people don't understand how to plant these and then they sell their house or whatever and somebody else is got this mess now they're trying to deal with. That's all. we want them. Let's make sure we're we're planning them well and that people know how to take care of them and plant them. And I think that's an important piece that we're missing somewhere.

I did see um the city added on its website uh care directions, I think, for the Gary Oak. So, that is a that is a new, you know, welcome addition. Um and I want to also give kudos to city staff. I know a lot of time and energy went into uh taking care of the police department uh Gary Oak tree and so it was um so so great to see that is a if you have not gotten up close to that tree that is a fascinating specimen tree and I'm I'm so happy to hear that uh it'll be it'll be around for uh years to come. Thank you Barbara. All right, anybody else for the good of the order? All right, well thank you Kyle very much for your presentation. We appreciate it.

Great. Thank you so much Mr. Mayor. Um, if any city staff would like to reach out, we'd love to be collaborative. If anybody is interested in pursuing more ideas around Gary Oak tourism, we've got lots of ideas. Um, and we've also got funding mechanisms for those, which I know is, you know, typically the clincher there. So, um, we're we're here to to serve and to help you all. So, we look forward to hearing from you soon. Great. Thanks. Take care. All right. So, the next community presentation is opportunity council. We have here to introduce the opportunity council is the executive director Greg Winter to provide an overview of the Cameas Flats project in Oak Harbor.

I am not Greg Winter but you're not. Sorry that's okay. He's um ill today so I am going to jump in and with along with Jeremy who works for C no Blue Ridge Cascade formerly known as Shelter Resources. So, I'm Melissa. I also go by Mel. And I'm the director for our Island County Office for Opportunity Council. And we had the pleasure of partnering with Blue Ridge Cascade Island County and the housing department or housing authority of Island County as well to put together a unique project that really took a lot of partnership. Um, Opportunity Council is a nonprofit. We serve many counties and we're a community action agency that serves low-income homeless families, veterans, seniors with a variety of support services and most of what we do is in collaboration with other partners in the community including Island County and including the city. So, we pulled off a pretty amazing um project. It is called Cameas Flats. It's over on North Oak Harbor Road. If you're heading towards the base, it's before Crosby on the right, right beside Harbor Ridge if you're familiar with that area. Um, so in 2021, Island County requested qualifications for this property. Um, oh, thank you. I cannot do two things at once today. Um, and we submitted an RFQ in partnership with Shelter Resources, which is now Blue Ridge Cascade, and we were awarded that property in order to develop for affordable housing. Um, we did public entities and bond in 2024 and then we started construction in July of 2024 and we started to, um, have people live there in January of this year. So, it was a long process. This piece of

property the island or Island County owned for quite some time. It's right near the detox center. Um, and so besides it needing a really good mowing, um, as Jill kindly let us know at our uh, ribbon cutting, which uh, thank you mayor for joining us for that. It was a really good event. Um so yeah uh our portion of this project is to be the nonprofit partner which allows for the project to be have more affordability in that construction and development of the property. Um we also are going to provide services. So a lot of what we do in the community can be remote. Um, so we like to move around and offer services to people to help them stay stably housed in the environment that they are in to reduce barriers to access. Um, so we used Ron Wright and Associates for the architecture. Um, SRRI Rockland Construction and AdWest is the property management company and then we will be the service provider. So in total it's 82 units. It's a mixed uh a mix of one and one to threebedroom. It's a 5 acre lot and we do have a lot of amenities for it being more um just to be more commu for community to help build community for people. We have a large community space uh which tenants can rent and service providers can use. Uh we have a playroom, central laundry, dog walking area, play area, EV chargers, solar panels, air conditioning. So, we're trying to make sure that we're also being eco-friendly as possible, reducing cost for tenants for their utility bills and so forth.

And the next slide gives you an idea of how many bedroom units um and what price range. So, I'm going to let Jeremy talk about the tax credit portion of this. I am still learning, but it is a it's a confusing matrix for sure. But we have are able to have um a largest I think when we were applying for funding I requested the most one-bedroom units that we could possibly have because we have such a shortage in our area and most of those are on the bottom floor. I think there's only one or two that are on the second floor. So yeah, if you have questions for me after Jeremy.

Great. Thank you. Um and I'm again Jeremy Wilining from Shelter Resources. We actually own um I don't know if we're in partnership with those. We own probably 10 other properties in Oak Harbor, believe it or not. I I can't name them all, but we we do own quite a bit of a workforce of affordable housing in the community already. Um so, uh wanted to just talk about briefly what it takes financially to do these projects because folks always ask like why does it take so long to build affordable housing? And this honestly is probably the number one reason why. Uh it it has a bazillion different sources of financing as you can see in there. The main source sources being a federal low-inccome housing tax credit program that's actually administered through the uh state of Washington housing finance commission. Uh also has money from department of commerce called Apple Health and HTF uh that we have to apply for. It's competitive. Uh also we received some funding from Island County. Uh, one source that we won't see again probably, uh, is called ARPA, uh, which, uh, was a fantastically flexible source that I think was used to help create this housing. Um, so anyway, that's this gives you an idea of the sources. There's, uh, most of it, as you can see, is these tax credits. That's the bigger piece of it. Um, the other thing I guess I not in there but just to mention is we did receive some SE section 8 vouchers, project based vouchers from Island County Housing Authority, which allows us to even bring incomes down lower because in that situation a a resident would pay uh 30% of their rent and the housing authority pays the difference or HUD effectively pays a difference. So that that supports the lower income the very low-inccome units what we call like 30% area median income and below. Um uh we have some future work ahead too. Uh we have a project um on Swantown Road

not far from Highway 20 that uh we wanted in an RFP Island County purchased this property from a developer that uh was going to do um some multif family on it and and decided not to. I can't explain why uh the county bought that land with again the ARPA funds that don't really exist anymore. Uh but they did an RFP and we we won it. It's going to be 96 more units of workforce. Uh very similar to the Cameas Flats. We're going to have eight that will be permanent supportive housing and the rest would be workforce at a variety of incomes. And um we uh received some amount of funding for that. We're right now applied for those tax credits and bonds through the state of Washington and expect to receive them really. But that we we should hear about that in about a month and uh assuming we we we get that we're going to hopefully get through permitting and uh get the get through the design and permitting and start uh the end of this year, probably more like early next year. So excited to do another project. uh wanted to give a lot of thanks here uh in including folks that work at the the the city itself. Uh Island County uh George is over here from Island County coming to visit. Um and as well as the housing authority. So thank you very much. Um any questions or comments? Welcome to

All right. Council, you have any questions or comments? Mayor Prom.

Thank you, Mayor. I I'm not sure if you are on the the side of the process once the project is complete and people are actually moving in how involved you are at that point. But you know we are always hearing about the demand for housing especially affordable housing. So when a project like this cuts the ribbon and opens up and there are 82 apartments like how quickly does that fill up? What does that look like? you usually uh it's within the a threemonth period. Um we're we're not we're at 60 something right now, so it's taking a little longer. And and part of that is it didn't really we didn't start rent renting the units until late January, so that doesn't really count. And then it's a little bit of the winter and a little bit of working out some of the more lower income require a certain amount of paperwork that had to be worked out. Uh those are now o full.

Oh yeah. I imagine it's a it's a longer process than a typical Yeah. lease of usually three months and there's there's a lot of demand. We still have some availability. I can't tell you off the top of my head. I think some two bedrooms are available. Um but

I think there's 14 units that are um still open right now and they're the larger units at the 80% range. So uh those that make more money but still qualify for that 80% AMI range. Um but for the lower uh income or lower um AMI units including the permanent supportive housing units, they have to go through several application processes. So we're trying to make that as least of a barrier for our clients as we can because a lot of those that need permanent supportive housing are those that have had a history of homelessness and need some extra support whether that's you know mental health, medical. So we are helping them go through those application processes. So there's the site application, the Apple Health and Homes FCS program which is called foundational community supports and then also with the housing authority. So it's a bit of it's it's a bit clunky but when you have the layered funding we got to get really creative with how that goes.

That thank you for that perspective. Yeah, I imagine the red tape and the bureaucracy. I mean that's that's difficult for anyone to manage on under the best of circumstances. So thank you for supporting that. Yeah. And and then people stay longer too in this that once you're in there people will stay some for a very very long time. You know so it's becomes a permanent place for folks to live. Good. And you found that the smaller units filled up fastest. You said the ones that are still available are the larger like the three bedrooms. That's interesting. Okay. And it's it's sort of a backwards. It's interesting because that's unique to this community. We work across the state and I can say this

typically in most communities that's not the case especially like Seattle metro where there's an abundance of ones hardly in families. So this is it's interesting. Yeah, that is. Thank you.

And we work primarily with a lot of the subsidized housing complex that already exist and they really have a lower the lowest amount of onebedrooms. And so when we were going through the plans and developing for this project, um we serve a lot of people in the community and we have a lot of um seniors who are aging in place or are losing their rentals because it's the rent is being hiked up. So having more one-bedrooms or as many as we can in a project like this is so important because then we have an affordable option for people to um for young families but also for singles that are trying to age in place and need you know a safe place to live that's not going to have the rent increase on a regular basis.

Right. That is that's really interesting. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Can you speak to the rent increases though? How does this work? Aren't you guys locked in for a certain period of time? That's the piece that I didn't hear here that was talked about at the open house.

I'll try to answer this succinctly as I can. The rents are are are are capped um for basically ever. I think it's 50 75 years. I don't even remember. We we don't even think about it. We're just like that there are rent restrictions in place forever um on these units. So that dictates how much you can charge rent. Um there are I I'm not 100% certain on the rent increases for individuals that are in the building how much it could go up. There are some caps in some of our money and I honestly can't tell you off the top of my head, but it's there is restrictions below that, but you can never go above what's called the the the tax credit rents uh independent of that. And that typically follows CPI. Um it's not exactly that. It's more complicated, but this year uh Island County did not go up at all. Uh so so the rents the rents in our other I'll just talk about our general other properties are are not going up at all between last year and this year. It's usually about 3% uh something like that. Um but there is also a rent limit within different programs and I just don't remember on this one unless you happen to know

annually. So when someone lives at a tax credit property um annually they'll do a research which just reviews their income. So if if people if their income goes up or down then they reduce or increase based on that. Um but if someone were to make over a certain amount over that 80% threshold they would have to find another place to live or if they applied they wouldn't be put through with compliance because they're over income. So, it's really trying to save and it's not immediate. It's like over it's over a certain number of years. So, nobody's like told you're over income, you have to leave tomorrow. It's it's it's a it's a

like two three years before they'd have to vacate and their rents don't go above that level. They don't have to pay any higher rents. Okay, great. Any other questions? Yes, Council Member Stucky. It's more of a question for Island County, but working in the affordable housing sector, maybe you can answer a little bit. If you recall a couple years ago, Island County instituted the 0.01 sales tax for affordable housing. Has any of that I was looking at the funding sources. I didn't see any of that in there. And I understand we're not talking tens of millions of dollars a year, but do you know what if that's gone to any of your projects or if that's been instrumental in any of that?

I I can't totally answer that. I don't know if I want Highland County on the spot here. George is here. Uh, sorry, George.

Yeah. So, these two projects, none of the no none of the 1590 money has gone to these, but we have utilized in the purchase of develop of parcels that are um going to be developed in the future. Uh, one of them I think your staff is aware of. right here in on Fidelgo. Um, and we've also used it to purchase um, a property that uh, we lent the money to the housing authority to buy in Kville, a six-unit uh, project. And we are uh we just awarded uh another uh grant to Island Roots Housing uh to purchase a property an 8acre property in Coupeville which they hope to develop into potentially 80 units depending on the comprehensive plan for Coupeville and what the uh the final uh amount of uh density is approved. So, yes, we have utilized those funds as much as possible and are constantly looking for more opportunities to do so.

Well, I've got you. Um, do do you know about how much it's on average per year? I mean, it's only been two years, I think. So, do you know it's around a million and a half? I knew it was I knew it wasn't tens of millions, but I was just wondering to quantify it. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's about a million and a half that goes up every year. Okay. Thank you. Depending on the market. Thank you. Anybody else for the good of the order? All right. Well, thank you very much for your presentation and being here. Thank you to you and all of your staff who have helped us along the way. Yes, our pleasure. Thank you.

All right. The next presentation is or actually it's under finance animals Improvement Foundation annual report. And here to introduce this is our finance manager Chaz Webster.

Okay. Okay. Did I Did I do that to you, Mayor? I'm sorry. What?

Um, good afternoon, Mayor, council members. I'm Chaz Webster, finance manager, and I also have Cinnamon Hudgens online. Um, we're going to co-present this for you. Um, I'm going to give a little bit of a background though before we get started with the annual report. Um, also I have Jenny Matthews. She's my uh license champion. So if we have any indepth questions, we'll bring her up and she can help answer too. Uh, this annual report is in accordance with the an with the animal licensing services agreement between the city and would be animals improvement foundation. Uh, the city's agreement with WAE commenced on June 1st, 2024 and will autorenew after December 31st of 2028. Waif provides animal sheltering, care, adoption, outreach, and animal welfare services for the city and surrounding communities. Oh, I I haven't started the report yet. It's okay. It's okay. I'm just giving some background before we start. Um the city's partnership with WAE provides significant value to Okarbur's community by combining public safety objectives uh with compassionate animal care services. And through this collaboration, residents receive a broader range of animal welfare services than the city can could efficiently provide alone while also benefiting from Waif's expertise, volunteer support, and um community- based programs. In addition to administering the city's licensing program, which is an important public safety tool, WAE helps reunite lost pets with their owners, supports responsible pet ownership, and strengthens overall animal control and public safety efforts within the city. Waif's 247 online licensing platform with two physical locations to serve the public here in Oak Harbor and Kville has

provided an unmatched convenience for our community. Uh, Oak Harbor Municipal Code 7.12 establishes the city's authority and duty to enforce animal control laws and requires animal licensing within city limits. Animal licensing helps ensure pets are properly vaccinated, particularly against rabies, which protects both public health and animal safety. Licensing also assists the city in monitoring compliance with local animal regulations, including the limit of no more than three dogs or cats over four months of age at a residence within the city of Ourver. In addition, the licensing fee structure encourages spaying and neutering, which helps reduce stray and unwanted animal populations within our community. So now we'll get started with the annual report presented by Cinnamon and I'll chime in regarding the revenue, the late fees and penalties a little later. So hopefully um Cinnamon can is able to speak to us. Okay, are you

can everyone hear me?

So I will advance our slide. There we go. I just want to point out for um 2025 since uh I guess taking over the contract for licensing 2025 is actually our first full year of data for O Carver licensing. And so um when you look at this first slide, we can only go for 2026 um for the total number of licensed animals 243. Um I did do kind of a you know an Excel forecast and so the number will probably through the end of the year probably would be around 453. Um maybe I mean just it's off slightly. Uh I I do want to interject that we are looking forward to launching a new licensing program that um I'm I can't say for sure but will um help with compliance. It's a really easy platform um really userfriendly for the pet owner. So I feel that the licensing compliance rates will increase um due to the testimonials too of other animal sheltering organizations including Watcom County. Um so just you look down the the difference um between licenses between cats and dogs. Of course cats some people may not license because they consider their cats outdoors. Why do they need a license? But it's still important. Um what I do want to point out is the new versus renewed licenses. Um it's um when we go to the next slide, it the the renewal rate is actually um pretty impressive. And so the full year of 2025, the compliance rate was 7.8% and so far for the just past the first quarter of 2026, 4.2.

And then if we want to go to there's any questions we can go to the next slide. And so licenses by zip code neighborhood it's we have that on the next slide. It's just obviously city of Oak Harbor 98277. The breed popularity um we currently our shelter program um this is kind of eyeballing it in terms of the most popular um licensed breeds with the new licensing system. um we're going to have so much more um data and I I think it's going to be really encouraging to see that for um Midby Island and specifically for the city of Oak Harbor. And we look down to the age distribution of licensed pets. It's pretty much in keeping um with last year and then the next line, the pet ownership turns the renewals. That's that's pretty impressive to see that. I I was happy to see that. Any questions so far? Um, and this is just the visual indication we have uh for 2024. Um, and then the next slide 2025 and and 206 there that shows um we still have people who will purchase licenses outside the city of Folk Harbor. So, we'll have to refund them. that this um 2026 we were right on right on target. So that just kind of gives you um a visual of where all the licensed pet owners are located. Okay, Chaz, you're up next.

Yes, thank you. All right, so this SL this slide is about our licensing trends over time. 2025 increased by 1% um over 24. And then next we'll review the revenue, the late fees, and the penalties. 2025 over 2024 is showing a 6% decrease in revenue from licensing fees. Um, when you look at the number of licenses and licensing revenue, they are not linear. Uh, animal license revenue may fluctuate independently from total license counts due to the city's tiered fee structure. License fees vary based on whether an animal is spayed or neutered. Fixed animals are licensed at a lower rate of $10 while non-fixed animals are licensed at 40. And as a result, annual revenue is influenced not only by the total number of licenses issued, but also by the proportion of fixed versus non-fixed animals licensed during the year. The fluctuation in animal license registrations compared to prior years appears to be primarily influenced by population turnover and housing dynamics rather than a structural decline in compliance or program effectiveness. As a community with a significant military presence, Oak Harbor experiences frequent household turnover due to deployments, reassignments, relocations, and this mobility can impact animal licensing trends in several ways. So short-term residency patterns um we have incoming households they may delay or forego licensing if they expect to relocate again within a short time frame. We have out migration of licensed households families who previously licensed pets may leave the area reducing the re renewal basis year overyear and we have a lag in new resident compliance. There is often a timing gap between when new residents arrive and when they become aware or uh comply with local licensing requirements

um at our utility counter when we have a new utility account opened a notice to license their animals with wave. Um base housing also provides information to their residents about animal licensing requirements. Um housing and occupancy fluctuations. So we have changes in rental occupancy base housing availability uh or broader housing market conditions. They can affect the number of pet owning households and city limits. Also um as we have found as pet owners renew the animal may now be fixed which would qualify for the $10 fee versus the $40 fee for non-fixed. Okay. Okay. And then regarding our late penalties and fines, 2025 over 2024 does show a significant decrease. We're showing 77% from 2024. Uh in 2024, we had about 104 pet owners late on licensing and 61 pet owners who had impounded pets. So when a pet is impounded, the pet owner cannot redeem their pet until they pay the licensing fee, um the late penalty, and the fine of $25. So in 2025, we had about eight pet owners late on licensing and 18 pet owners subject to the non-licensed fines. So we're looking at this decline in penalties and fines indicating, you know, an overall increase in compliance. Um I did get some additional information that I didn't have included in the slide. In 2025, we did have five uh citations issued for unlicensed pets. And then um animal control interactions in 2025 there were about 700 710 contacts. So I just wanted to add that in for you too. And then back to you Cinnamon. So um lost and found pets reported uh not not a whole lot difference. I I want

to talk about um sometimes what shelters are fac facing nowadays is um we have people who abandon pets most pets we do have a high renewal rate um the standard is about 2% um on average um for just for island it it's about 25% but we are finding unfortunately sometimes people do abandon their pets and and um do not come back and claim them. And um we don't have we don't have the numbers for the adoption versus uh licensing correlation, but maybe um through our new vendor docu uh to get that data. And then with the spayneuter versus intact pets, we only get that information when they do purchase a license. But um I feel education is working towards spayneuter. Uh that's one part of the equation of of a no kill shelter is making sure um pets are spayed neutered. So that it's promising uh to see that. And then on the next slide, the population um it decreased. Well, according to numbers that I received, the numbers decreased a little bit from last year, but this is just um kind of gives you an idea how many dogs are actually in the city of Oak Harbor and the number of cats. Um it's just an estimate. It's a formula based on the veterinarian uh medical association. But um quite a bit, but I don't know if there's any questions. That's all I have.

Council questions, comments. I have some, but I'll wait. Council member Peterson, I'm curious. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm curious on the revenue from late penalties and fines slide. everything uh 2021 through 2024 is a 12-month period and yet you're comparing 2025 on a 3-month period. Is that an accident or is that supposed to be January through it says March? Yes, ma'am. That's supposed to be 12 months. Okay. Because it says January through March. Yeah, we caught it late. My apologies.

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. That's my only question. Any other questions, comments? Yes, Council Member Stucky.

Yeah, thanks for that presentation. I'm going to take the opportunity to ask a couple questions here. Um, cat versus dog. Do you find that most people aren't registering cats compared to dogs? I mean, are most of the registration dog related? Yeah. And I think it goes back um people um hopefully they're keeping their cats indoors, but sometime that that goes into their decision to licensing a pet. My cats indoors, you know, um so I I don't need to license. And then I hate to say this sometimes if their cat does go outdoors, well that's, you know, that's okay. And so we're we're just trying to change that a little bit. But, uh, I do think it's important to license cats. And so, I I just I think generally it's just kind of a national trend as well, but I don't know what the national trend numbers are.

Sure. Um, what would be an ideal goal of compliance rate? I mean, obviously 100, let's not say 100% because we know it's never going to happen, but like what what is a realistic goal? like what what's

I I well the national average is 10%. And I think now this is my opinion I I think people might see this as discretionary they'll use their discretionary income to purchase licenses. They don't um I do feel they don't feel it's necessary and so it's education on that part. They some may not see a benefit. they feel there's an opinion that it's a tax kind of a pet tax and so you know what's the benefit we can talk about it reunites it helps reunite a pet a lost pet with their owner but beyond that you know people say well my my pet never never leaves but I think one part of it is that we can talk about the benefit of licensing and how it it does provide revenue do for the animal control uh department and there is a benefit because that helps with public safety, it helps with education and so just working that working on that a little bit more and I think the vendor that we hope to launch this in a couple months uh Docupad is really going to help with the messaging on that.

I Yeah, I was going to ask a little bit about the messaging like I I bought I have a couple kitties. I bought him up in Bellingham and obviously being in the role I'm in, I knew I was supposed to register my pets, but I'm I'm trying to think if I was just living my life and not really paying that much attention, like how would I know to register? Exactly. Like how I didn't buy it. I didn't get through you guys. So, how would I how would I know, right? Okay. Did you register for this year?

Well Well, so so here's the thing. I'm not I'm not positive. Um, I I did do the initial registration. Do you guys when it's I did the initial registration. I think it was a little over a year ago. When it comes time for the renewal, do you guys want me to send a letter? Am I Am I supposed to know that I'm supposed to reregister my pet? That That's fair. That's fair. Um, it's every year. It's a calendar year, but Docupet is will be sending out renewals when we get switched over um to to their system.

So, that's part of the package that we'll be paying for. So, I'll get on that. But big scandal from the news times, they may be overdue. So, someone can come after me. But yeah, I I say having a renewal a reminder every year cuz it's just not something that we think about. Exactly. Exactly. We just assume we have, you know, when you're focus like anything what you're focused on like people should already know this, but no, it's it's part of that education piece. All right. Well, perfect. Thank you,

Mayor Pro Tim. Council member Stucky brings up a really good point about awareness. I'm wondering if partnering with um like veterinary offices or something might be a possibility to put the word out, you know, because they're giving us these data that there's

5,000 but we only have 400 of them registered. And so like how how do we go about encouraging people to to do this and continue to take those barriers down? Um, we actually used to work with the vet offices to sell licenses and and that stopped a few years ago, but we will have materials um that we'll send out to um all the vet offices um on WIB. Okay. Thank you. So, so just a question, no judgment. Is there a reason that we stopped working with veterinarian offices to partner with them to license vet or pets? It was just administrative on both sides.

Okay. Um that it was just it was kind of deemed an administrative um burden. And then when we went online, it was well this is actually a lot easier. And so it was I think um we had a few vets just that didn't want to do it anymore. So we just kind of streamlined it and just like okay we'll just we'll just do it online. And but I think this process with Docifi is going to be um much more seamless, much more friendly.

I think again it's more than it's more than just a protection of the pet. It's a responsibility thing. Um, this is this is the thing for me where as somebody who's never had children, we want people who have pets to be responsible, but anyone can have a child. It's so disturbing to me. Um, but that's a whole another issue. Um, so but yes, I think if we partnered with vets, it would be a very good thing. So, I think it's right, but you should probably um,

anything else for the good of the order? Yes, Council Member Suggy, I just got a message from my wife. I believe we have reregistered that. So, scandal scandal is over. Thank you. I'll d I'll double check.

You'll get a call from Greg. All right. Thank you, Chaz. Thank you, Cinnamon. Everyone, thank you so much for the presentation.

Thank you. I know, Sabrina. I'm sorry. I couldn't help it. Um, all right. The next item is an action item, Safe Streets for All Grant 2026 application. Here to introduce this topic is our grants administrator, the infamous Wendy Horn. To present, she may be joined by city engineer Alex Warner and capital projects manager, Philip Escua. So, good afternoon, mayor and council. I'm hoping you can hear me. It's on.

How about that?

Okay. So, today we are going to be talking about the safe streets and roads for all grant program that is offered by the US Department of Transportation. And back in 2021 or 2022, the bipartisan infrastructure law brought this grant program into place. Um that offers two types of grants. You have the planning grant and then you have the implementation grant. In 2022, Island County on the behalf of um all of our communities on the island uh applied for a joint planning grant so that we could develop a comprehensive safety action plan. So the grant paid for a consultant to put together the countywide comprehensive safety action plan and the goal is to work towards uh zero traffic deaths. Um, the IRTPO passed their resolution in April of 2023 and then we brought it to you in May of 2025 and um you adopted the comprehensive safe safety action plan at that time. So after the council passed that resolution, staff um decided to apply. We asked you and you agreed to apply for an imple implementation grant. Um, we applied for that last year. It was to target pedestrian improvements along SR20. Unfortunately, we were not successful in getting that grant. So, this year we're taking a different route and I'm going to hand it over to Phil so he can tell you what that route is.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Uh like Wendy said, um we did not get the grant last year, last time. Um the feedback we got from the federal uh department was it was too broad in scope and it wasn't very detailed. So this year we are going to go with um a sidewalk improvement plan uh sidewalk improvement project um on in the intersection of Crosby and Heler. Um, this project that we got to put forward is approximately $4.3 million on sidewalk improvement project. It's a 5-year project we're proposing and part of the match of the grant is 20%. Um, the implement, it's going to be an implementation that way. We're going to be installing sidewalk. As you may know, in this area, there's a lot of gaps on sidewalk in this area. um to the north to the Redwing uh side, there is no sidewalk to get to that section uh that neighborhood. Um and then on the Crosby going west, there are some gaps uh going to the city limits and then going I'm sorry, going east and then going west on Crosby um there's no sidewalk at all. Uh the neighborhoods there with the mobile home park and um um and the other residents, there's no sidewalk. And then to the south, we're going to fill in the gap. Um there's two schools in that area, the Hillcrest Elementary and then Oak Harbor High School. There's no real safe way to have a continuous sidewalk. So we're going to fill in the gaps along that portion of um Heler. Um so we're going to go more detailed this time. Uh it's going to be a sidewalk project. Fill in the gaps. Um just to let you know that the portion on Heler north of Crosby that's shown here on the map is actually in county right away. Um we're going to we are working with the county keeping them informed of our process

here with the grant. Um preliminary, you know, they are aware of it. They are going to be bringing it to their executive board just to make them aware of our project that we have in the area. And then we're looking forward to get their buy in once we've reached that part of the process. Um as Wendy mentioned, we've gotten some community feedback. Um there's been some interest from the neighborhood in the Redwing area um to have a safer way to get um to the high school and um south on Heler. Um obviously we're looking for pedestrian safety. It's kind of similar to what we did on Northeast 7th. We have people walking adjacent to the roadway in ditch areas just you know makeshift paths. So, we're trying to get people off the road and install sidewalk. And then target zero is just mentioned here. We're trying to reduce any serious injuries, any fatalities. So, zero is always the target and we're always striving to get that. So, we're hoping that this uh sidewalk project is a good candidate this round. Um it's more detailed. We put a estimate together. It should be in your package. It's not just installing sidewalk, obviously. It's all the other attributes that come with that. Drainage. Um, we're looking to improve the lighting in the area because there is no real pedestrian lighting. Uh, striping, of course, and then, um, yeah, obviously the sidewalk. So, that's the goal of this new grant application, and we're hoping to get your buying for that. Let's see the next slide here. Uh this is just a quick sample photo of what's out there now. Like I mentioned, it just um there is some sidewalk in the area and it's just around mostly the entrances to the neighborhoods, but then it just terminates. So you have people just walking in the um adjacent to the

roadway. So we're looking to improve that by the installation of sidewalk. Oh, just to go back one more time. Um the Department of Transportation has this um slide here of the safety benefits of installing sidewalk. You know, it from going from zero sidewalk to installing sidewalk, it's a 65 to 89% reduction in fatalities and serious injuries. And yep, this is the recommendation recommended motion we're looking for. Um again, this is our second time going for this safe streets for all. Uh again, we're looking to have your approval for this grant application and if there's any questions, we're all here.

All right. Thank you very much. I will first confirm that we received no public comment on this issue. That's correct, mayor. No public comments were received.

Awesome. And seeing as how there's no one here, but I will ask, is there anyone that would like to step forward and make public comment on this issue? All right. Hearing none, I will close public comment and call upon council for their questions and comments at this time. Yes, council member Stucky definitely got to give some kudos on this one. There was a gentleman who messaged me a few months ago and I relayed the information to you folks and he messaged me and said that you took the time to speak to him, listen to his concerns and he was talking about this Redwing neighborhood. So wonderful game back to folks that reach out to us and he was really appreciative and this is a great thing. I happened to run this this morning just coincidentally and yeah, I definitely could use the love just to make sure though cuz it's a lot of money. We're talking we, you know, when talking millions, this project is contingent upon the grant at this point. Correct. It wouldn't be something we would consider at this point without that grant money.

Correct. That's correct. Because if it's a 5-year period, am I math right? It'd be about 172 a year because over five years, correct? Our 20%. Does that sound so 20% of 4.2 because we're paying it over five years. Is that correct? I'm just trying to get the impact on the budget because a 20% match. Right. So actually um the estimate for the project itself is actually um 5.3 and and so we'll be asking for that 80% 4.3 or whatever it is and then we'll match it with street funds

re two funds over that 5year period and it may not take five years it just they give you five years to complete the project. Does the county I can't imagine why they would, but with the county streaks, can they say no? I don't know. I can't envision why they would, but how much is it contingenting on them for part of this project? That's a great question. I was hoping you would ask that. Were you Were you?

Uh, so this one bubbled to the surface. It's been something on our radar for over a year. I reached out to the Island County um assistant county engineer in May of last year looking for a a cheap uh quick implementation of something we could put out there and there were some concerns about ongoing streets maintenance and um so those ongoing costs. So we uh we regrouped with this grant application. we're looking to to build this correctly. So, um, I sat down with, uh, Matthew Lander, the, uh, the assistant county engineer, and he's very supportive of of this project because, and as I explained to the to actually a few citizens that live out there, there's the added complication here if we have a city neighborhood that exits out exits out onto a county road and then traverses down that back to the city limits. So, we need the county support on this. We'll have to go for u a permit for them to allow this work and I'm hoping to get support from council here before Matthew then takes it to um the commissioners for their support.

Wonderful. Thank you. Yeah, I don't know if everyone always realizes how much work goes needs to happen between city and county. A lot of people just think, well, I live in Oak Harbor. you know, those invisible lines. They just want the problem fixed and and I'm glad that we're we're working with our other governmental partners to do so. So, I great stuff and I appreciate it all. Thank you. Yes. So, as we've had all of the discussions during the comp plan about the potholes or the holes that we haven't been addressing, this is one of those areas potentially of holes. So, I can assure you that, you know, Commissioner Johnson and others are on board and would be in support of this. um they have not officially voted on anything yet, but they have definitely indicated that they are in favor of supporting this. So, um with that, is there any other questions or comments? Yes, Council Member Merrill.

I wanted to thank you all for doing an improvement in the application process. As we all know, there's a learning curve for practically everything and uh that you didn't give up and that you just amped up the pressure to get it done. And with that, I would like to make the motion. I move to approve the submission of a safe streets and roads for all implementation grant application to the US Department of Transportation. Second. All right. We have a motion as presented by Council Member Romero, seconded by Council Member Stucky. Is there any further discussion before I call for a vote? Council member Peterson.

Um, I I live in this neighborhood and so I have two questions. It may or may not affect my property value to have new sidewalks. So, am I allowed to vote? Should I recuse? There's one question. Um, secondly, um, two questions. The new Alfred or Albert thing on the corner there of Crosby and Heler, are there sidewalks there already? Is that why there's that blank? Are you referring to the the newer development that's on the the corner there? Yeah, they have constructed sidewalk. Okay. And that is that's what's reflected there. Why we're not showing that as part of our application.

That's what I thought. And then if you come out of the Redwing neighborhood and go to the right or to the north, that's the part that's county. Actually, the entire width of the road where uh Redwing comes out onto Heler is county. It is county all the way down to Crosby. You don't reach back into city limits until you to Oh, okay. All right. Cross Crosby on Hel. The reason I was wondering is because when you come out of Redwood and turn right, the only thing that's there is the church. Mhm. But I was thinking if they weren't going to go, that would just be a short amount. So, this includes the portion of the sidewalk to connect to the church.

Yeah. Perfect. Okay. Thank you. Those are my questions. And Mr. Mayor, do you have a rec? Oh, Council Member Peterson, I think you've publicly disclosed that you could potentially, you don't even know that this is going to affect your property value. It's a potential unintended outcome. So, again, you've publicly disclosed that, but I don't think that that should preclude you from voting. So, Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. So, is there any further discussion? Yes, Council Member Marshall.

Thank you, Mayor. So, Alex, you kind of touched on it. is the reason we're going north with that sidewalk on Crosby to reach the church. Uh so it's identified in our um active transportation plan as a critical network connection. So it's both the church and the Redwing community. I've heard from several community members in the Redwing neighborhood. So that was the initi initial idea was let's connect up to Red Wings fill in the other gaps and then seeing that we also have the church there and it's in our mapping system is completing that connection we want to serve those city parcels and that the the attachment to Redwing is completely understandable to me. I was just trying to understand the justification going beyond Redwing further north and that's it's just going to stop there at the church then essentially.

Yeah. So the church is a northernmost city parcel. Okay. On Heler. Um you know th those limits are adjustable. So if there's some concern about spending the money to to get up there or do do you have a

No, no concern. I was just I was just curious as to where that was leading to if it was just going to be a sidewalk that ends, you know, and then that's we cuz we have that in other locations, right, where we have sidewalks that just just all of a sudden end. And I was just curious where specifically that was going to and and you touched on that. It's going to the church. So, um, but in terms of this project in its entirety, how did we justify that this what was the rationale that was used for this location versus other locations within the city that have the same kind of gaps and sidewalks? You know, cuz ultimately we're going to be asked, you know, why this project and not filling in sidewalks on Elie Street or in other portions of town that are accessible. You know, we're doing the Fourth Avenue reconstruction right now that could potentially have sidewalks. And so what was the rationale for this location versus other portions of town?

Yeah. Um so this is um in our complete streets or sorry not complete streets safe streets for all plan. Yeah.

There's a general idea of improving pedestrian safety. So there's not a specific project in that plan. So then we look to the the crash data and um of the the reporting year for that plan 2018 to 2022 seven of the nine pedestrian incidents at intersections were on Highway 20 and that was unsuccessful last year. Um so then it is okay we've got two other locations and comparing that to our um active transportation sidewalk coverage plan. So, the two other locations in the city were uh got it here. I think it's uh uh Beayshore and Dock Street. So, that is one that we've had interest in. Um that's not a sidewalk gap problem, though. That could be some pedestrian crossing improvements um which that project is um really not to the level of this size of a grant application. And then we also had Oak Harbor Street and Whidby Avenue which again is um you know it could be considered. There's been some interest in that midblock crossing of Whidby from SARS up to

Baron. So, we did consider that project. But, um, this section of Heler and Crosby is identified in our S systemic safety network. There are several locations throughout the city. uh with the the increased um you know feedback from the community and the neighborhood that was um really you know something that added to us focusing in this area. But that's why we're coming to you now is um with all that that rationale and thinking is this something that the county um you know is going to support sounds like they will. So, if the city council supports this, we'll continue forward. If we change course now, this is due in two weeks.

Yeah. So, it's not impossible to change course now, but I don't think Wendy will like me very much. And in no way am I suggesting that we change course. Sure. Um, you know, anytime that we can improve and and create safer streets in our community. I was just curious as to why this was the spot and and not cuz ultimately we're going to get asked or at least I'm sure I'll get asked is, you know, why why this location versus others. And so to be able to say this is what we looked at, you know, is helpful for us. And so I appreciate all the work that you put into this and and look forward to supporting it. So thank you.

Yes, council member Romero. I like your calculus with regard to uh is it an achievable uh grant so and all the figuring with regard to what priorities we always got to have that practical aspect too. Can we get it approved? Can we get the money? Can we get it done? And so uh that factors into along with all the other comments from the public as well as the council. Thank you.

All right. Any other comments, questions? All right. So, we have a motion presented by Council Member Romero, seconded by Council Member Rucky. We've had additional discussion. All in favor, raise your right hand. Passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Congratulations. We are going to move on to the last item, which is the legal item, Zombie Properties. And here to introduce this is our city attorney, Hillary Evans, to present, as well as our community development director, Stacy Pratcher. Good afternoon everyone. Um this presentation is by special request. Um if you'll recall a few months ago at a workshop um one of you inquired about a house that was dilapitated falling down on your street and I commented that those were called zombie properties and that they warranted their own presentation. So here we are back again. Um, and I wanted to give you just quickly an overview of what we consider to be a zombie property and then talk about different tools and and tricks that we have for addressing them. Spoiler alert, there's no really good fix to these. Um, and I'll I'll sort of explain why as we go. Um, and of course, Stacy is in the room. I can see her. She's about this big on my screen. She is going to interrupt as we go because she has a lot of input and I worked with her in putting this presentation together today. So feel free to interrupt. It's a workshop and I can't see you all very well. So verbally interrupt me if you want to interrupt me. I don't need you to wait until the end. So you can see my slides. Correct.

Yes, we can see it, Hillary.

Great. Okay. So what is a zombie property? Um, it is a home that's been abandoned by its legal owner. Sometimes it's involved in a forfeite process. Um, usually they start to get our attention when they're in disrepair. Um, they're in sort of a no man's land. They're unclaimed. They're unmanaged. Um, they're usually just completely abandoned and time gets the better of them. They start to fall over. Um, and they start to uh attract attract uh squatters or other sorts of problems. Um, frequently the owner or the borrower is unable able to afford the house, the mortgage, the taxes. Um, sometimes it's bank issues. There's like a a notice of default or a foreclosure that's occurring. Um, sometimes an owner will just walk away leaving it vacant before the process, or sometimes the owner's just disengaged. Um, and I know that frequently in some of the cities that I work with, there are owners who live in different countries altogether who um bought it as an investment property and then because they have such a large portfolio, they just sort of forgot about it or they're not invested. If they can't find an easy tenant that's going to pay them, they just sort of forget about it. The property languishes. Sometimes those tenants can become problematic. Um, another thing that I've seen happen pretty frequently is this house is owned by a little old lady. She passes away with no air parent and the property is stuck in sort of a probate, no man's land. And so these properties languish, they deteriorate and no one's really responsible. No one's watching, no one's watching the baby. Um, and this is complex. Finding the legal owner is a really difficult task for me, for code enforcement, um,

for anyone who's looking to find some sort of recourse. Frequently, they're out of state or out of country, they're deceased, um, and they can't be located. In addition, there's often HOA leans or taxes or judgment leans across the property, so it can't transfer easily. there's frequently a mortgage balance or in some of these cases where the propertyy's just been owned for a hundred, you know, a hundred years by the same person. That person is now deceased. Um there will slowly accumulate tax leans on the property, but this the county is not usually incentivized to do anything about those tax leans to foreclose upon those leans because there's no uh rock to squeeze. Um there's no one with any significant assets to pay them. And then what are they going to do with this property? and our code enforcement sees this all the time, right? So, there's a connection with code enforcement and with our police. Um, these abandoned and vacant homes and properties can lead to significant issues that require abatement. Um, it's trash, it's blackberry bushes, it's rats, it's the broken windows and the property damage and vandalism. It's squatters, whether that be um homeless people staying there overnight or for longer. drug activity, kids throwing parties in the backyard, people putting up camps. Um, we've seen it all and it's really, really hard because these properties are private, but there's no one watching them.

Hillary, sorry. Yeah. No, this is

this will be this will be like our our blog here where we can't really see each other. Um, and we'll have to interrupt each other. So, I would like to jump in at this point. Thank you. Um, thank you, mayor and council for having us here to do this presentation and provide this information to you. Um, you'll see in our in our nuisance code and ch uh chapter that there is a definition of abandoned property and the list that Hillary has provided here. Uh, before this meeting today, I did do a search of our records just to see, you know, how many code enforcement complaints, if any, over the last three years has the city been in receipt of, at least in my department, of a concern about an abandoned property, a vacant property. And I just did a very simple word search and and wasn't able to find anything. And a lot of the reason for that is that the complaints we receive are not necessarily about a property being vacant or abandoned, but it's about the individual issues that come up when it's associated with that. So something's very overgrown or there's trash in the yard or if there's a crossover nexus with PD or or PDub because there's a broken down vehicle associated there like you know uh Hillary is saying there's vandalism or or an encampment that is that has popped up. So again, not not a great record, at least on our end, of having received or responded to complaints that are specifically about a vacant, abandoned, or if you will, a zombie property, though we do define that um in the code. And and as Hillary will dive into a little bit deeper further in the in the discussion, when it comes to civil enforcement, the the key of course with enforcement is we're trying to support a homeowner or property owner in in amending their behavior so that we can abate the issue that's happening. And that means getting a hold of the property owner and supporting them in changing that behavior. When a property has been abandoned or vacant, we can't do that. the the the one thing that code enforcement is supposed to be able to do

to help support someone in changing their behavior so that that situation on the property can change is the one thing that we're unable to do. So sending out voluntary correction agreements, sending notice of violations or vaguely threatening letters as Hillary and I sometimes talk about um just between us uh is ineffective because there's no one to respond to them. Thanks Hillary. I'll go ahead and

Yeah, that's absolutely right. And oh, and your code enforcement does a wonderful job of um your your prior code enforcement officer had a very friendly approach and often could coax people into compliance without even putting a pen to paper. But when there's no owner to talk to, compliance becomes impossible and we don't have very many legal rights about getting onto the property. And that's where the problem arises. Our hands are sort of tied. Okay. I I sort of cobbled together an example property so that we could use this moving forward. Um, you know, let's say police gets reports that people are going in and out and graffiti appears. Uh, there were boards boarding the house up, but they came down, windows are getting smashed, there's no fence around the property. So, code enforcement discovered that the home owner passed away. There's no estate proceedings filed in the court. So, this is this happens all the time. You check with the county records and the property is owned by Edith Jones. Um, you do a little a little Google search and Edith Jones passed away 10 years ago. Um, and then you look in the court records and there's no probate filed for any Edith Jones. So, who owns the property? She doesn't have an estate. She doesn't own the property. No one's taking care of it. Um, and to the extent somebody once boarded it up, those uh boards are coming down. there's really no good solution. Um, and so I want you to keep this example in mind as we sort of talk about the various paths we can take. Um, so one thing that has happened recently that I want to touch on and these are this is a lot of information for not a lot of help. Again, I'm frontloading the punchline here. So in 2018 in in answer to this very problem, our legislature adopted a new zombie property abatement law and it requires

uh banks and municipalities to work together. Um and it it it required the finance department of the state to create a process by which entities um and mortgage servicesers and loan servicesers can apply to obtain a certificate of abandonment. So, this sounds really great, right? This is like the the final solution for us to come up with uh good tools to be able to work with banks to do this. Well, it allows cities or mortgage services to start abatement proceedings when the property is midfore. It adds the ability for mortgage servicesers to even privately abate nuisances. It exempts um nuisance abatement actions from other restrictions that were contained in the law. and adds potential for cities to recover abatement costs. Prior to this law, cities abatement costs were capped at $2,000, which if you've ever tried to demolish a house, and I'm not going to imagine that any of you have, um it's far more expensive than $2,000 if you're going to do it safely, short of bringing a sledgehammer out and doing it for fun. Um, so it gives you the the ability to use this law if you can identify through abatement three abatement indicators, which I'll get into. Um, timestamped property photos, copies of all foreclosure documents, and then you work with the mortgage serer. I hope you're already hearing some problems with this process. These are the abatement indicators under state law. And while this is not particularly helpful to us, this is actually a very good list for our code enforcement to use as our own abatement and abandonment indicators. So, no furnishings or personal items inside the structure, disconnected utilities, statements by neighbors that no one's there, boarded up or broken windows, damaged doors, police reports about trespassing or evangelism,

stripped copper, removed fixtures or trash, drunk vehicles, neglected vegetation. So, it's a really good list. If you have three of those, you can work through this state law. But unfortunately, our code enforcement would carry out the abatement with the mortgage serer. Um, the serer can also enter the property to abate, and the serer is more motivated to do so because they're trying to sell the property. And then, as I said, the cost recovery for this process is fantastic. It used to be limited to $2,000. Now, there's no limitation. and then we would file a lean against the property once uh the abatement is complete. This is all well and good if you have a property. If Edith Jones had a mortgage on her house and we can identify that mortgage serer and they're interested in in acting with the city, but nine times out of 10 that's not it's not as simple as that, right? There's no mortgage. There's a minimal tax lean or no tax lean at all. Um and and we have a hard time finding any human beings who actually want to work cooperatively with us. So, thank you so much, state legislature. This was a wonderful bill that you passed, but frankly, I don't think we're going to be using it. So, and and if we can, we will, but I I have yet to see a a circumstance where that process really was what we needed. So, what do we do instead? And I have a list of alternatives and I'll sort of run through them and then at the end we can talk about which ones work better and why. Um, first of all, as you'll all remember, you adopted a chronic nuisance uh provision about a year ago. Um, the chronic nuisance provision in your code allows you to abate properties when there are law violations. So, we're talking arrests for DV, drug use, um, you know, disturbing the peace, warrant, pickup warrants. So, if you have a house that is, and we're mostly talking about single family residences here, right? If

you're talking about an abandoned old house and and a gang has moved in and they're up to no good, we can use the chronic nuisance abatement statute to not just abate that illegal activity, but we can actually close the property for up to a year. What that means is we can secure it. We can go and secure it. Um, what is lacking there is the ability to recuperate our time and expenses to abate that property. So, we are still trying to bleed the rock. There's no one there. Edith Jones is gone um and her family has not come forward. So, while we can make that property more safe for the community by eliminating that illegal activity, it's a sunk cost. It's a public service we're doing and we can't expect to recuperate the costs other than by filing a lean against the property for if and when it ever were to change hands. So, not ideal. Another thing that some cities have done is they've adopted code language that defines a vacant building and requires that it be secured. Um, Spokane has a good example of this. Spokane, if you really want to see an aggressive city, Spokane has done everything, including this very strange track tax structure um that is a a test. I'm I'm going to go, you know, way out way out here, but like they have this tax that eliminates the the value of the properties um improvements and it's landbased tax to try and incentivize developers to purchase these properties. Um I I'm not necessarily recommending that, but if you want to go down a rabbit hole with me, I can send you those links. Um, but Spokane has adopted, which I think is interesting, um, in addition to an abandoned property, they have a whole section of code about vacant properties that need to be secured. So, you have to board up a building and if you fail to do that, the property becomes unfit. Um, I think it's pretty far out there in terms of, uh, you know, unless, in my opinion,

unless you can establish that this property is actually posing a danger to the public, um, whether or not it's worth abating. So, let's say uh, Edith Jones's house is wide open, unsecured, and people are coming in and out, and it's starting to lean. Um, that is one where abatement might be appropriate because the structure could collapse. You know, if neighborhood children are interested in playing in it, if there's like an old, you know, spooky playground in the backyard and kids are running through the house to get there, sure, it would be a good idea to board out the house, but maybe it's worthwhile to call it unfit or dangerous in some way um and to spend the money to abate it for the good of the public. So, one way to do that is through this um additional provision that Spokane has adopted. It's interesting. Um so, another thing that the Seattle city, again, city of Seattle is always out there on a different, you know, Spokane's gone one way, Seattle has gone another. Um they have what they call their vacant building monitoring program. Um, this is a little less risky in terms of liability from my standpoint, but it also has less teeth. So, they have um devoted quite a bit of resources to creating an inventory of vacant buildings and they expend city resources to sort of check up on them and make sure that they're all um safe, as safe as they can be. Secure is probably a better term. And there are programs that you can apply for to get assistance if there's one in your neighborhood. Um, I'm not sure it's incredibly effective. I haven't done a really deep dive. I, you know, I could call that unit in the city of Seattle to see if they find it to be effective. Um, well, I think an inventory is a really good idea. I'm not sure what you do with that, right? Unless you have a program that's funded, um, and you're just

throwing money at securing buildings. I'm not sure what more it's going to add. Another thing that we have in our code already is uh the emergency warrant of abatement. And when I talk to your code compliance and code enforcement folks, usually I say that your emergency warrant of abatement is when a water line breaks on your property and it's just spewing water into the rightway. Right? That's your classic emergency abatement. We can enter onto private property. we can, you know, dig up your patunias and we can fix that thing because it's causing an emergent public safety threat. Do zombie properties constitute an emergent public safety threat? Uh, some might. Um, but I think you'd have to have really solid documentation to use that definition that already exists in our code to apply it here. And then again, we're not going to be able to recuperate that money. We have no owner. We have no lender. So, we'd be filing a lean against a property that's probably not worth a lot in the first place, hoping it train changes hands down the road, but we could do it. Um, uh, there's another Seattle law that allows the fireart department to demolish, uh, abandoned buildings. Um, I kind of love this. I think it's legally risky, but I would love to see this happen. Um, putting putting these zombie properties to good public use. Um, and in all seriousness, I'm not sure how they've uh squared away the the risk of the owner coming back to them and and you know, you'd really have to make sure that the building was abandoned and unfit for hab habitation, that there was nothing of value remaining in the structure before you uh lit it ablaze. Um, but it's an interesting it's an interesting thing and I thought I would just mention it if we're going to be creative. Um, another thing that Spokane has really tried to spearhead, and I'm not sure how successful it is, is partnering with

developers and trying to get them interested into um, developing those properties. depends on where they are, what they're zoned for, and what kind of developers you've got in the community. But I can see creating incentives, maybe financial or otherwise, creating partnerships where you identify large lots that are um, you know, not well-maintained, not being taken care of, and see if they're willing to put in some of the leg work to get a screaming deal on a property that you would facilitate develop partner with development with them on. Um, again, that's a Spokane idea. I'm not sure it's worked for them, but it would be worth investigating, I think, or worth thinking about if especially if we can identify um problematic buildings that have that have been abandoned in uh like in in good locations, you know, in um well traffic locations or in in places that would be beneficial to the developer. And then lastly, and this is another Spokane idea, they have started suing homes into receiverhip. Um, and so they'll require banks if there's any sort of leans or mortgages or encumbrances on the property, they'll just initiate lawsuits and let everybody figure it out. And while this is a very effective way to get lenders to come to the table, it's a very expensive proposition. And I think they can only justify it because they Spokane has a very large in-house legal team. um that's already paid for, right? You can imagine spending hourly money on that would get very expensive very quickly. Um you'd have to devote quite a bit of legal time and resources to doing that if that's something that you were interested in doing. Um and you probably wouldn't make a lot of friends in the banking industry if you were just serving everyone at lawsuits. Um so those are the ideas I was able to collect. And I think as you probably heard, there aren't any silver bullets here. there's not a really good solution. Um, so Stacy and I had a

really positive conversation in preparing for this. Um, and because we're in between code enforcement officers at the moment, we're sort of at a really convenient crossroads. Stacy, do you want to sort of take it from here?

All right. Thank you, Hillary. Uh, Hillary, appreciate that. Um, so mayor and councel, what Hillary and I discussed is when we do have a code enforcement officer uh hired by the city is that we can do an inventory of what could potentially constitute zombie properties within the city. As Hillary described in her presentation, uh there's certain criteria that have to be met according to the RCWS for them to be considered those type of properties. And uh most of that can be viewed from the right of way uh which is sort of the limitation and authority that a code enforcement officer has. And so we would recommend that that could be uh something if if it's the council's pleasure to prioritize that kind of work, that kind of program uh that our new code enforcement officer could start work on when they begin. And and I think I you know I I have not worked with code enforcement within the city of Okar very much because you had such a friendly gentleman doing this job right he was very risk uh not risk adverse he was conflict adverse he wanted to work with people and he had a wonderful approach um and so he wasn't really tackling things like zombie properties where there wasn't an owner to knock on the door and have a conversation with. So, we frankly don't have, as Stacy said, any idea how many of these properties exist in city limits, um, how dangerous they might be. So, I think first step, as Daisy said, is really getting that information to to figure out what kind of a problem we have here. Um, and if it's a significant problem, what kind of resources do you want to devote to that? So, I think that's sort of the broad overview. I'm happy to answer any specific questions. I love the zombie theme. I'm just so delighted to have something I can put clip art into for once. Um,

check something. It's just So, we're happy to answer questions. I'd love to hear preferred strategies. Yes, Council Member Arms is chomping at the bit to go. So, great. Great. Great. I have the zombie property that's I mean down the neighborhood from us. The neighbors are all complaining. They want it out of there.

It was I gave the information to Stacy. It's a reverse mortgage thing. We don't know where anybody is. And I know a couple years ago, I think the city cleaned it up, boarded it. It's just sitting there. I like the fire the best. I think that would be great. We will never be able to find them. I've given Stacy the information I have. The neighbors are getting tired of it and it's just sitting there probably for the last 3 years. So, we do have a property that we kind of know who has it, but it was a reverse mortgage and who knows where the rest of the family is. And so, it's just sitting in there in the neighborhoods and the neighbors would really like it out of there. Council member Peterson,

thank you both for working on this very um complicated issue. Um Hillary, you made a comment about a property can't be a property itself can't be a danger to the community. And I would argue that perhaps that is incorrect because if a property is left with no one to care for it, my argument would be that if it is overrun by gang meister, gang members, yes, closely related to gang members, um drug addicts, squatters, that sort of thing, that is a danger to the community. And while uh an inanimate object cannot be one, certainly what it what happens within it can be and I would like that very much to be something that we could work on. I also like the ability to find a way to set the property to a good use and use it for fire abatement or fire training. Um, one of the comments made Hillary was we don't recoup money on doing some of these things, but we do things we don't recoup money on often. So, for me, that's not really an argument not to do something. Um, the gain to our community is safe streets, is safety, is not having uh rodents in our neighborhoods, that sort of thing. So for me, it's not a cost issue, it's a community uh beautifification issue, so to speak. So whatever you guys can do on that, um I would support being an old property manager, I get former property manager, I get um a lot of the issues that you have. um uh and the other legislature could go further and perhaps we work a little bit with them on that. But we cannot just say there is nothing we can do. Even if we make ourselves a

nuisance to the people who are residing there, we certainly can do that. So that's my comment. Thank you very much. Yes, council member Stucky. Question one, how close are we to getting a code enforcement person? Code enforcement. Oh, it's been a long journey, council member. Well, you just just the short version, right? Just Okay. The TLDDR version. The short version. Um, we are having some additional interviews this week and so hoping to identify that right person.

Okay. And then then Hillary, follow me here. And I know this is hyper situational and so I'm not having this be a blanket thought, but you know, as a funeral director, it's not unusual for me to pick up what we call an unattended where there's nobody there. And a lot of times there's no family or anything like that. We pick the person up, we provide the services, but then it's okay, how do we get paid, right? Because there's there's literally no one taking it up. And in those cases, I I have an attorney. I do a creditor's claim. And then that person then becomes the personal reper of the estate, liquidates the estate, and I get paid and then does whatever with the rest of the money. In a case like this, couldn't a government entity be the creditor because of lack of tax coming? I mean, you know, property taxes or something. Can a government entity make a creditor's claim? And if there's no one to respond to that creditor's claim, could an attorney then be appointed the personal representative to liquidate the assets? probably we would probably be second in line to the county in most instances um or any mortgage or and so with the priority it might be difficult to become the PR unless the other two parties were active and declined but you're not wrong I mean once a lean is filed you know if if the if the council is keen to do this um with a you know you you're you're authorizing us to move forward and spend the cost to abate X, Y, and Z properties. You know, these are the worst of the worst. And you say, "Go ahead and do it. Knock them down. Make the property safe or or install fencing or whatever." Um, you know, we spend $10,000, odds are a county or a mortgage or would be more uh would be first in line and more expensive. So, while it's not impossible that that could happen, it might be a difficult negotiation to have. Um, but as you know, sometimes when you're filing a

lean or making a claim of of the one that you describe, it's a it's a waiting game. Very much so. All these properties will eventually change hands, right? So, if you want to be patient, we can collect interest on our on our lean and we can get them when it turns over, whether that be in 20 years or or more. Um, so

well I guess when you talk about the time frame though like and again I'm looking at this from a private business owner not a government entity so the rules are probably different but I've had numerous circumstances where it's been a situation of like someone owned a trailer like a trailer home a dilapitated trailer home and there's been nobody available and that attorney is able to try to make proper notification then sell that trailer home on behalf of the estate. And we're not talking years and years and years and we're not talking a month either. Is that not possible to do if there's no one, you know, there's no family or next token available? Couldn't that attorney as the personal rep then liquidate that in a shorter period of time?

Yeah. It's hard given that we're the government. Um, and to come in and assert some sort of governmental ownership over a thing that we only own a small fraction of or have a small interest in is an interesting look. I don't know any jurisdictions who've wanted to do that so far. Um, but I think that's kind of where Spokane's going in terms of suing, just suing everyone involved and trying to get it all shook out in the courts. Um, so if that's something that you're interested in, I could make a call to the city attorneys in Spokane and see how they're going about it.

I'm just I'm just curious how how the logistics. I mean, by no means do I want there to be this overreach where we're taking someone who doesn't have money to pay for their home or something like that. I'm talking about those rare instances where someone passes away, there is no immediate next of kin that can be found. And then what happens? And I'm not trying to fill the city's coffers with tax dollars and stuff, although it would be nice to get the taxes that have been paid recouped. It's just about trying to fix the issue. And again, it's hyper situational and it would be how big is this problem? Is it even worth it? I I was just trying to think uh out loud a little bit on what the process is, if it's even a possibility. So, thank you. Yeah.

Anybody? Yes, Council Member Romero. Uh just a quick question. don't need the legal details, but as far as condemnation and eminent domain, I mean, do these fall in does this abandoned properties fall into that at all?

That it's an interesting suggestion. I almost put it on the list. You can really only condemn a property if you're going to take it for the public use and it's necessary for the public use. So, if one of these homes just happened to be where you wanted to pop put a park, you know, a pocket park, you could condemn it. then you'd have to pay just compensation to whoever that owner was. Um, and then you could do whatever you liked to it. Uh, but initiating the proceeding of condemnation would be difficult because we would not be able to serve the owner necessarily. So, it's a little bit of a ridiculous problem to get ourselves into. While it is possible, unfortunately, the word condemnation, people often talk about condemning unsafe properties and that's not really what we're able to do.

Thank you. Mhm. Council member Arms,

I would like to thank Stacy and Hillary for looking into this. It's just the neighbors keep complaining and nobody's got any answers, you know, and they they have all the information for who they thought, but where that all leads, we don't know. And I know, but it is a blight on that neighborhood and it's been there for at least 3 years or more. And uh I know the city did do some stuff around there, but you know, how long are we going to let it sit there, you know, for the next 20? I don't know. But I appreciate both of you looking into it and answering that question. At least I have something to tell them. Thank you,

Mayor PM. This is a frustrating problem because it is something that exists and it seems like we should be able to do something about it, but you know, we're kind of caught in this endless loop of um it's all it's all disconnected when there someone may or may not own it. And then you know, yeah, there's there's courts, there's counties, there's taxes, there's just all kinds of considerations. And um but it also doesn't seem right to just kind of throw up our hands and say, "Well, you know, it's complicated and there's not a whole lot we can do about it." So, I'm wondering, Hillary or Stacy or any any I mean, literally anyone in the room, do you have any suggestions or recommendations on how to move forward in a way that is productive or tangible or makes a little bit of progress? Yeah, I I'll go first. I think what Stacy's plan to create the inventory is a good start. Let's see how big of a problem this is. Um it's a very different proposition if there's four of these homes in Oak Harbor versus 400 of these homes, right? And then we can come back, we can revisit whether or not any of these are posing an actual danger. You know, are they attracting vagrants? Are they in danger of falling down on themselves? Um, and then we can talk costs and we can get bids for abatement of these properties and you can help us or the mayor can help us determine how much money we want to put towards the problem with the idea that perhaps we will never recuperate those costs and that's okay because we're doing it for the benefit of the public. Um, although we will try, you know, we will lean the property. We will do what we need to do to to try and recuperate those costs. Um, and and I should mention, and I did not put this in the presentation for

very good reason, I do have clients who just abate willy-nilly. I'm not going to say who, but I am aware of cities who just go out and demolish things without a warrant of abatement, without any sort of uh significant justification because there's no one to complain. Um, and it's risky because you could get sued, but it is a thing some people do. Interesting. No. No. Oh, come on. So, Chief Flo, do you have any idea of how many of these houses we have in city limits? There I would say there's less than a half dozen. Yeah. Okay.

That we're talking about. And I believe the house that that council member Arms is talking about is the house that we have issued an abatement letter for that was on um Northeast 4th Northeast Ronour. And so, um, I think we just need to follow up on where that's at. We can give an update. Stacy, what were what were you gonna say?

So, Hillary, thank you. Thank you for that. Um, kind of taking us through what those next steps would be once we know sort of the the scope of the issue and, you know, what sort of danger maybe posed to the public. Um, I immediately put my my planning hat on when I when I think about solutions. And I think to uh what Hillary had mentioned, you know, if it turns out that the issue is something that is going to require a more programmatic approach than looking towards those vacant and vacancy ordinances that um that Hillary was mentioning. Um I've worked with those before in past jurisdictions. And again, I think maybe that that may be casting the net a little too wide at this point until we know the actual scope. But um again if a programmatic approach is needed that can be an effective an effective tool.

Okay. Thank thank you for that perspective. I think that that makes sense the inventory because until and unless we know this the actual scope of the problem. We can brainstorm all the solutions we want and we may or may not be that may or may not be a productive use of our time and energy. So, um I think that's probably a good place to start and then yeah, I guess we'll get our minds wrapped around it and then go from there. Thank you. All right. Anything else for Hillary or Stacy? All right, Miss Hillary, thank you very much for your presentation. Thank you. All right. Well, that is it for what we had on the agenda. So, thank you. You there being no