Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the Pierce County Council. Today is September 8th, 2026. Time is 301. If the clerk could please call the roll.

Council Member Morrell. Here. Council Member Herrera. Here. Council Member Krueger? Here. Council Member Ayala? Here. Council Member Yambe?

Here.

Council Member Denson? Here. Council Member Hitchen? Here.

You have seven members present. With seven members present, we do have a quorum. Thank you all for joining us. In a moment, Council Member Denson will be leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance and read a land acknowledgement. Following the pledge, while standing, we'll ask that you remain standing during a moment of silence in honor of those men and women serving overseas in our military. So if you can stand, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

We acknowledge that we are on the traditional homelands of the Coast Salish tribes. Coast Salish people have lived on and steward of these lands since time immemorial and continue to do so today. We recognize that this land acknowledgement is one small step towards true allyship, and we commit to uplifting the voices, experiences, and histories of the indigenous people of this land.

Thank you Council Member Denson. We have a packed agenda today. I'm going to look to my colleagues to request that in Section 9 of our agenda that we rearrange the order, basically flipping items number 1 and 3. So kind of... essentially going in reverse. So are there any objections to changing the order of our agenda? So this is the ordinances section. Okay. Seeing none, then we will accept that change. So for the public, the sequence will basically be three, two, one for the last section of the agenda. On today's council agenda, there'll be multiple opportunities to provide public comment on consent agenda. You may provide comments on any final action item. This does not include items that are on our agenda for scheduling or introduction. And then during sections eight and nine of the agenda, we'll take public comment on each ordinance and resolution individually, but not amendments. And finally, under community forum, there'll be an opportunity to address the council on any topic that was not up for final action in today's agenda. Pursuant to state law, Pierce County Council may not accept public comment during these meetings that support or oppose a candidate or a ballot measure. This includes proposed charter amendments, statewide initiatives, referendums, levies, bonds, or any other measures appearing on a ballot in the very near future. For more information on the rules for public participation, please review the bottom of page one. We are now at our consent agenda, and on our consent agenda there's one set of minutes and one appointment resolution. Looking to Councilmember Denton, is there any item that won't, any item to be removed from the consent agenda? Seeing none, Council Member Denson for a motion. Thank you, Chair. I move to approve the consent agenda. Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda. We do have one appointment resolution, so I just want to see, because we do have quite a few people here. It looks like Mary Vargas is actually in our Zoom room. Mary, if you want to raise your hand, we will move you over. And if you'd like to introduce yourself, I actually see two Mary Vargases, so I'm not sure. which is the real Mary Vargas. So maybe bring them both over in case one's a phone. Mary, are you able to unmute? yes i'm having um technology issues but i guess okay well thank you mary you're being appointed to pierce county commission on refugee and immigrant affairs which is auspicious because we have several member members with us today would you like to just introduce yourself to the council yes

My name is Mary Vargas. I'm a financial coach working with a nonprofit, Tacoma Community House, located in the Hilltop area. Tacoma Community House, it's a well-recognized nonprofit that works and it stands for immigrants and refugees. So my experience with them, it's been for four years now. And also I'm a volunteer with quite a few other nonprofits that stands for immigrants and refugees. And when this opportunity came up, I was very excited. And I am here, I'm new, and I just wanted to learn as much as I can and support all you guys and support my community, the immigrants and refugees.

Well, thank you very much for stepping up. Are there any questions for Ms. Vargas before we open up the consent agenda for public comment? Well, thank you, Miss Vargas for saying yes. We're excited to have maybe almost a full contingent. We may still have a vacancy, but we appreciate people saying yes and bringing their voices really important work. So I'm going to open this up for public comment at this time. If any member of the public has comments on the consent agenda. So that's the minutes and the appointment resolution. You may come to the podium. You have up to three minutes. State your name if you'd like it on the record. Anyone in chambers?

not anticipating but i always want to ask okay not seeing anyone can we go online mr dominique just in case yes madam chair for any member of the public who wants to provide comment on today's consent agenda please press the raise hand icon and zoom or star 9 on your telephone keypad And there's no answer this time, Madam Chair.

With no answer.

Correction, Alice Fong just raised her hand. Sorry about that. That's okay. Alice, you have 3 minutes.

Is it appropriate for me to congratulate Mary for representing D6? Sure. It's a comment. You can say what you want. Oh, yeah. Okay. I'm always kind of nervous. Hello, everybody. I'm sorry. I'm not able to be there in person today. I am happily passing the baton. My name is Alice Fong. I was the district, the inaugural district six representative for Korea. And so welcome, Mary. Congratulations. I'm so happy that you are going to be serving in the capacity for our whole community. So congratulations.

That's all. Thank you for your comments and for your service. Okay, I'm not seeing any other raised hands. So we'll close public comment, bring it back before the council. Is there any further discussion on the approval of a consent agenda? not seeing any, can the clerk call the roll on the approval of the consent agenda?

Council Member Denson? Aye. Council Member Morrell? Aye. Council Member Herrera? Council Member Kruver. Aye. Council Member Ayala. Aye. Council Member Yambe.

Aye.

Council Member Hitchen.

Aye. You have seven ayes and zero nays. With seven ayes and zero nays, the motion is adopted. Thank you and congratulations. We appreciate you volunteering for this role. We have no messages from the executive or other county elected officials, so we'll move on to proclamations, recognitions, and awards. Our proclamation today is the council and executive designating September 22, 2026 as fall Fall Prevention Awareness Day in Pierce County. And I would like to invite the following individuals to the podium as Council Member Kruver reads this into the record. We've got Bunny Smith, Director of the Mid-County Senior Center, Cynthia Mitchell from the Graham Senior Center, and Ivan Tudela from our very own Human Services, along with a whole contingent of communities that are going to be here when we take our photo and are here to support. But Council Member Kruver, We're going to turn it over to you if you want to come to the podium and we will go.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Chair. A proclamation of the Pierce County Council and Executive designating September 22nd, 2026 as Falls Prevention Awareness Day in Pierce County, Washington. Whereas few threats to the health and independence of older adults are as preventable as unintentional falls, making fall prevention a shared commitment to healthy aging, And whereas the Pierce County Council and Pierce County Executive recognize the importance of supporting a livable, age-friendly community that offers older adults the opportunity to age safely in place with dignity and respect. And whereas falls are preventable, and the National Council on Aging demonstrates numerous ways the risk can be greatly reduced by helping seniors exercise regularly, review medications with a health care provider, take annual eye exams, remove trip hazards, and use safety devices at home. And whereas the National Council on Aging leads Fall Prevention Week during the first full week of fall each September, September 21 through 25 of 2026, to raise awareness that falls are not a normal part of aging, reduce fall risks, and help older adults stay active and independent. And whereas the County Council and Executive are committed to supporting communities and programs that empower people to live healthy, and the Council increased the allocation to aging and disability resources by 28.3%. The total allocation for the biennium, $82 million in the 2026-27 biennium, and allocated an additional $500,000 to support senior centers, programs, and activities. Whereas Pierce County Human Services, in partnership with the Pierce County Fall Prevention Coalition, will sponsor a free Falls Prevention Awareness Day event on Friday, September 25, 2026, at 10 a.m. until noon at the Tom Taylor Family YMCA, located at 10550 Harbor Hill Drive in Gig Harbor, Washington. And whereas falls are serious and costly, and for the approximately 223,000 Pierce County residents over the age of 60, unintentional falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths. And with the number of people age 60 and up projected to increase by 30%, By 2040, even more potentially vulnerable older adults will be at risk for falls and fall injuries without intervention and prevention. And whereas the volunteer-run Pierce County Fall Prevention Coalition goal is Falls Free Pierce County and has developed resources dedicated to reducing falls in Pierce County, which includes a website with information and resources for fall prevention, the Aging Wisely prevention video as well as an award-winning brochure now available in six languages. And whereas we urge every resident to join us in celebrating and recognizing the contributions of Pierce County's older citizens to challenge stereotypes and dispel misconceptions of aging and to take active steps to prevent falls and champion the health and independence of older adults. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed on this eighth day of September 2026 by the Pierce County Council and Executive that September 22nd, 2026 is hereby designated as Falls Prevention Awareness Day in Pierce County, Washington. Let's give them a hand.

Thank you.

Let me turn your microphone on, otherwise somebody will yell at me. There you go.

Thank you, Council Member Krueger, and good afternoon, and thank you, Council Members, for sponsoring this proclamation every year and recognizing and bringing visibility to this important cause. I am privileged to be a member of the Pierce County Fall Prevention Coalition. We are a coalition of healthcare professionals and community-based organizations who support older adults. Our mission is to reduce falls at home, at work, and in the communities of Pierce County through public education and awareness activities. We are very excited about our upcoming fall prevention awareness day event. Thank you for plugging it on Friday, September 25th from 10 AM to 12 PM at Tom Taylor YMCA. The event will feature fall risk assessments, evidence based fall prevention exercise demonstrations and presentations facilitated by healthcare professionals as well as giveaways and vendor booths. We know as a coalition that falls are preventable. Balance and strength exercises, understanding one's fall risk, which involves speaking to a healthcare professional about falls, and making minor changes to one's home and environment. For example, removing those trip hazards, such as wires and electrical cords, are all good first steps everyone can take to reduce falls at home, at work, or in the community. We thank you for acknowledging Older Americans Month, a time to recognize older Americans' contributions, highlight aging trends, and reaffirming the county's commitment to serving older adults. I have partners and community members who would like to share a few words, and thank you again.

Thank you so much for being here.

My name is Bunny Smith, and I'm the director at the Mid-County Community Center. I'm also the treasurer on the board of the Pierce County Fall Prevention Coalition. I started on the coalition in 2017, and I was requested by someone who is currently serving with the coalition. And when I got the call just the week before, one of my clients had passed away after a fall at home. i said yes yes i would like to help prevent falls uh... they are preventable and yet if i go through my senior center and i ask a hundred seniors the majority of them are still going to tell me uh... no it's just normal it's a normal part of aging and it isn't and that's why education is so so important not just with our seniors uh... but with their loved ones with their families within our community so that we can change that perception that that is a normal part of aging uh... it's unfortunately a typical part of aging for many of our seniors i have a 94 year old who helps serve our lunches and she's had two devastating falls in just the last few months and despite the fact that she's staying active and she's taking these precautions there's just so much more we can do and we need to start earlier so we appreciate you bringing attention to that i did bring a couple of our flyers with our brochures with us I would love to get these into the hands of every single family in Pierce County so that they and their loved ones would know what simple steps they can take to help prevent falls and the devastation that those cause. So thank you again for recognizing us and helping us to bring a platform to preventing falls and helping our seniors to age in place and to be healthier and happier and active in our communities. Thank you so much.

Good afternoon. My name is Cynthia Mitchell. I'm Executive Director at the Graham-Capausen Community Council, and we run the Graham Senior Center. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to address the Council, and thank you, Councilmember Krueger, for inviting me to receive this proclamation. Fall prevention awareness is such an important part of recognizing Older Americans Month, because falls are the leading cause of injury for older Americans. In fact, one in four adults 65 years and older report falling every year. And a single fall can dramatically change an older person's life. recovery for seniors can take months and some may never regain the same you know mobility that they once had and not only that if a serious injury doesn't occur they speak once they fall they are afraid of falling again and what happens is this fear causes them to want to not enjoy activities outside the house they don't they avoid social activities they pretty much stay at home and sit at home alone and all that does is just makes their muscles weaker gives them less balance and more greater risk of falling again and not to mention that the isolation that they experience because they're afraid to leave you know that just causes depression and anxiety and a whole host of other issues that are involved there. But the good news is, is that falls are preventable. And at the Graham Senior Center, we help our members stay safe through education and exercise. We offer presentations, informational presentations on fall prevention and reducing falls at home. And we also provide senior fitness classes that help with strength and mobility and Tai Chi, which improves balance and coordination, and it also builds confidence. And studies show that seniors who exercise regularly have better coordination, faster reaction time, and greater balance recovery, which stops those stumbles from turning into falls. So when we talk about fall prevention, we're not only talking about preventing injuries, but we're also talking about helping our seniors to maintain their independence, confidence, dignity, and quality of life. Every exercise class that's attended, every Tai Chi session practiced, and every safety lesson learned is really an investment in our seniors living a healthier, stronger, and more independent life. So I encourage everyone, whether you're an older adult or a family member or a caregiver, to recognize the importance of fall prevention. Because when we provide opportunities for our seniors to stay active, stay informed, and stay connected, we're helping them to live safer, live stronger, and live longer with the independence that they deserve. So thank you.

Well, thank you all for being here. I'm going to look to my colleagues to see if there are comments. We will start with Councilmember Denson.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you all for your work. Honestly, when I first joined Council, I did not realize what a big deal falls were for seniors. And we do this proclamation every year, and I've heard the stories, some of which you have shared today, about how devastating falls can be and how... quickly someone's independence can be compromised. And that's the last thing we want. We have an amazing aging and disabilities department here in Pierce County with so many services all centered around keeping seniors healthy and happy and able to age in place if that's what they wish. And I certainly have a lot of seniors in the rural areas, my community in particular, and that is their wish because these are their communities and we want to do everything we can to support them. i just want to do a couple shout outs we're so proud to have the fall prevention event hosted in gig harbor this year and i hope that we will see everyone come out and and learn more and be part of that community learn from each other about how we can support our seniors i see we have some representatives from gig harbor fire medic one back there and we've got some wonderful representatives from our key peninsula community services senior center um and so much more that they provide there. A lot of the exercise classes that you all provide at your places, I know you all learn from each other. And so many community building activities, again, like I know you all provide at your areas as well to really incentivize seniors to come out, to learn, to learn how to be healthy and to age in healthy and happy ways. And because I have the mic, I'm gonna do a quick shout out to Key Peninsula Community Services that made these adorable emotional support animals in all sorts of varieties. There's puppies and foxes, and they did this in support of our, I mentioned the suicide prevention. summit coming up on september 18th so we've really um the whole community the whole county has has come out in support and these seniors have made these adorable animals as as speaker gifts for us so since they're here i just wanted to to thank them for being here and and for helping us it it really takes a village and thank you all for leading the way and this is just wonderful for all of our seniors thank you thank you we're going to go to council member ala

Thank you, Chair. Just want to formally request one of those emotional support animals. I also, very similar to Councilmember Denson, when I first found out about this, I've just been telling everyone about it, but also wanted to highlight, I had a little personal experience where I went to my physical therapist and they had me do an exercise that predicted my fall risk in older age, which I didn't know was possible. So also wanted to do a little plug for adults to really take care of their foot health and their leg health. because it does contribute as you age to your risk. Just passing a little PSA from my medical professionals. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. We'll go to Councilmember Yambe.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks to my colleagues for making some comments that cover some of the ground that I was going to say. But I do want to thank Each of you, for the work that you do, and Bunny especially, coming from the 5th District, for those who are thinking, hey, this is not about me or this does not affect me, as somebody who is a millennial living with relatives who are seniors, you can easily start to understand how navigating each and every day and community is challenging for people who are seniors from whether it be that crack or that uneven pavement on the sidewalk to the noticing that these spaces in downtowns or in the suburbs aren't designed with our seniors in mind. A scary statistic is that by 2036, millennials will start becoming seniors and become easily overtaking baby boomers as the largest group of seniors in American history. And if you think that the roads and the designs of our infrastructures will be ready for it by then, we can try to do as best that we can, but it will not be able to help those who are younger now navigate some of these spaces. This annually, $57 billion is paid by taxpayers because of senior falls, because Medicaid, and rightfully so, Medicaid covers a good, I think it's 67% to 75% of a fall, and then Medicaid... will cover four to 11% of a fall. And so when you think about it, prevention is really important because it doesn't just help lives, it helps save taxpayers money. And these fall prevention courses, as the speakers said, is tremendously important because mobility is everything. and if you don't exercise and you don't get out and move then your muscles atrophy and then if you're you know you fall once and you're you know hyper aware of it and you're thinking about falling and trying to avoid a fall and then you fall it becomes a self-fulfilling thing and you know watching going to the mid-county senior center seeing family it gives you that kind of reminder every day that hey These are really, really important preventative measures, and it's everything. And so thank you all for really supporting community and really helping taxpayers save money, but also increasing people's livelihoods. and their overall quality of life and allowing everyone to contribute to community, which we desperately need everyone to be doing their part. So appreciate Council Member Krueger for sponsoring this and appreciate all of your work. So keep it up.

Thank you. And speaking of Council Member Kruber, we're going to go back to the sponsor of this proclamation, Council Member Kruber. Thank you, Madam Chair.

It just kind of felt right for me to be the one to sponsor this. I think back with Council Member Ayala talking about feet, you know, back when I was in my 20s, it was like, oh, you're going to be sorry, you're wearing those heels. I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, well. Feet are kind of important, so I'm dealing with that now. And then I just wanted to point out that for some people, when you talk about health and exercise, that the bone work and the bone structure, I think my mother had a problem with the bone breaking and then she would fall. And so that's not a good thing. But then, you know, those of us who are kind of the sassy seniors and you think, you know, been there, done that, and you are invincible, you know, I'm reminded of when I was headed out to the car and I was kind of, going a little bit quickly, and I didn't quite step up high enough, and I hit that curb hard enough, it broke the wooden heel on my clog, and then I hit the pavement, and it's kind of like, whoa. So still be careful, even though you think you got it. So appreciate what you guys do in spreading the word. So it's a good thing. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Well, I just will conclude that this is a great way to learn both for family members who are helping aging family members or just if you want to know because we all keep aging. It just keeps happening. So we all will be seniors. So good thing to learn. We're going to take a photo. We have lots of people. How do you want to organize?

You'll come over here. Let's make sure we can see everyone's face. Make sure you can see everyone's face. All right.

So we have a second proclamation this afternoon, and this is a proclamation of the council and executive designating September 10th through the 19th, 2026 is welcoming week in Pierce County. And I'd like to invite the following guests up. To receive this proclamation, we've got Amy Ku from the Tacoma Community House. Camila, oh, I didn't practice. Matarana, maybe? Sorry, I should have practiced. From the Commission on Refugee and Immigrant Affairs. She is a chair along with... Stephanie, am I introducing you or you're just here to support? Okay. Well, Stephanie Love is here and supports the group along with several other members of the commission. And then I am reading this one into the record. So thank you all for being here to celebrate this week. A proclamation of the Pierce County Council and executive designating September 10 through the 19th, 2026 as welcoming week in Pierce County, Washington, whereas the 14th amendment in the United States Constitution ratified on July 28th, 1868 makes it clear. that all persons born in the United States are citizens of this nation, affirming the principle of birthright citizenship and extending the protection of our laws to all who live under the jurisdiction of the United States, including those who have committed the civil offense of crossing the borders illegally. and whereas the 14th Amendment is best known for its first section, which contains several foundational clauses, including the Citizenship Clause, which establishes that all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens, along with Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause, with these provisions being among the most litigated and consequential of all American constitutional law, forming the basis for a range of civil rights rulings over the following century and a half. And whereas the Pierce County Council and executive believe that the success of Pierce County depends on ensuring all community members feel welcome and valued, affirms the strength of our constitutional system lies in its commitment to justice, ensuring that whether native born or visa, newly naturalized or seeking refuge, all people are entitled to fair treatment under the law. And whereas Welcoming America, a nonprofit that organizes an annual weekly observance called Welcoming Week, works with a group of more than 300 nonprofits and local governments across the United States, including libraries, schools, and universities, by providing tested methods, roadmaps, and approaches so they can create welcoming policies, reinforce inclusive principles, and build environments where community members can thrive. And whereas this year's Welcoming Week theme is the stories we share, the courage to connect, which builds on the 2025 theme of the stories we share. by exploring the central role stories hold in building durable communities that foster connection. And whereas Welcoming America points to the reality that more people are on the move, displaced by climate and conflict, or seeking opportunity, and that this reshaping of communities can either pull people apart or put them together. and whereas as individuals welcoming week reminds us to stay curious and open towards one another and discover the stories that make people who they are reminding us that we aren't navigating uncertainty alone and whereas the pierce county council and executive also encourage local organizations and leaders to host community events and get people sharing and listening to each other's stories such as a shared meal book clubs film screenings neighborhood walks and cultural festivals And whereas welcoming week is built on a foundation of our nation's most enduring guarantees, enshrined in the Bill of Rights and the post-Civil War amendments, that the right to due process of law, the promise of equal protection under the 14th Amendment. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed on this eighth day of September 2026 by the Pierce County Council and Executive that September 10 to September 19, 2026 is welcoming week in Pierce County, Washington. Let's give them a hand.

Thank you Council Member Hitchen and for the entire Council for recognizing Welcoming Week this year. My name is Amy Koo. I serve as CEO of Tacoma Community House and the REACH Center. And I think I need to attend Council meetings more often because I was so amazed at all that I learned prior to this proclamation about falls. This is a really lovely space that you guys have cultivated to raise awareness. So thank you for all that you're doing in service to our community. As many of you know, because I know all of you have been in our building, Tacoma Community House has served our community for 116 years. Originally with Norwegian and Scandinavian populations in the hilltop of Tacoma, and serving over 3,800 people a year through legal services, education, employment, housing for our youth and young adults, and support for legal services for immigrants and refugees. It's really an honor to be here today and to hold up and recognize the amount that our immigrants and refugees are contributing to our community. As you all know, one in three businesses is run by an immigrant and refugee, and that means that they're creating jobs in our community, enriching lives and making our society so much stronger and brighter. It really is an honor to be here representing our organization. I have colleagues here with me that serve our community, as well as Mary Vargas, who's joining our Refugee and Immigrant Commission. You will not find a stronger leader than Mary to be on that commission, so I'm really excited that she's going to be joining Pierce County in this particular way. As we celebrate Welcoming Week, I want to invite all of you to find ways to celebrate immigrants in your own way. We have a new citizen celebration that will be taking place at Chinese Reconciliation Park on September 13th, this coming Saturday. Our organization helps prepare people on the pathway to citizenship, and this will be a wonderful way to celebrate new citizens in our community. I also invite you to think about that proclamation and find ways just to get to know the stories of our immigrant community. We have a program called Talk Time, which I know many people have participated in, but it's an incredible opportunity to hear the stories of recently arrived immigrants and refugees and learn about how aspirational they are and how much they are following that dream to create lives for their families that will be improved as they begin life here in the United States. So thank you for making the time. I'm the daughter of a refugee, and I'm very proud to receive this proclamation. And I know firsthand how difficult it is for families to restart life, but I know that here in Pierce County, we really make that easier for families. So appreciate you for making this time and for celebrating Welcoming Week. Thank you so much.

I'm Camila Maturana. I'm a commissioner on the Pierce County Commission for Refugee and Immigrant Affairs and a supervising attorney with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. Like Amy, I'm also the daughter of not technically a refugee, but basically a refugee. So through my work as an immigration, and unfortunately, I'm sorry, I will be reading because I'm not as great of an off-the-cuff speaker as Amy is either. Through my work as an immigration attorney, I have the privilege of listening to many people's stories as they navigate applying for immigration status in the United States. Last week, I heard the story of a young man who was working in a hospital in his home country when protests against the government erupted outside. Government agents shot and beat protesters and surrounded the hospital and threatened hospital employees with arrests if they treated any protesters or allowed any protesters in the hospital. appalled at being barred from providing medical aid during this protest. My client later provided clandestine medical assistance to protesters, and he was later caught and imprisoned, detained for months without charge, and eventually managed to escape to the United States. While telling me the details of his story, my client showed little emotion. But when he talked about being forced to leave his family, his home, and his country, that's when he started to tear up. My father also left a country divided by political strife 50 years ago in 1976. He was a minor son, and he was the first in his family to graduate college. In late 1975, he was teaching high school in northern Chile, where he's from, when the federal secret police arrested him in his classroom and held him without charge or trial for six months. He was arrested for distributing pamphlets opposing the military dictatorship. My grandmother, a minor's wife with little education, filed a habeas petition for him, for his release, or for a trial. After this, my father was given the option of staying in prison or leaving his country. He left. In the United States, he found employment as a janitor, a construction worker, and eventually a professor at a community college. To this day, my father describes himself as an exile, never fully reconciled with separating from his family or country. Immigrants make the often difficult decision to come to the United States for many reasons. Some seek better economic opportunities, some move to reunite with family, and some are fleeing violence, whether by government or private actors. They come to the United States and Pierce County, as historically we have been a beacon of stability and safety, and we have welcomed new arrivals from other countries. In the last year and a half, the federal government has made life in the United States increasingly inhospitable for immigrants. We've seen an increase in arbitrary, violent arrests of people who are awaiting adjudication of their applications for immigration status. Last month, one of my clients was at a Latino grocery store on the east side of Tacoma when I showed up and arrested one man and one woman who had just been walking outside. One of our commission members reported that his fellow churchgoer was arrested by ICE outside of a local church. This man had entered on a visa and filed for asylum, but was nevertheless arrested and sent to the Northwest Immigrant Processing Center. My organization represents immigrants detained at the detention center. The number of unlawful, arbitrary arrests of immigrants has increased to such a degree that our detain unit has shifted from providing representation in immigration court to primarily filing habeas petitions with federal court. In the last year, our organization alone has filed 160 habeas petitions for arbitrary retentions by ICE officials. The vast majority have been granted in federal court. We seek the same relief that my abuela sought from my father 50 years ago. Freedom from unlawful detentions and reinstatement of liberty. In our county, we have immigrants who are construction workers, farm workers, cleaners, chefs, IT technicians, accountants, doctors, and engineers. Immigrants and refugees have built the community we lived in, shared their food, their dance, their language and culture with us. Some have lived and worked in this community for decades, but have recently been denied their work permit or have been fired. Others have filed for status years ago, but have seen no movement in their applications. every immigrant I've spoken to, even naturalized citizens, feel uneasy, insecure in their status and unwanted. Proclaiming that immigrants have equal protection under federal laws has never in recent history seemed so fraught and so important. We appreciate the Council's brave and unequivocal reminder that the strength of our Constitution is that it protects every person in the United States, regardless of their immigration status. We also thank Pierce County Council for recognizing the importance of welcoming immigrants in our community and recognizing their humanity, especially at this time when many immigrants feel so unwelcome. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I'm going to see if any of my colleagues have comments before we try and organize a photo. Councilmember Ayala.

Thank you, Chair. Appreciate it. I just want to say thank you, not just both of you, but so many other organizations and folks that do similar work. The This particular type of work is so complicated and there's so many varying perspectives on it, and sometimes unnecessarily so, considering that we are trying to honor the spirit of some of these documents. I want to share From my family's personal experience, it took nearly two decades to get something through and families are being impacted. There are separations of families just because they want to go through a lawful process to engage in this work. And there is lifelong. um impacts to this and so it is it is not just what we do here today but really it is impacting families across generations children are not seeing their parents because of this we have couples who are not seeing each other that it's it's very personal so thank you so much for helping families engage in this work and helping them navigate a place of belonging thank you chair

thank you and we'll go to councilmember yambe thank you for doing the work that you do um i'm not going to get too much into it i think my my colleague said it well uh said it best so um but as three generations of family have come through first county um at different points in our history And we know a little bit about people who lose due process and have suspended their constitutional rights. And I appreciate the advocacy that you are doing in community, because at different times, and even like in Tacoma's history where we had the chasing out of the Chinese and the Japanese, it all happened overnight, basically. And they didn't have many people advocating. And so thank you for the work that you do.

Well, thank you. I will just conclude with my deep gratitude to the members of CREA, the Commission on Refugee and Immigrant Affairs. When you speak in acronyms, it's complicated. And the work that they do to bring voice of what the many different community members that make up our immigrant and refugee population across the county and provide advice to the council, the executive's office, departments, and are just a really strong resource for us. And then to our many community partners. Which director to you are 1 of many, but you are a champion. The Tacoma community house is somebody that we lean into regularly. When we see changes happening at the federal level, we figure out what are the impacts to our local community members and how that we can support them or what we should be doing or how do we help share information? So correct. Information is going out and that's 1 of the biggest challenges we've had in the last year and a half really is what is what is true and what is not, but appreciate the advocacy and the work and the willingness, honestly, to put your neck out there. Sometimes that's where we are at this point. I don't look like an immigrant. I don't think people would classify me as an immigrant because I don't have black or brown skin. That's just really the world that we are in. But I'm not an indigenous person, which means my family hundreds of years ago immigrated from countries that the population was white. But technically, that would mean I'm an immigrant because I started from somewhere else. We are all immigrants in the United States. So when we talk about Welcoming Week, having a community in a country that says, hello, welcome, how can I help you? How can you be part of our community is what we are all about as a country. It's what we've been about forever with some significant hiccups. And this is one of those hiccups that's really causing some trouble. So the fact that we're pausing to make sure that we're highlighting the work that's going on and that we're having a celebration to recognize those that have done the work Um, to become legal citizens in our country. It's phenomenal and we just keep doing it because that's what we do. So, thank you. We're going to take a picture and we have several members of Korea. Um, I think it's a small enough group that we could have everybody come up behind the dice because.

That's good right there. That's good

Okay, so to everybody that was here for proclamations, thank you so much. You're welcome to stay, but you could go outside and enjoy the sunlight while we still have some. So we are now at resolutions. Our first item, I'm gonna go to Councilmember Denson to make a motion on this one right off the bat.

Thank you, Chair. In regards to proposal number R2026-180S, I move to continue this proposal to the September 29th, 2026 regular council meeting for final action.

Is there a second? It's been moved and seconded. Do we need to do anything else from the clerk side or legal side? Nope, just a voice vote. Just a voice vote, okay. So we are going to, the motion before us is to continue proposal R2026-180S to the council meeting of September 29th, 2026. Is there any further discussion or questions from colleagues? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries, thank you. So that brings us to item number two, which is proposal R2026-191. Council Member Krueger for a motion. Thank you, Chair. I would like to move R2026-191 for approval. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Can the clerk please read it into the record?

Proposal number R2026-191, a resolution of the Pierce County Council setting the date of an evening district number three council meeting for Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026 at six o'clock p.m. at Eatonville High School in the auditorium 302 Marshall Avenue North, Eatonville, Washington.

Thank you. And this afternoon we have our chief council, Ms. Long, to explain what this is doing.

All right, thank you. So you've seen this many times before, but the Pierce County Charter provides that the council shall hold an evening meeting in each of the seven council districts each year. And the details of those meetings, the date, time, and location shall be established by a resolution of the council. So as stated by the clerk and in the title, The resolution before you will set the evening district number three council meeting for Tuesday, September 22nd at 6 p.m. at the Eatonville High School. And this meeting will be in place of your regular 3 p.m. meeting on that Tuesday of that week. Thank you. Thank you.

Council Member Cooper to speak to your... Proposal Thank You madam chair there seems to be quite a bit happening in Eatonville at this you know in the past year or so and so it seems fitting to Have the meeting there and they hopefully will get a tour of the pool We have been able to help with that and see the new stadium that I went to the first football game Friday night and pretty awesome they The guys come running out with a chainsaw because you know, they're the loggers and It was pretty awesome. So anyway, the field was beautiful and very welcomed. And the new stadium where you don't fall through and they have a roof. And also for those who want to come, they have the Bud Blanchard Trail. And then there's the Michelle Falls that everyone seems to enjoy. I have not been to the Michelle Falls. So, yeah, lots to do. Okay. Be a good evening.

thank you so much uh is there any further questions or comments on this one not seeing any so at this time i'd like to invite members to the members of the public to provide public comment on resolution 2026-191 you have up to three minutes we'll start in chambers is anyone here to speak on this item no one's jumping up so we will go online

Yes, for any member of the public who would like to provide comment on proposal number R2026-191, please press the raise hand icon in Zoom or star 9 on your telephone keypad. With no hands this time, Madam Chair.

With no hands raised, we'll close public comment and bring it back before the Council. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, I'm going to ask the clerk to call the roll on the approval of R2026-191. Council Member Ayala.

Aye. Council Member Yambe.

Aye.

Council Member Denson. Aye. Council Member Morrell.

Aye.

Council Member Herrera.

Aye.

Council Member Krueger.

Aye. Council Member Hitchen. Aye. We have seven ayes, zero nays. The seven ayes, zero nays. The motion is adopted. so um we are now ordinances and i'll just remind everybody that i said we would reverse the order so i'm going to the last page of our agenda where we had a proposal number three which is ordinance 2020 2026-556 councilmember denson for a motion thank you chair go to my regular agenda the script

complicated, there's too many colors. All right, I move proposal number O2026-556. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Can the clerk please read it into the record?

Proposal number O2026-556, an ordinance of the Pierce County Council adopting development moratoria pursuant to Revised Code of Washington 36.70A.390 as an extension of the previously adopted development moratorium in ordinance number O2026-505 prohibiting the siting, expansion, or establishment of certain detention centers and facilities involving involuntary confinement, adopting a work plan, setting a date for a public hearing, adopting findings of fact, and setting an effective date.

Thank you. And this afternoon we have Mr. Mike Krueger, our principal policy analyst, to tell us what this is doing.

Thank you chair Hitchin. Good afternoon council members. The council adopted ordinance number 2026 505 on March 24th, 2026. That ordinance has an effective date of March 4th. The ordinance established a moratorium that prohibits the filing acceptance processing or approval of any permit application. to establish a public or private detention center or other facilities involving involuntary confinement throughout unincorporated Pierce County. The adopted moratorium will sunset on October 4th, 2026. The proposal before you this afternoon would extend that existing development moratorium. The additional extension would last for six months unless the Council adopts zoning standards addressing the uses that are included in the moratorium, whichever occurs first. The proposal would also adopt a work program describing the process for evaluating development regulations for citing public and private detention centers or other facilities involving involuntary confinement, evaluation, or treatment of individuals within the unincorporated county. This proposal was considered by the Community Development and Environment Committee on August 31st and was forwarded to the council with a do pass recommendation. And there are 10 amendments to the proposal that I can explain at the appropriate time. Thank you.

Thank you. So I'll just pause and see if there's any questions on the underlying bill before we pick up with the first amendment. Not seeing any, then we will start with amendment number one. Councilmember Denson, I'm going to you for the motion on this one.

Thank you, Chair. I move council amendment number one.

It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Krueger, can you tell us what it does?

I can. Council Amendment Number 1 is a technical amendment to the ordinance and to Exhibit H of the proposal, which are the findings of fact, and the amendment would simply insert today's date, indicating that the Council held a public hearing on September 8th. It would also provide notification of the date that the News Tribune published notification of this hearing, and that took place on August 28th, 2026. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any questions on this one? We're filling in some blanks. It's important we do this. Okay. Seeing no questions, all those in favor of approving Council Amendment Number 1, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Council Member Krueger, we're going to you for Council Amendment Number 2. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to move Amendment Number 2 for approval. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Krueger, can you tell us what it does?

Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Chair. Council Amendment Number 2 would require the Planning and Public Works Department consult with public safety agencies, including the Sheriff's Department, the Prosecuting Attorney's Office, Superior Court, juvenile justice representatives, collection professionals, emergency responders, and other appropriate public safety agencies when they're developing the regulations that would be implemented through this eventual legislation.

Thank you. Council Member Krueger to speak to your amendment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The purpose of this amendment is to ensure that public safety is a required and documented part of the county's analysis before permanent regulations are adopted that would restrict or prohibit detention, correctional, or secure treatment facilities. And the ordinance recognizes that facilities under review serve different purposes and can have substantially different effects on the surrounding communities. So therefore, it directs PPW to consider different definitions, classifications, citing requirements, development standards, and mitigation measures. And the amendment builds on that approach by requiring the county to evaluate not only the impacts created by the facility, but also the public safety consequences created by restricting that facility. And that distinction is important because there are some facilities under review exist to carry out lawful court orders, securely detain offenders, supervise individuals who may pose a danger to others, or provide secure treatment and rehabilitation. And so the county's own supporting materials demonstrate the potential consequences when adequate secure treatment or detention capacity is unavailable. So in the litigation included in Exhibit A, counties argue that DSHS's failure to conduct required civil commitment evaluations could result in individuals who might commit serious or violent offenses being returned to their communities and could negatively affect their public safety. And so the amendment is just requiring that PPW obtain documents from, I want to say, stakeholders, so the sheriff, prosecuting attorney, courts, juvenile justice, corrections, etc., in this amendment. But most importantly, it must be summarized so that the council, including materials, concerns, it gives concerns and recommendations. So it's giving us more knowledge and better judgment in choosing when we do the final amendments. When it comes time for when it comes out of moratorium. And so this is providing three safeguards. First, the council is getting a complete record. It will know the community impacts associated with allowing a facility and the public safety consequences associated with restricting it. Second, different facilities can be evaluated according to what they actually do. A juvenile detention facility, correctional facility, secure treatment facility, civil commitment facility, and immigration detention facility do not necessarily serve the same population or public safety function. And the ordinance itself recognizes the need to distinguish amongst these facilities types. And third, the amendment helps keep the ultimate regulations focused on legitimate county concerns rather than political preferences about detention policy. Public comments incorporated into the ordinance includes calls for permanent bans on detention facilities in opposition to involuntary confinement, and those views refer the public record. And the Council needs to have an objective assessment of what a prohibition could mean for crime prevention, secure custody, court orders, treatment, and community safety. Therefore, based on the analysis, I would urge an adoption of the amendment. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Are there questions or comments on Amendment No. 2? Council Member Murrell.

you madam chair in reviewing this and i will say this is highly unusual that we take these amendments like this but as i understand the intent of this one to me is just common sense i would think that the department would make sure all those involved are taken into consideration when making these kind of decisions and then they also would understand the impacts of community since they have to deal with it all the time so on on this one i i'm okay with thank you thank you councilmember yambe

I agree with my esteemed colleague about that this is very unusual. There are many amendments that we're considering and I have not had time to adequately study each of these and give it the attention and care that I think they deserve. So I'm going to be voting no on any of amendments because I just haven't had enough time. I apologize.

Thank you. Council Member Denson.

Yes, thank you. Yeah, it's definitely been difficult. I think we received these maybe an hour, hour and a half before we did get some briefing on them earlier. So I appreciate the efforts of staff to do that. I am a no on this amendment as well. I do think that the department is going to naturally common sense. consult with a lot of these groups and take a lot of these considerations into account. I think the language here seems with the short amount of time that I've had to look at it today to be really onerous and definitely at the level of micromanaging our Department of Planning and Public Works. It's certainly not our Department of Planning and Public Works goal to outright prohibit all of these different kinds of facilities, but it's rather their charge to consider appropriate zoning and appropriate mitigation measures for all of the different kinds of facilities that might fit under this classification. And I want to make sure that they have the flexibility and respect to be able to do that in a way that enables them to move forward with their with their work plan which i've seen and is is very detailed um and i just think that this is a adding way way too much um way too many requirements and specific requirements that i think is really going to hamper their ability to get this work done so with that i am a no on this amendment thank you for your comments any further comments

Seeing none, all those in favor of approving council amendment number two, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, say nay. Nay. By my ears, it failed. We'll move on to council amendment number three. Council Member Cooper, we're going to you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to move amendment three for approval. It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Krueger, can you tell us what this one does?

Yes, thank you, Chair. This amendment would require specific regulations based upon facility type, based upon the facility's intended purpose, population served, security level, operational characteristics, and various other criteria.

Thank you. Council Member Krueger to speak to your amendment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That... In putting this together, the rationale I had was that the staff itself has essentially identified the problem, developed definitions for 13 types of facilities involving involuntary holds because the existing classifications were inadequate. And that strongly argues against regulating all 13 as though they were equivalent. So a 1,500-bed detention facility is not a 16-bed juvenile facility. A secure facility for sexually violent predators is not a behavioral health facility, and a jail is not necessarily comparable to an immigration detention center. So different impacts justify different regulations, and that's the premise of this amendment. Clarification and transparency.

Thank you. Are there questions regarding this amendment?

not seeing any oh councilmember deadson i'm sorry i just wanted to to express that i'm also i'm voting no on this one i'm not voting on no on all of them i just want to let you know i have reviewed them there are several that that i think make sense and and work and that i'm not concerned about this one um is again complicated i i believe the department does plan on coming up with different regulations and zoning classifications and mitigation measures for different types of institutions because they do have different impacts on the community. And that is what we are concerned about, the impacts on the community and where things belong so that we can serve the public in the way that we need to serve the public while protecting our community and the character and environmental considerations as well of the different types of communities that we have in Pierce County. So I am a no on this one as well.

Thank you. Any further comments? All those in favor of approving Council Amendment Number 3 say aye. All those opposed say nay. Nay. Motion does not pass. Council Amendment Number 4, Council Member Krueger. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to move Amendment Number 4 for approval.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Krueger, can you tell us what it does?

Thank you, Chair. Amendment Number 4 is also an amendment to the department's work program that is shown in Exhibit F to this proposal. The amendment would require that all the regulations that are developed would need to be based upon specific land use and public safety considerations, things such as compatibility with surrounding uses, infrastructure capacity, emergency response, environmental impacts, fiscal impacts, demands upon county services. There's also a clause that would indicate that the department should not recommend a prohibition restriction or development standard for the purpose of either favoring or disapproving federal or state immigration, criminal justice correction, civil commitment, or other governmental policy. And there is a report obligation as part of this amendment as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Krueger to speak to your amendment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a policy that does not prevent the county from regulating an ICE facility. It requires the county to regulate it for the same reason it regulates other facilities for actual local impacts. And that protects the council authority because the legislative record then demonstrates that the council acted on matters within the county's legitimate regulatory interests. rather than attempting to indirectly to nullify or obstruct a policy entrusted to another level of government. Just, again, transparency. Just kind of fine-tuning.

I like that there's a theme. Questions or comments on this one? Council Member Denson?

Yes, thank you. I do appreciate all the thought that has gone into this. I am a no on this one as well for a couple different reasons. Primarily, or I guess the first reason, is that I'm sure our Planning and Public Works Department will use legitimate considerations in all of its deliberations, and I have no doubt that that is true. in regards to a final report i'm not a huge fan of plans and reports i know they're necessary i don't know that we need to obligate another one i know that the department will be able to defend all of its all of its recommendations to us and we will ask questions and make sure that we are comfortable with all of those when they come to us with with some final ordinances in regards to this The ultimate ordinance with all of the all the regulatory information, finally, in regards to the planning public works, not being able to recommend a prohibition restriction, citing standard at this point, the work plan is is in progress. We got a report on that at the committee and there are some really specific benchmarks. I really appreciated all the detail of total confidence that they are working hard on this and have a plan. As they move along, I don't want to hamstring that in any way. Ultimately, it will be our decision what we decide to do with these ordinances. But I want to give the department and their experts the freedom to come to us with the recommendations that they feel are warranted based upon. The nature and sensibilities and what the people of Pierce County want. So with that, I am a no on this amendment. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further comments. Seeing none, all those in favor of council amendment number four, say aye. All those opposed, say nay. Motion does not pass. That brings us to council amendment number five. Council member, I should just leave your mic on. Council member Krueger, to you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to move amendment five for approval. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Mr Kruger. Can you tell us what this one does?

Yes, chair council amendment number 5 again would modify the department's work program related to this. Development moratorium, and it would include a provision that would indicate that no permanent regulation. would be permitted that would prohibit a facility that's demonstrated by either the sheriff, the prosecuting attorney, or other governmental public safety agency to be reasonably necessary to securely detain folks unless the council makes written findings that offer a reasonable alternative facilities or arrangements could be made available. to accommodate for those types of detainees. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Krueger to speak to your amendment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. A categorical land use prohibition can have consequences far beyond the parcel being regulated. And the county should know where a person goes. And that's important because even Exhibit A argues that inadequate state capacity for civil conversion patients endangered communities. The counties allege that DSHS actions denied necessary treatment and negatively affected public safety. So a land use policy should never assume that just because there's no facility doesn't mean there's not a problem. So sometimes it means that a person is placed somewhere less secure or returned to the community. Therefore, I think this is important and I urge an approval. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Any questions on council amendment number five, council member Denson?

No questions, just I wanted to express that I will be voting no on this council amendment as well. Ultimately what we're gonna get from the department is their work study results, their recommendations, their sample ordinances that they're recommending to council and I want to make sure that this council or whatever council is here when that comes forward has the authority to make the decisions that they feel is best at the time. I don't want to, in passing an amendment like this, hamstring not only the department, but a future council potentially from making the decision that they feel is best for the community. So for that, I am voting no on this amendment as well.

Thank you. Any further discussion on amendment number five? Seeing none, all those in favor of approving council amendment number five say aye. All those opposed say nay. Nay. Motion does not pass. That brings us to council amendment number six. Council Member Krueger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to move amendment number six for approval.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Mr. Krueger. Thank you, Chair. Again, Amendment Number 6 would modify the department's work program. In this circumstance, it would require that the department establish facility types based upon the sort of detainee that may be housed. So, for example, there would be facilities that were criminal, correctional, and detention facilities. There would be separate facilities Um, potentially for juvenile detentions folks, there would be facilities for sexually violent predators. Um, and several other categories are listed in the amendment. It wouldn't necessarily require that the county. Permit. separate facility types based upon these categories, but it would require that there be facility descriptions based upon these classification and facility types. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Krueger, to you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll just say these two, I would say, are recommendations for the work programs, for what we get in the final report, to have a thorough investigation of the different things I'm presenting. This particular one, I'd say the ordinance itself acknowledges that these facilities serve a different purpose. purposes and may have substantially different impacts. And the code should follow that finding. And it also prevents the political controversy surrounding one category from determining the rules for juvenile justice, criminal corrections, SVP confinement, or secure treatment. I would urge adoption.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Any comments or questions on this one? Well, while I appreciate the thought and the level of detail, I want the work plan to have the flexibility to really think about this holistically, so I'll be voting no on this. I know the department has seen the list of areas that are articulated in this, and I know that they are thinking about all those different, potentially some others that maybe didn't make this list, and I want them to have the ability to kind of Really focus on the wider breadth of how we cite facilities like this. The needs I think back to how we worked on the impacts of an airport coming into the parts of our county, but we were not prepared for and what that meant. And so it's a very similar situation. These facilities. If cited have specific needs, specific security needs, um, and are all part of why we are giving them the time and I want to make sure they have the time and the flexibility to really do the learning. So I will urge a no vote on this 1. Any further discussion all those in favor of approving council amendment number 6 say aye. All those opposed say nay. Nay. Motion does not pass. That brings us to amendment number seven, Councilmember Kruber. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to move amendment seven for approval. Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve Council Amendment Number 7, Mr. Krueger, to introduce it.

Thank you, Chair. This amendment also would modify the department's work program in a little bit different way than the previous amendments. This would have more to do with implementation Of of a permitting process related to propose detention facilities, and it would require that consideration be made regarding fair share methodologies for facility citing. So, in other words, the. permit review staff or the hearings examiner, whoever may be the appropriate decision maker when it came to a particular permit, would need to look into a question regarding the proportionate share of detainees based upon facility type that would be located in the proposed facility versus other facilities in other locations throughout the state or potentially even nationally. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Krueger to speak to your amendment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to confirm. So this is the, I guess my numbers are mixed up on my paperwork. This is the fair share one?

Yes.

Okay. My rationale on this was that DSHS itself reports Pierce County is the only county exceeding its SVP fair share at 45 residents compared with 25 originating commitments. And that creates a principled argument, and that principle works regardless of political ideology. Fair share has always been an issue in this county, and I'd kind of like to make sure it doesn't fade away. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Council Member Dunson.

Yes, I'm going to be voting yes on this amendment. I agree that Pierce County seems to have and continues to be hit with a disproportionate amount of institutions and housing like this. And while we understand that we all need to do our part, we do need to look at the cumulative effect, especially in different areas of the county, and make sure that we're being fair to our residents and that we We have an idea of where things are being placed in a way that is fair to our community and is distributed throughout the state as well. So I will be voting yes on Amendment No. 7.

Okay. Thank you. We're going to go to Council Member Ayala.

Thank you, Chair. Appreciate it. And thank you for those comments. Though I agree with the spirit of what this amendment is doing, I think it is also conflating two different scopes of work. And so I know that there were some state regulations that passed not too long ago that is allowing the county to assess this kind of work across different agencies. And in the spirit of a cleaner package, I would love to follow up on this amendment as it relates to our relationship with all of our other agency agreements and just keep the work program related to zoning.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you. We're going to Council Member Morrell.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Appreciate the discussion of my colleagues. I think this goes back probably almost 30 years where Pierce County ended up being the dumping grounds, mainly in District 6, that the state would always allow to happen, especially with folks that have been returned to Western State, even though they weren't from this area, but yet allowed them to be released into our area. And I know fair share has been a topic on many community agendas and I think there again if we continue to show that we are sensitive to geographic equity I think that'll go a long ways and there again it's common sense again so I think there again this doesn't impact the work program to the point where it's not feasible and causes extra work But I just think that we need to continue the theme of Pierce County. And, you know, we'll take our share, but we won't take any more.

Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Any additional comments or questions? Seeing none, all those in favor of adopting Council Amendment No. 7 say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay. Motion passes. That brings us to item number, amendment number eight, Council Member Krueger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to move amendment eight for approval.

I'll second. It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Krueger, can you tell us what it does?

Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Chair. This amendment, number 8, would require the department to provide supporting findings documenting rationale for coming up with a recommendation that would prohibit any of the detention facility types that might be considered under the proposed regulations. And there's a description here of the sort of analysis that would need to be completed as part of that review and recommendation. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Cooper to speak to your amendment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just believe this is part of a good part to be in a study program. And this amendment transforms the work plan from a potentially political exercise into an evidence-driven land use analysis. And it also strengthens the county's position when it does impose tough restrictions because the council can point to the measurable impacts rather than just a political disagreement. And who can argue against evidence-based I urge approval. Thank you. Madam chair.

Thank you. Um, I think I have a question of department staff on this particular 1, because I'm, I'm not sure that department staff can do this level of work before before we say, yes, let's do this. I, I hear you. And as council member morale said, I have both McNeil island in western states. So fair share is near and dear to my heart. Um, but. i also don't want to put something in in here that potentially jeopardizes the ability to to do this and and again i hear you i want to make sure so is there someone from the department staff mr kruger i think that's probably the right i don't know that you have an answer or have asked this question because you spent the whole morning and afternoon writing amendments no i haven't had any opportunity to speak with the department regarding their capacity to do any of this work And I know the department hasn't had a ton of time to look at these as we all have not. Is there anyone willing?

Thank you, Chair. For the record, Justin Patterson, Senior Planner, Long Range Planning Division in Planning and Public Works. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Council Members, for the opportunity to speak on this today. We really appreciate all the lively discussion on all of the amendments. And I would say staff have already begun engagement and a lot of work on this project. Engagement will really lead the way in this project. We want to make sure that community input is really centered in a lot of this work. There are numerous items proposed including this potential amendment that are already planned or currently being researched and worked on by staff as part of this project. And while we appreciate the intention, limits or directives on how this project are managed and what the ultimate outcomes are can negatively impact both the process and those results eventually. Just because we don't necessarily outline something in the work plan doesn't mean that it's excluded from the work plan. Staff have or plan to review some of these concerns present, but presupposing those expected outcomes this early in the project really kind of lessens the value of community input, and we want to make sure that that's centered in this piece. For this particular amendment, evidence-based land use is something that we do as a department just in general, but there are a lot of onerous requirements that might hamper our ability to successfully implement other pieces of the project.

okay thank you so to to summarize that this particular one because initially i really appreciated like looking at this at the level of detail and and the idea of using the evidence behind why we might regulate something a specific way and i know that the several of us had similar ideas and i just wanted to make sure it wasn't

So it could potentially, but you're kind of already doing it is what I'm hearing a little bit of that and a little bit of, um, let's let the project. Can I go about it's no normal paces to make sure that we're not presupposing anything so that we're not. Attracting from community input from those conversations with state agencies with our law enforcement partners, other pieces of that. and i would again reiterate that all of our land use decisions that we propose to this body um are evidence-based and we want to make sure that we're continuing that thread okay thank you appreciate it um you might stay because i have more lights up just in case someone has a question so we'll start with council member morale thank you madam chair uh thinking along your thought line is

Now that you've seen this amendment, by the time you bring it back to us in a ordinance version, we can check off some of these to make sure you've done your work on these issues?

Yeah, I think that's a great question. I would imagine so, yes. We are still early on in the project, but a lot of things such as reporting and providing justification for any land use decision is pretty part and parcel with how our department operates.

Okay, and now that you have these amendments before you, speaking to this one specifically, you can now just make sure that you're doing this on evidence-based?

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. We're going to go to Councilmember Denson.

Thank you. I may be repeating some of these questions, but this is complicated. And as we know, we're just kind of thinking through this within the last hour or so. A prohibition of a use is a big deal, right? And I don't want to presuppose any conclusions. There's some of us that may be hoping to see that, some of us that may not be hoping to see that. But if the department were to put forward a recommendation of a prohibition of any of these kinds of institutions, as you said, there would have to be a lot of justification behind it, not just we don't like these, right? And I'm wondering if the Growth Management Act actually mandates having that kind of, or some kind of justification, so that they're like, show your work, you need to make sure that you've been thoughtful, not you just don't want this in your backyard.

That's an excellent point, Councilmember, and I would also reiterate that prohibition is not something supported by state law, so we really can't prohibit a use anyway. which gets to the heart of a couple of these amendments. There are ways that we can really limit a use, but that requires a significant amount of justification as well.

Okay. All right. So this might not even come to pass because that would be extremely difficult and maybe impossible legally to do. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Kruber. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate the way you approached just having discussion because that's a lot of what this is about. And the list of questions that were on here, I assumed would probably be in the report anyway, but this is just kind of pointing out because I think, you know, the tax revenue versus county services cost is pretty important, but demands for fire, EMS, et cetera. And I can't help but think they might be there, but this is just to kind of make sure that these are touched on. And so, actually, the amendment doesn't really require more. It's just making sure that it's part of what you are doing, kind of anyway.

Yeah, that's a great point and a great clarification.

And it would also, perhaps, stir the thought process of constituents who may read and go, That is important. I hadn't thought of that kind of thing. So this just kind of keeps it up front and also helps constituents understand that we are doing more than what they might think we're doing. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. So, Council Member Ayala.

Thank you, Chair. Appreciate it. Justin, thank you so much for those comments. I do want to share, I fully believe that the department will do their due diligence around this work. I'm having somewhat of a conflict because we received these in written form at 2.10 p.m. today. We had two minutes uh to review 16 different amendments and i don't feel that i would be doing my due diligence or would be a responsible legislator if i did not go back to the department try to understand the ins and outs of what this means and also work with staff and staff is already um uh i would say there's Seven members one staff person working on this and so it's really difficult for us to get there. So Because I believe the department is doing this due diligence Work, and I have not had this time. I will be voting no on this. Thank you.

Sure Thank you any further discussion on this one? Councilman Riley you just turned your mic off, right? Okay. I want to make sure you didn't have a second thought Okay, I'm not seeing any other comments. So I'm going to ask, thank you for jumping in and answering questions. So at this time, I'm going to ask all those in favor of adopting council amendment number eight, say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Nay. Motion passes. Thank you. That brings us to item number nine, council amendment number nine. Council Member Hoover. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to move amendment number nine.

It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Krueger to explain what this one does.

Thank you, Chair. This amendment also concerns the department's work program as related to eventual permit review for specific detention facilities. And what it would do is it would establish some items to take into consideration as related to citing of any particular facility, and there would be required analyses of each item to be considered. And you can see from the list there that there's various items to consider concerning, and one example might be fiscal impact of the citing decision related to a particular type of detention facility. And then the question, the analysis that needs to be asked is what would be the tax revenues brought in by providing such a facility versus the cost to provide county services to the facility. So that's just one example of how this would be set up. Again, it would be part of the permitting process and analysis of that specific application at the time that it was submitted to the county. Thank you.

thank you councilman recruiter to speak to your amendment thank you madam chair um the current moratorium is extraordinary extraordinarily broad geographically and sections one and two i forgot the right um it's just you know temporarily prohibit the filing acceptance etc so this temporary moratorium does allow the county the time to study this issue which is what i'm grateful for that we're taking the time to bring things out but if the study ultimately produces a recommendation for permanent countywide prohibition, which we were just told we're not. But there is a substantially different policy decision from establishing setbacks, conditional use, security, capacity, and the ordinance itself recognizes that facilities under consideration have different purposes and impacts and anticipates developing different definitions, classifications, siting standards, development standards, and mitigation measures. So this amendment establishes a higher analytical threshold before the department recommends the most restrictive option available. And it's not preventing any kind of a ban, which we've been told we're not, but it is requiring the department to just explain why a less restrictive land use tools would not adequately address the identified problem. And that distinction is important because the county's legitimate concern may sometimes be where, how large, or under what conditions a facility operates, not necessarily where the facility should exist anywhere in an unincorporated Pierce County. And so the requirement, the amendment also requires a consideration of displacement because a countywide prohibition does not necessarily eliminate the underlying need for detention, treatment, custody, or supervision. it may not simply move the facility and its impacts to another jurisdiction and that's particularly particularly relevant where facilities perform public safety functions or serve regional or state populations thank you manager thank you are there comments on this one we're going to go to councilmember denson

yes thank you we are getting way too ahead of ourselves in my opinion with this amendment we are nowhere nowhere ready to start talking about permitting and all the different considerations that need to be taken into into consideration and when i read this there is considerations far beyond the scope of the purpose of of the current moratorium that we are considering extending today. I'll remind folks that the primary question here, the primary charge we've given to the department is to think about the impact to the community of these different types of institutions that are included within detention centers and facilities involving involuntary confinement. That is the primary question. It is already fairly broad. This takes into consideration all sorts of things that the department may be considering and may not because I think it goes far beyond the scope of what we're looking at today. And again, it's way, way too far ahead of ourselves to be talking about the details and the specificities of permitting. And I'll just end with, ultimately, council's going to receive the recommendations. They're going to be considering all of the ordinances brought forth by the department. And we can make decisions when we have a lot more information about what their recommendations are. at the level of detail that this particular amendment is suggesting. We are nowhere near that point at this time. So I will be a no on this amendment. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Denson. Any other comments? I too agree. I appreciate the level of detail here, but I want to give flexibility to the department staff, the groups they're going to be working with to really think about how this looks, what it looks like so that when they actually craft the policy that will come before this council in a future time in 2027, which. Just around the corner, um, and, uh, we'll take it under consideration at that time and see what thoughts we have and what questions we continue to have and feel like that's the appropriate time to have the level of detail of looking at these things. So, um, I'm going to ask all those in favor of adopting council amendment. Number 9, say, aye. All those opposed say nay nay. Motion does not pass. That brings us to Council Amendment Number 10. Council Member Krueger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to move approval of Amendment Number 10. Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

I pause.

I'm just checking it out so I know what the lay of the land is.

Mr. Krueger to read or to tell us what this amendment does.

Thank you, Chair. This amendment would remove the reference to Exhibit G from the Section 7 of the ordinance. Exhibit G are the public comments that were received that were associated with the initial moratorium adoption, and so they would no longer be considered part of the Council's findings as related to this ordinance that's before you this afternoon. It would be an amendment to Section 7 to To make that change. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Cooper to speak to your amendment.

Thank you. Madam chair. It's really more of a technical. I don't think we've ever included public comments generally. Do we. As as a finding of facts, and so it's just removing that.

Thank you, Mr. Kerr. There was a question in there. Do we typically include. In our, I think in finding of facts, the actual public comment.

No, findings of fact typically don't include public comments that have been received, but they are part of the council's record, as they will be in this case, with or without the amendment.

Okay, thank you. I, too. Not sure how I missed it the first time, maybe because I'm not on CDC, but it caught me when you brought it up as an amendment, and I was like, oh, yeah, usually it's just in the packet, which I appreciate. I know we had a lot of public comment, and it was one of the reasons that we moved this forward as an emergency. So maybe—nope, this isn't the one as emergency. That was the other one with similar— too many moratoriums everybody but we did run it and we did receive a lot of public comments so I get it but agree that pulling it out so I would to keep us doing what we usually do agree that this amendment makes a ton of sense and simple enough and the public comment will still be part of the record so not seeing any other comments all those in favor of adopting council amendment number 10 say aye aye any opposed Motion carries, thank you. That brings us to the end of the amendments for this proposal. I want to pause and see if there are any additional questions or comments before we open this up for public comments. Not seeing anyone. Oh, Council Member Kruber.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just appreciate the indulgence on my amendments because a lot of it is to bring it out for discussion. Perhaps a lot of it will be in the final product anyway now that it is kind of brought out. I'm just having, I'm struggling with this whole package and how huge it is and discerning the... The weight of it, the merits at this time, and I'm kind of ambivalent on the whole package as it sits right now. I have some concerns. I would love to have it bumped for another week, but I don't know if that would make a difference. There's so many details that trying to find more and everyone is slammed with doing things. I just wanted to point that out. I'm just kind of ambivalent. So thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Yambe.

So I want to thank my colleagues for this very thoughtful discussion. And I have on principle staying out because I think that as Councilmember Ayala said that we were given very very very very narrow window and if anything I'm consistent so I want to commend Councilmember Kruber because it's clear that being able to articulate her concerns is very valid and I appreciate them and the thought that you know The work put in to that while last minute, I can at least appreciate. And it's clear that staff is doing a lot of this work that the that you know a lot of this to me was already being done and so letting the you know the department and the advisory groups do their job without you know additional hampering and obstacles and so just just want to say that you know i i support this as is um that the fair share part it's very near and dear because i was in the city of fife and i live in the fifth district and we have deal with that and so you know and i'm glad that that's already a consideration being done by staff and at the committee level because as councilmember morrell said it's a sore spot for understandable reasons and pierce county deserves better and our community deserves better and i appreciate that we're calling it out and i appreciate it's already been done so I support extending the moratorium and appreciate the work that's gone into it, but I just wanted to make sure that I just didn't want to throw obstacles in a process that's already moving and jump the gun without understanding, A, what the legislation implicates and what is already being done because I didn't even know that within this small window. And so I appreciate staff for being here and appreciate my colleagues' deliberation because I think I'm learning as we're going. but I want it to be consistent, and so I appreciate it.

Thank you. Well, we are going to open this up for public comment at this time. I'd like to invite members of the public to provide comments on proposal O2026-556 as amended. We'll start in chambers. Is there anyone here in chambers that would like to provide public comment on this item? The teacher, I mean, makes you leave uncomfortable thinking time while I look at people around the room, but I'm not seeing anyone stand up. So we'll go online, Mr. Domenech.

Yes, Madam Chair. For any member of the public who'd like to provide comment on proposal number O2026-556 as amended, please press the raise hand icon in Zoom or star nine on your telephone keypad. And we have one hand at this time, Madam Chair, Terry Heard. Please state your name for the record. And you have three minutes.

I'm Terry Heard, Madam Chairman. I want to thank you for this coming about situation where, though it probably should have gone before the LUACs, because I was on a LUAC for many years, and we watched the efforts of the people's voice being disregarded continuously for the desires of the development of the county. So when we look at this and something that was going to be put in the various communities that we have of the seven districts, it's extremely important and I'm sorry that more time is not being given to evaluating what should go into the different types of facilities that you're Alluring to we have the city county state and federal facilities. Facilities and private facilities that keep popping up in our communities around here for the care of people. Of various needs and requirements. So please go back and look at the fact that many of the amendments that were being put forward are asking for details that need to be further discussed. I'm sorry they came in at such a late date, but it does bring up the point of do we know enough of what we have the ability to control in our communities of what is put there and how it is cared for? I mean, many times we were asked to put in facilities for the care of those that were gonna say, let out of prison or let out of different type of abusive situations. We have a big population and that population is constantly being pushed into a smaller and smaller area. The state GMA said that we should not have development until we had the infrastructure. This needs to be considered. We don't have the infrastructure in Pierce County to handle any facility of any size, whether it's response time or the ability of the environment to adequately be conducive to a good neighbor. So please go back and look at the fact that with all the questions you people have raised, take more time. Now, a moratorium on a facility just gives you a few moments to look at something, but obviously there's going to be political pressure that's going to come along, and that's going to be the tough one for you to say no to. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. No other hands raised. I'll close public comment, bring it back to the full council. We'll start with Council Member Murrell. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I do appreciate my colleagues' passion for these amendments, but I think as we request everybody, all these departments to do work plans, that we ourselves do our work plan. And nothing that we have moves forward at very high rates as far as policy goes, unless you're doing an emergency. It moves pretty fast. But with this, we are allowing more time. We're extending it another six months. And to any colleague of mine, this is not a good way to amend things on the fly. One or two amendments I could see happening, but not 10. And this doesn't put the council in good light, it doesn't put staff in good light, and it doesn't put the department in good light. So I just think that, there again, using this as a lesson, as my colleague said, that there are better ways to do this and get your ideas and your comments in the record than trying to load this up. And, you know, like I say, I'm not, you know, on just one of my colleagues even though there are 10 amendments from that colleague. I just want to make sure that there again, there's a chance to discuss these in multiple committee meetings and that would have been the time to do it if not right after a committee meeting to start putting amendments together and having them out. but I understand the passion here and the desire to do it. There again, we've got six colleagues. It puts us in a pretty bad situation with this many. Thank you.

Thank you. We're going to go to Councilmember Ayala.

Thank you, Chair. Appreciate it. And thank you, Councilmember Morrell, for mentioning that. I also want to thank Councilmember Krueger for taking the time to go through the rationale behind each of the amendments. We received pages of explanations behind this. And I also want to remind ourselves that back when this first got passed in March, so this is Ordinance 2026-505, there were three pages of recitals that came with this. And a lot of what we heard today related in one way, shape or form to some of these recitals. And so I say that because for me, these recitals are the part of the direction that we give our departments to to develop the plans to do the reports to come back and share more things with us so i will be looking for those things not necessarily and i say this with much kindness i'm not trying to micromanage the department but but definitely holding some uh some form of thoroughness behind this and so um i didn't realize that we did have three pages worth of recitals there but it's a nice reminder for us to kind of go back and and really see what brought us to the point that we are in now and um as we hear more and more in the next six months um how we can continue to refine that as needed thank you

Thank you for those comments. We are going to go to Councilmember Denson.

yes thank you chair um i am obviously supportive of this moratorium extension i want to thank the department for all their hard work they have not been sitting around the last six months and they have a strong solid very detailed benchmarked plan moving forward for anyone in the audience that's interested in learning more sometimes it's strange by the time things come to council we don't get into the details That we discuss at the committee level. So if you're really interested in the work plan for this moratorium, and all that the department is doing in regards to outreach, for example, Mr. Patterson talked a lot about that and how they're staging the ordinances that are going to be coming to council so that we don't get 1 huge package at the end. That's going to be difficult to. to to fully think through comprehensively if you're interested in that you can listen to the community development and environment committee from august 31st i believe that was episode 10 9 or 10 and there's a whole powerpoint that that talks about what they've done what the plan is the timeline And I found that very, very helpful and reassuring that we have a plan and we're moving forward. And I think that that is what the public wants to see as well. So I would encourage that. There are within this moratorium, lots of different types of institutions that can fit and that can be regulated and that will be regulated through ultimately the ordinances that we receive from the department to consider. all of these will have pretty significant impact on the community, but the level of impact varies and the community's appetite and interest and belief in the need for the different kinds of institutions varies as well. So I know the department is taking all of that into consideration, especially with all of their community engagement. And we're gonna get all of that information back so that we can make the best decisions for the future of Pierce County, because once these institutions are here, the impact happens and we need to make sure that we've planned for it and that they're in places where we really can provide the level of service that they are going to require. So again, I want to thank the department, thank my colleagues for all of the work. There's a lot more work to come. We are allowing the department time to continue their work, but ultimately it will come back to this council to make

the tough decisions that that will be implemented in the community and i know we all take that responsibility very seriously so i urge support today thank you thank you for the comments we're going to go to councilmember yambe um i appreciate councilmember ayala's thoughts and councilman jensen's i share them all but i want staff to know and i want staff to know that for the first time i've been up here i agree with everything that councilmember morrell said so that's only one time i appreciate it

I think it just happened because this is recorded. So we're going to Councilmember Krueger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I want to express my support that I did get on these amendments. And I can assure you it wasn't my intention to have them all at once like this. Sometimes life gets messy and I do what I can when I can. And I thought it was important that these come forth even though they are at one time. I tried to do as much work ahead of time to save the staff from having to start from scratch on things. And I... Just say this was an anomaly, not the norm. So I've been here six years. This is, what, one time I've had this many, except maybe in the first year when there was a greenhouse gas thing that was brought forth. But I apologize for the lateness of it. It was not my intent, as is with the next amendment coming up. But I am going to have to excuse myself shortly for another meeting. So I appreciate everyone's time. Thank you.

Thank you for the comments. So to make sure that we can have the vote. Well, council member Cooper is still here on this 1. I do want to extend my gratitude to the staff for getting this together. The clerk staff that managed all the different various amendments to make sure that we had them both in writing and copies and they were in the packet and. And all the running around that made it possible and truly, truly do appreciate that. So I am going to. Ask the clerk to call the roll on the approval of Proposal O2026-556 as amended. Council Member Krueger?

She passes.

I'll pass for the moment. Council Member Ayala? Aye. Council Member Yambe? Aye. Council Member Denson? Aye. Council Member Morrell? Aye. Council Member Herrera?

Aye. All right.

Council Member Krueger? Aye. Council Member Hitchen?

Aye. You have seven ayes and zero nays. With seven ayes and zero nays, the motion is adopted. We have been at this for two hours, so I'm going to suggest that we take a five-minute recess so that people can have a human moment. So we are going to be back at 5.05. We are in recess. Okay, we're gonna go ahead and get started, so if you wanna. Good evening. We are back. The time is 506 and we were going in reverse order of our ordinances. So we're at ordinance 02026-552. Potentially, there's been a proposal to continue this to the next week's meeting, which is September 15th. This isn't a formal motion. I'm just asking if anyone... has questions, it sounds like maybe somebody has a motion. So Council Member Morrell.

Thank you, Madam Chair. At this time, I'd like to make a motion that we continue resolution or ordinance 02026-552 to the September 15th meeting, council meeting.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded that we continue proposal. Oh, 2026, 552 to the September 15th, 2026 meeting. I'm going to pause and I have 2 questions. So just verifying with I know we have 1 member of the staff who's been managing this. We have staff that can support this happening next week. Just want to check with staff. I'm getting head nods. They're not verbalizing it, but for the record, for those of you that are listening and can't see their heads going up and down. And then the second question is just, this one is not time sensitive as far as any other policy work that we're doing. There's no clock, there's no anything, so it's fine. Okay. Any further discussion or would you like to speak to your motion?

I wouldn't mind extending it to 2027. I won't do that. No, I think there again, one of my colleagues has multiple amendments on this, and I think our time would be better spent continuing this to another meeting where some of these things can be addressed.

Thank you. Okay. I will also add that that colleague... Is not here, so would not be here to move her amendments. Um, in addition, the staff from the executive's office that was supporting this work is in the same exact meeting that council member is in. Therefore, we don't have the executive side and we don't have the person who's proposing amendments. So it seems silly to take this up though. I do appreciate. that's kind of troubleshooting and thinking about how we could do this if it was time sensitive, but I'm not hearing any objections. So I will just formally ask all those in favor of continuing proposal O2026552 to the September 15th council meeting say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries, thank you. So now we are back to item number one, again, because we were in the reverse order here. And Council Member Morrell, are you willing to move proposal O2026-534S? Yes, yep.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move for approval ordinance number 2026-534S,

It's been moved and seconded. Will the clerk please read it into the record?

Proposal number O2026-534S, an ordinance of the Pierce County Council amending chapter 9.57 of the Pierce County Code, endangerment with a controlled substance regarding applicability and penalty for violations and requesting the prosecuting attorney's office report on case statistics.

Thank you. And we are going to have Miss Kelly brief us online. So we changed the order and she has little people that are just starting school, so she will be talking to us from online. Miss Kelly, you ready to brief us?

We can perfect. Okay, so as Ms. Call indicated, the proposal in front of you today seeks to make some changes to Chapter 957 of the Pierce County Code, endangerment with a controlled substance. The proposal makes changes to the code that was established in 2024, including technical updates to define practitioner and reorganizes that subsection, the definition subsection for clarity and creates an affirmative defense clause. Additionally, the proposed ordinance establishes a mandatory sanction of 90 days confinement with the option for alternatives to confinement as agreed to by the parties upon a person's first conviction of Chapter 9.57 and a period of 180 days confinement for a second or any subsequent convictions of the violation. The subsequent sanctions are also eligible for alternatives to confinement as agreed to by the parties. This legislation does not impact the seriousness of the charge. The charge itself is still a gross misdemeanor as it was established in 2024. Additionally, the proposal creates an annual reporting requirement from the prosecuting attorney's office, which would include details and outcomes of cases filed, cases with this charge filed. And it reiterates the legislative priority for the council for this to be amended at the state level. This legislation has been shared with the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney's Office and Sheriff's Offices. Both are supportive of the proposed changes. I don't believe we have representation any longer on the call. The legislation has also been forwarded to the Pierce County District Court and the exec's office, including Department of Assigned Counsel and the Public Defender Conflict Office. In regard to the timeline for this case, it was originally, or this proposal was originally introduced in June, heard in Public Safety June 22nd, was at final consideration for August 4th. It went back to Public Safety for further discussion August 24th, and then, of course, before you today for final action. There is no there is no expected fiscal impact or this proposal and a community impact note is included and in the packet available for any questions.

Thank you, Miss Kelly. I'm going to pause and see if there are any questions on this particular proposal. not seeing any and councilman recruiter i believe that you are online we continued uh the other item to next week's meeting so you'll be able to present your amendments then so if you can hear us i saw an amy pop up in the So I'm not seeing any questions. So I'm going to go ahead and open this up for public comment. There are no members of the public in chambers. So Mr. Dominique, I know you're doing multiple things at once, but if you're willing to do open up public comment for 02026-534S.

For any member of the public who would like to provide comment on this proposal, please press the raise hand icon and zoom or star 9 on your telephone keypad. And we have 2 hands at this time. Madam chair. I'll call them off as I see them on my screen. 1st, hand we have is Terry heard. Please state your name for the record and you have 3 minutes.

Chairman. I'm looking at this, is this another, and I don't mean to be humorous at this at all, is this another layer of somebody did a no-no and we're going to slap them with a whole bunch of these different violations of different things? I'm very confused when I look at it because what are you trying to achieve with this? Thank you.

Thank you for the comments.

All right, next we have Angelyn. Please state your name for the record. You have three minutes.

Good afternoon, council members. Good afternoon. I have a question as to... the endangerment with the controlled substance. So there is... I have double sound, I think.

So you sound okay for us. If you want to just keep talking, we're hearing you clearly. Okay, okay.

So... there is danger to control substances as there is the risk of you know the opioid crisis that we've been going through for years so there's a risk of addiction that is higher than normal especially when it comes to those who have repeat violations and possibly a first violation however There is a question of the mix of the controlled substance. There's so many different concoctions that have been made over the years, including those that are favored by human traffickers. And they can also inhibit so many different factors, including our senses. and besides balance and anything else that we would have to do throughout the day. So for the human being. The question when it comes to these cases is what is or how are they gathering the evidence to determine the endangerment of the controlled substance besides the symptoms? That it causes for humans, and then also, of course. What it can do as a cause and effect for our surroundings. I hope that that gets included into the supported documents for the next meeting. To consider for the amendments.

Okay, sounds good.

Thank you for your comments. If you want to mute your mic, that'd be great. Um, we had 2 sets of questions miss. Kelly, are you able to kind of add a little context around this? I know we've, we've heard this now 3 times. So that may be part of why it's. Oh, I'm going to close the public hearing because there are no other hands raised. Thank you very much. Hand signals. I love it. Um, so at this time, I'm asking this Kelly to maybe provide a little more clarity for Mr heard and. Oh, crap. And it's back. Okay, so I'm going to check with staff. Ms. Kelly, can you still hear us? Or Council Member Herrera, can you still hear us? Okay, we just vanished, so just checking. Okay, so we are still, just in case something is up, on Ordinance 2026-534S, I'd ask Ms. Kelly to potentially answer with a little bit of clarity some of the questions that we heard during the public hearing. There she is. And you're muted, Miss Kelly. There you are. Okay. My apologies.

I lost you all there for a moment. I was not you. That was us. We lost you. Okay. Thank you. So, if I may, if I may chair and just go back and give a little bit further additional background on this ordinance. So, in 2024, Pierce County code established chapter 9.57, which was an endangerment with a controlled substance and that. That code established that a person is guilty of the crime of engagement with a controlled substance if the person knowingly or recklessly permits a child or dependent person to ingest, inhale, absorb, or have contact with a controlled substance other than cannabis. And the penalty for that as a gross misdemeanor would be up to 364 days in jail and up to a maximum fine of $5,000. And at that time, the prosecuting attorney's office was encouraged to and this was also established in code that the prosecuting attorney's office was encouraged to refer those cases for assessment treatment and other services, including referrals to alternative resolution courts. So what this proposal seeks to do is make a few changes to that code, again, creating some technical clarity, adding a definition, but really the larger piece of it is adding a mandatory minimum sanction for convictions of this case or for convictions of this charge. It has no impact on the prosecuting attorney's office and defense counsel coming to some sort of a diversionary agreement prior to conviction. It doesn't impact the any sort of a the prosecution. make regular processing for a case that if the case was eligible for drug court due to felony charges or eligible for a misdemeanor and alternative resolution court, those options are still available. And in fact, it's already memorialized in code that the prosecuting attorney's office is encouraged to look at those alternative resolutions as options. So, um, So in regard to this proposal itself, truly the changes being made are for the mandatory sanction upon conviction and the graduated sanction for subsequent convictions and then technical changes for readability and clarity and the establishment of the affirmative defense. The other piece in just going through history again, once this was established, code was established in june of 2024 since that time there have been four cases charged in uh district court and in those cases uh all all all of those cases it has been a child that has um been as opposed to the dependent adult it has been the child that has been the um I say alleged because not all of those cases have reached conclusion. The alleged victim on that case and the evidence used in those cases is that the children themselves have tested positive through urinalysis screening for a controlled substance, fentanyl, essentially, in these cases.

Thank you, Miss Kelly. I appreciate the context to kind of catch us up and and help the public follow along. Because again, we've, we've had this in committee and then to council and then back to committee. We just lost zoom again on my screen. Is it just because I have unstable energy? Okay. Good try. I'm getting messages that I have unstable internet because we're not hardwired in here. So I don't know if your system is hardwired. I will assume it is. Ah, technology. Okay, so to my colleagues, are there any questions or comments before we ask the clerk to call the roll? Council Member Herrera, thank you.

I just want to thank staff for putting this together. I know just like the chair just mentioned that this has been seen twice in the public safety committee with a lot of questions. This is a bold move. I mean, we're talking mandatory minimums. for offenses and that is pretty rare. But here we're taking a kind of a stance of holding offenders accountable while prioritizing the safety of children with this ordinance. And then at the same time recognizing that the importance of compassion to support those who are struggling with addiction by promoting access to deferred courts, drug treatment, and all this before conviction. But to do that, we have to have a little bit of teeth. You know, when it comes to a misdemeanor, yes, you can be convicted up to 364 days in jail, but many times it's only a couple of days. And some people will just say, hey, I'll just do three days in jail instead of go to treatment. We are doing this because we want to see people heal. We want them to seek treatment. Just five days ago, I think here in Pierce County, a Bonnie Lake man was just convicted of killing his own son by leaving his fentanyl around and the baby ingested it and died. The judge, I'll just summarize this. And during sentencing, the judge mentioned this, that many who are addicted don't seek help until they hit rock bottom. And the judge went on to say that he thought that at some point, the father of this child, after 15 years of addiction, that he would probably, he would have thought that he would have recognized that he had a problem and seeked help. But he didn't. And his kid is dead and there's nothing we can do about it. This ordinance is helping before we get to that situation by having mandatory minimums. It kind of put some teeth behind it where they should where we want them to seek help by getting treatment, get past this addiction and join families back together. I'll say this, in this ordinance, mandatory sentencing here is not about punishment. It's about choosing help over harm. And I appreciate all the work on this. This is very important work. And I hope everybody will say yes on this. And thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Any other comments? So I just want to thank my colleagues for the learning, Ms. Kelly for supporting us as we work through this with the amendments that have been passed and the changes, especially the data reporting, really asking that we dig deep into who is impacted by this and is this actually solving what we think it's going to solve? I think are really important questions. The war on drugs did not work. It did not solve the things that it was proposed to do and locking people up for the rest of their lives. I know that's not what this does, but that's literally what the war on drugs did is was literally saying that you're doing drugs, we catch you doing drugs, you're going to jail for the rest of your life. In some cases, again, that's not what this is doing, but that was the kind of thinking. It was, oh, you make a mistake or you're intentionally just making some really poor choices. your consequence is destroying the rest of your life and no opportunity to make changes. The reason this is consequential and important is because it is allowing, in the legislation, it is demanding that we put helping people make better choices, providing opportunities for care and providing those teeth so that that level of work that it takes to manage a substance use disorder, especially when you get to the point where you can't care for your children. When you get to your point where you can't care for your children, you need help. And that is what this is going to allow us to do. It'll put a few teeth behind it to ask, and we will collect data on who is impacted because if there are racial disparities, if we have certain segments of population that are being more impacted, then we need to go back and look at this legislation. And if we don't collect that data and we don't require it, It's something that can go missed. So thank you vice chair Herrera for your work on this and for allowing us to really have this, this deeper time to dialogue around these changes, not seeing any. other hands raised um councilmember krueger we think you are online so we're going to do the roll call but if you can't unmute and nothing comes out we will we will just consider it a pass because we do see you but i want you to be safe so at this time and ask the clerk to call the role on the adoption of o2026-534s councilmember morrell hi councilmember herrera all right

Council Member Kruver. Kruver says aye. Council Member Ayala. Aye. Council Member Yambe.

Aye.

Council Member Denson. Aye. Council Member Hitchen.

Aye. You have seven ayes, zero nays. With seven ayes and zero nays, the motion is adopted. Thank you all. We now, so again, for those not playing along with this, we did a lot of things out of order. So we aren't at the beginning of our agenda. We are now at community forum. Community forum is the opportunity for members of the public to address the council on any topic that is of significance to or affecting Pierce County that was not up for final action this afternoon. There is a three minute limit. And again, we cannot allow testimony on anything related to ballot issues. measures or initiatives or candidates um and you can state your name if you'd like it on the record there are no members of the public in chambers so we will go to zoom mr dominique

For any member of the public who would like to participate in public or in community form this evening, please press the raise hand icon and zoom or star 9 on your telephone keypad and we have 2 hands at this time. Madam chair. I'll call them off as I see them on my screen. 1st is Terry heard please state your name for the record and you have 3 minutes.

Okay. Thank you for the explanations that have come along after the public testimony. It really helps to understand the amount of difficulty that you people are putting together for the various laws that are required due to the lack of self-discipline that both society and individual people have. yes i'm one of those people that considers myself an immigrant many times removed from various other parts of the country so i appreciate it madam chairman you're talking on that subject to address that most of us in this country are immigrants the failing comes about of our society not be able to handle the proper procedures in a timely fashion uh i hate to say it but i compare ice with the gestapo on the nazis in germany when a law was passed on a particular people that they all of a sudden became subject to less than proper treatment and mr herrera i very much appreciated your explanation of your bill and i really like your calm water picture of Mount Rainier. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next, we have Angeline Esguardo. Please state your name for the record, and you have three minutes.

Good evening, council members. My name is Angeline Esguardo. I'm from Pierce County District Number 2. Uh, my comments on both proclamations are presented today. False can be unexpected and accidental without any warning before it occurs. They are more common inside of the senior centers versus at home with family members. However, not everyone has been able to access the education for themselves or a loved one. So practice the methods of prevention for false prevention awareness day. There are also the people who end up having the issues of falling down due to other reasons, such as temporary paralysis and other leg health problems that adults can experience even though the risk can be considered low. It's something still to consider. I would request more resourceful literature for adults in the Pierce County Falls Coalition to have preventative methods introduced as well. It would be much appreciated. On a side note, as what was mentioned in the proclamation of the YMCA, I happen to have attended the one in Puyallup, Washington for about five years or so. I worked for a short duration of time where I encountered a range of suspicious and violating experiences aside from the cheerful dance, aerobic and other exercise classes. It was mentioned in my website article on androidwriting.wixsite.com slash website titled My Horrible Work Experience at Melcorum YMCA. It was horrible as there was much sexual harassment, racism, sexism, and more that was targeting me as most of the employee staff at the time was white American, as I am Puerto Rican. All of upper management was just racial makeup as well. It was challenging to report on the inside to help correct the issues. Their upstairs storage area accumulating stolen belongings from the community was used for secretive and suspicious activities, mostly during off hours, along with their television screens featuring dark web content. There was evidence of many children having experienced sexual violence as well, with their physical symptoms visible for all to see. And unfortunately, a personal witnessing to an inappropriate activity happening inside of 1 of the manager's offices during operating hours, proving to be the serving environment to be in. That place still needs to be monitored carefully for a long period of time on their health and safety procedures along with checking for sexual products and pornographic content digitally and within their password restricted. Wifi that has a virtual system used exclusively for other activities. As for the welcoming week proclamation, the celebration of being protected as a citizen, pronounced in writing, is relieving and hopefully handy in times of being racially profiled from year on out, as it is a common practice that needs to be kept in check with those who wear uniforms such as law enforcement. It is a pleasant surprise to see that there's an extension of protection be given to those who have crossed the border to our side as well, as there are so many extremely violent situations that can affect an immigrant individual's or family's lives that can be complicated to account for within our laws currently. There's so much chaos in the world that we have a great priority to counter that being established of safety first. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments. no more hands this time i'm sure no other hands raised i'm going to close community forum and bring it back before the council is there any other business and i'll remind council member herrera might have a reminder and i know that council member denson probably has a reminder and council member also told me they had a reminder so i will start in chambers council member herrera so you have time to prep uh council member denson

Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to let everyone know that it is the official 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline Day today. I know we here talk a lot about 988, and I know we're all working hard to make sure our communities know that they can call or text 988, either with suicide concerns or mental health concerns. Anytime you just need to talk to someone, professionals, 24-7. And this does happen to be an example of one of the giveaways that

that people at the suicide prevention summit will be receiving thanks to 988 they're huge supporters and good partners so thank you chair thank you and council member ayala thank you chair appreciate it um i wanted to share um the federal budget bill hb1 made some changes and so we have the first wave of those changes impacting our community with october 1st um being one wave of changes that are being implemented. January 1st is the next wave. And so there are efforts to help the public know if you are registered or have Apple Health to please make sure that your information is up to date. Communication on your very unique status will be officially mailed, texted to you, depending on your settings, but it is crucial that your information is up to date, because otherwise it falls on deaf ears. And then there is, if you want to know what is happening in the next couple months, looking... Excuse me. Looking up the, and I just blanked on this, your Apple Healthcare website. But just knowing October 1st is the first wave and January 1st is the second wave. There will be a third wave. I don't know that I have those dates yet.

thank you for the update vice chair Herrera for i assume a reminder about what's happening tomorrow yes thank you chair uh tomorrow uh we are be we'll be having a district two in district uh meeting at fika that is at 3303 8th avenue southeast in Puyallup Washington We're going to be highlighting some of Puyallup's great social enterprises step by step. We'll be presenting what they do and the executive director from St. Francis House will also be highlighting some of the great things that they do. We're also going to be doing a proclamation highlighting September 2026 as Suicide Prevention Month. So we're going to have a lot of folks there who that's going to be near and dear to their heart and people from organizations to accept that proclamation. We're also going to have the Rogers ROTC program. The junior ROTC is going to bring in the colors, so we'll have youth there. And I'm looking forward to seeing all you there. So, thank you.

Thank you. And thank you for picking a date that we are not competing with the PLL. Sorry, the Washington State Fair. Don't want to get in trouble.

You can say it.

So looking forward to the meeting and the learning together and the agenda you've put together. I will also add just a gentle reminder that tomorrow we have a committee of the whole. The topic really is about how we've been investing our behavioral health and therapeutic tax dollars kind of. programmatically so looking both internal and external as we have some potential decisions to make as a council on that particular funding stream for Pierce County that are very consequential so knowing what we're talking about is important and that is at 9 30 a.m in these very chambers not seeing any other hands up seeing no other business before us we are adjourned thank you everybody