City Council - Regular Meeting

especially if a key opportunity arises or support swells for a certain initiative. Since we were talking about 50 years, 50 years ago would be 1976. Some of us might think 50 years ago is like 1950, but it's not, so just a quick note. Okay, urban design. Let's talk about vibrancy and improvements. Goal UD1, unchanged, but we have some proposed new policies, create an attractive and culturally vibrant pedestrian and bicycle-friendly environment throughout the city. The summary of the proposed policies is shown here. It's about walkability, it's about redevelopment, sustainable development, a lot of the ideas that we talk about. The bottom one I will call out in response to the question that just came in, we want to protect important views, enhance access to natural features, support public art museums, interpretive centers, and gathering spaces. So once again, when you're looking through there, UD or urban design policy 1D, 1E, and 1G, those are all proposed new policies, again, to level up and kind of boost our opportunities and direction that we want to do. I think protecting important views is a good call out, too. You know, that was something that we noted that, oh, that should be popped in here, so. And then moving on to the same theme urban design looking at commercial area revitalization The city wants to move forward and continue to revitalize those commercial areas Such as areas in the CBD the uptown and the island view corridors Proposed policies are shown on this slide Basically, this is about Making a welcoming experience and looking at all those different elements that make a place have a particular sense of identity and fostering that along the way. Now looking to natural features. Development should be done through appropriate design and should protect those natural features. We want to think about our rivers, our shorelines, our ridgelines, what steep slopes, and then those different archaeological and historic resources. A lot of times that's actually the view of the river or the view of the mountain. Those are resources. So some proposed policies here. Development should be planned and designed to account for the topography and landscape While minimizing the environmental impacts. It's actually pretty high bar. So that's a that's a lofty policy Next hillside development should as much as practical blend in with the natural shape and texture of the land And lighting comes up here as well lighting should be designed to promote public safety But also promote those dark sky principles, so we don't want to be illuminating the night sky when we don't need to be. There's safety, security, but then it stops somewhere. We want to beautify our public spaces. So the goal here is to promote community beautification by enhancing public spaces and thoroughfares, encouraging private property beautification, and again, the light pollution comes in. We want to regulate light pollution because that also provides a beautiful environment. The items are summarized here. I would want to note that proposed policy 4D is an addition to encourage public community-oriented design. And 4E is a proposed addition, again, linking in more closely to those dark sky principles. So it relates in a couple of different realms there. And this brings me to my final slide. And so let's talk about further discussion, what you might like about what you just saw, what you think is missing. And keep in mind that you'll get another look at this once we have it packaged together with the land use element itself.

Mr. Chair, I was going to ask Nicole a question about, so you call out light pollution, but you don't say anything about noise pollution. I'm curious why noise pollution isn't mentioned.

That's a good question. Yeah, we can look at that too.

Should noise pollution be mentioned?

Yeah, we can look in to see where a good fit for that would be. We think about noise impacts quite a bit with industrial development as well as vibrations, which I underappreciated until I was working in a building that was right next to a rail line.

What a nice video celebrating Richland. So welcome everyone to the City Council regular meeting Tuesday, August 18th, 2026. Appreciate y'all being here on this wonderful summer evening. I've asked Clerk Rogers to take a roll call.

Okay, we'll begin with Mayor Richardson. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke.

Present.

Councilmember Holton. Present. Councilmember Jones. Here. Councilmember Meyer.

Present.

Councilmember Samuel.

Here.

And Councilmember Whitten.

Here.

Thank you. Thank you, everyone. So, Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke, will you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

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.

Thank you. May I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda?

So moved. Second.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion passes. First item on the agenda is a presentation for Parks and Rec Commission with Maria Gutierrez, a longtime chair. So thank you for being here, especially serving after all these years.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. It sounds like you already know Chair Gutierrez, so I won't do a long introduction, but we're excited to have her here this evening. And this is our annual presentation for the Parks and Recreation Commission. And with that, I'll hand over the mic.

OK, thank you. Good evening, council members. As was said, yes, I'm a longtime member. And with that, I hope to just give a little bit of context of the Parks Commission over the past several years. We used to do council presentations regularly. It was supposed to be a once a year thing. But I think since COVID, we've got a little bit off track, so we're not as consistent. But we're hoping now to kind of reestablish that norm. We're hoping to do it early in the year as well, because we're discussing or presenting our goals for the year. So that should happen probably before August to council. So our hope is next year we'll start this in March, and you'll see us then. So I do want to do a quick review of what we do. Sorry. Got it. But before then. Sorry. First of all, my voice, it doesn't hurt me, guys. This is just how I talk, so I'm sorry. It's a little funky. So these are our commissioners. We have nine commissioners. I'd like to point out the two at the bottom are our youth members. value their input. They help us quite a bit. Our youth members have equal voting power, equal placement on the dais. They participate, and we welcome their input. So they're wonderful contributors. So that's our commission. Oops. So overall, for the public as well, we would like to let you know the Parks and Recreation Commission, we serve as an advisory body to city council and staff. So we focus on topics that come up before the city related to recreation. environmental and cultural preservation, and education, and civic beautification. And all of this is very rooted in quality of life, which comes up a lot for our community members. They care quite a bit about the quality of life in Richland. So we're always looking through that filter as we develop goals, as we make recommendations. Those are things that guide our work. So this is where I'm going to add a little history. To be specific, I've been on the commission since, well, we won't say since. We'll just say like 18 years, so a long time. But in that time, I've learned quite a bit. And what really helped was at one point, I'm going to guess maybe it was like 15 years ago or more, the city was really looking at alignment across the boards and commissions. And when that happened, they came and gave us, the Parks Commission, some training to understand what our purpose was. Now, maybe it should have been obvious. But for me, that's when things really came into focus of, oh, these are the things that we're going to focus on. And this will help us make decisions. So at that point, we learned about the city's strategic plan and how to set up our goals to align with the city's. So from that work over the years, each year, we do develop new goals that help us stay on track. So year to year, our goals do not change a whole lot. In fact, our first three goals, I'm not sure. I believe, council, you should have a copy. But our first three goals really don't have a lot of variation year to year because they're rooted in our purpose. So when we support and promote recreation, that's a part of our purpose. If we're focusing on preservation, that's a part of our purpose. But we do tend to sometimes add goals beyond three. And within that work, we also add objectives that are meant to be specific for that calendar year. So our goal number one for this year, engage with the community to support and promote recreation in Richland. And we want to focus on engaging youth. This has been an objective year to year. We keep wanting to hear from our youth in the community. Yes, we have youth members, but they are not representative of all youth. So this year, we're hoping to invite some youth members to come to some workshops, hopefully, and we can get some feedback of how they perceive recreation in Richland or what they're interested in. Some of that might be through clubs, school organizations, and things like that. Our second objective is for commissioners to attend events. This allows us to engage with the community. But I think more than anything, this helps us gain perspective. If we're making recommendations related to parks and recreation and we're not out in the community experiencing it, It's kind of a silly notion to say we have insight. So we challenged ourselves this year. I think we said that each commissioner would attend at least four events, so perhaps quarterly. This Thursday is National Night Out. I plan to be there. So there's an example. The third objective under that goal is to collaborate with other commissions. I think some of this is coming from an idea that we do want to be well-informed. And sometimes we cross over. Sometimes we have overlap with Arts Commission or the library or planning Commission so we're hoping to reach out and kind of get to know each other better similar to this that we could engage and put a face to the name and say what should we be looking at together or be aware of so collaborating with other commissions Our second goal relates more to natural habitats, ecologically sensitive areas, et cetera. This first objective has been pretty easy to check off this year because we had the development of the new PROS plan, which is the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space plan. That's a long-term strategic plan. And so we've worked closely with Chris and staff on looking at future concepts. What does the city want? There's been surveys. There's been quite a bit of work done related to this objective. But we're also just ongoing discussing park facilities and the future of our parks. This is master planning and so on. So there's a lot I could say for this objective. The second one relates to signage and park rule changes. We try to be mindful of what's happening. What came to mind earlier, I was thinking, last year we had some issues in Y Park, some vandalism, natural areas that were experiencing some of this. There were sensitive areas being affected. So that led to some temporary park rule changes. And as needed, we make those types of recommendations. For goal three, this is focused on user friendliness and safety. We get really good input from our community, where the city, I think, does a very good job of sending out surveys, of trying to get feedback. Social media people leave comments, of course. And we're always inviting people to come to our meetings, let us know how things are. And I know Chris fields a lot of public interest as well. So with that we learn about different safety concerns and we try to make decisions that would benefit the community and improve safety or user friendliness. So that ties in well with the second objective, which is making recommendations that discourage unsafe activities and responsible park use. And I really like this term here in objective two about support community-friendly stewardship. As we're moving forward, as we discuss things that affect our parks, maybe it's restrooms, right? Sometimes we hear restrooms are closed. We started talking about how can we perhaps engage with the community and start with education at a young age. Maybe we should be speaking with the schools more and promoting a pride in our community that our young people would grow up with a thought that we love our parks and we want to take care of our resources. And that's going to create a safe and user-friendly experience for everyone. So when we talk about community-friendly stewardship, That's kind of the lens that we're looking at is how can we build this up from a young age that people who have fond memories of living in Richland, they're going to have that mindset of we want to take care of our community. Oops. Did I get lost? No, here we go. OK. Along those lines, goal four addresses fiscal responsibility. And this was actually new this year. This is a new goal for us. But as we discuss budgets, as we discuss, People want to maintain quality. We want good facilities. We want to offer good amenities or even better than good. So if we're going to do that, how can we support the management of the parks in a fiscally responsible way? So some of that we're focusing on. You know, maybe not every park needs tons of green space. And what often comes up is Leslie Groves. There are sections and patches where you're like, oh, that would look so nice if it was just all green, golf course green. But maybe that's not a good use of resources. And so instead, maybe we can look at some more natural options that are going to be sustainable. But aside from that, we also discuss What do people want? We have to balance this with things like, well, we need shade structures, or we've heard a lot about bicycle skills courses. So really, our lens here is, how can we support that resource management and create sustainability? Now, the only concern with this objective is it's maybe not fully specific, but we wanted to call it out because that just gives us the lens that we can be looking for it when we see opportunities. Objective two, promote the development improvement of facilities within the park system. I think that also ties in similarly to the last one. Maintenance of facilities is just an ongoing need. So how can we continue that in our most responsible way? I don't think anything's come before you that we're like, we need mansions in the park or some crazy thing. So we're trying to be responsible. And our fifth goal, final goal, is Being, this ties back to something I said earlier, but the Parks and Recreation being, the commission being knowledgeable through educational opportunities, we wanted to, we've had turnaround on the commission. We have some long-term commissioners, but we also have new ones. And as young people come in, like our youth members year to year, we want to help get them up to speed so that they can participate fully. We want new commissioners not to be shy. in offering input. So our goal was we really need to make sure we understand the inner workings of the city. So this summer, we had a retreat. We spent a whole day. We did the morning was park tours. We went and visited various parks, which is extremely informative. If any of you want to join us sometime, you learn a lot about our system. But also, once that was finished, we came back to the community center. We started learning from staff about, oh, what are our lease agreements that the city has with different organizations? How is land managed? How is land identified? What does it mean when something's open space or something's developed? So I think it was a very successful retreat for our commissioners, and we were able to increase their knowledge and hopefully have a better understanding of the workings of the city. So those are our goals. But this kind of, I hope, demonstrates our overall purpose and how we're accomplishing that. We want to continue to strengthen community engagement. We have the filter of protecting our natural resources. Safety comes up often. I forgot to mention. really on our radar right now is micro-mobility, which is electric scooters, electric bikes, et cetera, et cetera. Because our trails are used, and there's multiple types of vehicles on those trails, and so We want to continue to promote safety. Walkability is important. Mobility is important. So let's continue to promote that safely. And lastly, expanding commission knowledge and understanding through education. So we do ensure, we try to ensure that we're aligning with the city's strategic plan, hopefully for that long-term sustainability. Thank you for having me this evening. I'm glad we're back in front of you. And are there any questions?

Thank you for being here. And did I pick up in your presentation, it's been 18 years you've been a part of this? Yes. Thank you for your leadership. The parks are well loved in Richland. So it's people like you that have committed your time and energy, and it's appreciated. So council, I see Councilmember Myers' light.

Thank you for the presentation. I've been on that side of the dais as a board and commission member reporting to council. So I know a lot of work goes into these and I appreciate it. Thank you. My question is earlier on in your presentation, you talked about looking to engage more with student and youth groups. And I was wondering if you happen to have any examples in mind of what sorts of groups you might be looking for.

We've talked with our youth commissioners, and so they've brought up Key Club, Honor Society, because they're familiar with those groups. I work in public schools, so I would also would like to hopefully contact the schools themselves and say, would you provide information to students that we would welcome their input? Surveys are a little harder to distribute as a commission, so I'm not sure about that. But those are just some examples.

Great. Thank you.

Yeah.

It looked like you had a full slate of commissioners. Are there any openings at this time? I believe we're full now. Full right now? Yeah.

Yeah.

We just filled a spot.

OK. Yeah. Council Member Jones. Yeah, thank you very much for the presentation. I really appreciate you being here and for your long time service. I have a few questions for you, and you may not be able to answer some of these questions, and that's okay. Maybe Chris can actually help us out, maybe even Joe. Okay. So we have a few people in the last maybe few months that have been coming forward and saying, hey, we have a park, but it's not being maintained. And I understand we have a huge number of parks that we have to maintain, which means some of those may not be on a radar. So my question to you guys will be, It sounds to me like we are doing a private public community partnership, which I think it does about $40,000 a year in grants, which is great. It helps us bring in community members to actually help us maintain the parks, which is great. But every new facility that we add to the city, It deludes the amount of money that we do have available to maintain the existing facilities, which we do not have that much money to really maintain every single one of those parks. And you brought up the fact that the importance of having a level of service at each one of these parks, landscaping, water, and everything else that goes along. And you did mention, why not do native landscaping to help us reduce the cost. And so my question to you is, what's our total annual consumption of water, right? Because we're in the desert. If you go to Arizona, you'll find that most people don't have grass. They actually just embrace their natural habitat, which is rocks, tumbleweeds, and whatever else. So they create a landscape around that. So why can we not do that in here? And you mentioned that, right? Why can we not encourage more native landscape instead of keep pumping more water into the ground? And then farmers don't have water to grow their crops. about several of them have to close this year because they didn't have any water. Yet we are just dumping water into our parks to maintain them and keep them green in an area where it's really very much a desert. So that's my first question to you is what's the use of water? Obviously, landscape, when you have a green grass, now you have landscape. You have to have all these other costs. just to maintain that ground. And so what are we doing to reduce that? Because we cannot continue on this trend as we see the water is scarce. And so we need to really start thinking, how do we manage the parks in a way that makes sense And that reduces the cost to the taxpayer, but also provides a good quality park that maybe is a native landscape and not green landscape like you mentioned. So have you guys looked into that? And what can you tell me about that?

Sure. So I think a lot of it is balance. We've, as a commission, right, we hear input from the community. So there's a balance between Yes, we could conserve lots of water if that were a directive from the city or if the community was just outraged. But there's the contrast of fields. Young people would like to play sports. Parents want to have their kids in sports, which requires green space. So I think there is a lot of balancing. I don't have the in-depth knowledge of, amounts of staff would know at that level of how much specifically. I have heard it takes quite a bit, yes, for some of our green spaces. But I guess I would agree that that's the lens that we do look at with each project and over time. Is this sustainable? Staff reports to us. They let us know this is how we're maintaining here. This is how we're doing this here. So for me, in my mind, my limited understanding is a lot of it is balance. And a lot of it is based in community desire. What is the community asking for?

Now, do we have, currently, do we have a rating system for, you know, have we audited all of our parks, and do we have a rating system so do we know the condition that they're in at this point in time?

Yes, because of our PROS plan. Would you like to speak to that? We just had our big... real reassessment of our park conditions.

And do we have a scorecard as well that people can access and see, okay, so I know I'm going to bring the Munoz who were here maybe a couple of meetings ago and mentioned one park, right? And do we have the ability for them to see, okay, this park may be not, you know, at the top of our list. Do we have a scorecard as well to go with that?

I think that's a really excellent question. So what we just completed was our parks, recreation, and open space plan. And that really identified high-level priorities for the city. So there's a little bit of legwork that staff will be doing over the next year. To answer your question, yes, we did a really preliminary condition assessment of all of the parks. For us, the follow-up activity for that tying our maintenance standards to what we heard from the community. Because like you mentioned, there's a finite amount of resources we have available to us. So we're really looking at those inputs that we received from the last year of surveys and focus groups. And we got a really good sense of what the community wants. There's a balance between that natural open space and our developed park space. So for us, we're trying to articulate now our next level of a little bit more detailed maintenance standards that identify you know, if it's a sports facility that has this type of use, it should receive this level of maintenance versus a neighborhood park that's still really valuable in the system but doesn't have the same type of use. And so that's what we're working on over the next year is to really tighten up those maintenance standards and connect them with what we heard from the community's desire over the last year.

Yeah, and it would be nice to have actual costs for each one. You know, that scorecard should have actually the cost of maintaining that park as well so the community can actually see the impact to our budget as well. Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

And just to clarify, Badger Mountain South's park system out there is going to be all open space, isn't it? Landscaping, it's an open space park?

There's fields planned for that area. But there's also the standard play facility and walking path. What all is in the master plan?

So currently there are two identified public parks. One is a community park, which is a larger park. So it's partially developed West Village Community Park. We have about five acres completed. That park eventually will be a larger park. It'll have sports fields, a splash pad, and other amenities that we would expect to serve the entire community. And then there's a secondary parcel there that's a neighborhood park that's closer to seven acres. And that'll be more of a small, just kind of intimate park, more like you would find in your neighborhood that would just be serving the residents in that area. And then there are other private parks as well. So there are HOA parks scattered throughout the development. And then some additional green spaces, connectivity green spaces, like greenways, between some of the parks. So there's quite a bit going on down there.

Yeah, quite a bit. Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke.

Thank you so much for all that you do. We speak with a lot of people and hear how great our parks are. And it's one of the things that defines Richland and how they're maintained. I know that the budgeting process, which I think we're in the process of for next year and getting there is always fun. But I think that all the council would support in making sure that we maintain our parks. And I look forward to that. And then looking forward to any recommendations on that maintenance or any recommendations on zero scaping and what that balance might be. And I appreciate all the input that you get from the community to help this place great. So let us know what we can do to help you, and thank you all for that you do.

OK. Thank you. So seeing no other questions or comments at this time, I want to thank you again for your presentation and work. We appreciate it. Appreciate it. Thank you. Next on the agenda is public hearing. Clerk Rogers, will you please read the script?

The purpose of a public hearing is to give the audience an opportunity to address council members concerning the subject for which the hearing is convened. This process is an official on-the-record communication geared toward giving City Council information and opinions to consider in its decision-making process. While Council welcomes hearing from you, please note that the public hearing process is not designed for interactive dialogue with Council members or for posing questions expecting an immediate response. Many questions require an opportunity for research and deliberation. For this reason, Council will not provide immediate responses to comments, questions, or concerns raised during hearing. To provide an orderly process, audience members who wish to speak should raise your hand and wait to be acknowledged by the Mayor, approach a lectern when invited to do so, Begin by clearly stating your full name and address for the official record. And after speaking, write your name and address on your record sheet. To ensure every participant has an opportunity to be heard, public hearing comments will be limited to three minutes per speaker. The public comment period where the audience is allowed to comment on agenda items or other topics follows the same guidelines with a slight difference that speakers are to announce their full name and the city of residence before speaking. Public comments will also be limited to three minutes per speaker. The time prompter placed on the lectern will alert each speaker with an amber light when 15 seconds remain. To signal the end of a speaker's time to speak, a red light will flash and a buzzer will sound. In the interest of time, Council asks that you do not duplicate comments already made by another speaker. Instead, please confirm your agreement with statements previously made. Council also asks that speakers conduct themselves respectfully so that all participants feel welcome and have an opportunity to be heard. Please avoid interruptions, personal attacks, or disruptive behavior. When appropriate, the Mayor may refer certain topics raised during the public comment period to the Deputy City Manager for additional review and action. Please note that if a speaker intends to provide counsel with any documents as part of a presentation, the documents must be handed directly to the City Clerk for distribution. And the purpose of tonight's first public hearing is to consider extending the six-month moratorium on citing less restrictive alternative facilities serving sexually violent predators. Resolution number 2026-115. Thank you.

Thank you, Clerk Rogers. The open public hearing on resolution 2026-115 begins now at 6.31. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to provide testimony on this item? Please raise your hand. Seeing none, we close this public hearing at 6.31. Next item is proposed 2026-2028 collective bargaining agreement with the Richland Police Professional Staff Supervisor Guild, resolution number 2026-117. We open this hearing at 6.31. Is there anyone that would like to speak to this issue? Seeing none, We close this public hearing at 631. This brings us to public comments. If there's any member that would like to provide public comment, please raise your hand and let me acknowledge you to step up to the lectern. Is there anyone at this time? Yes, in the second row there on the end. Yes, sir.

Yes, hello, my name is Jim Hansen. I live at 2111 Howell.

Could you put the microphone just a little closer? Thank you.

Yes, my name is Jim Hansen. I live at 2111 Howell Avenue in Richland, Washington. And this is about item 14 on the items of business on the agenda. And so I'm just going to go ahead and read the information that I put together. So good evening to everybody. And by the way, thank you very much for the Parks and Rec. You guys have done a great job at Leslie Groves. New rocks for parking and video cameras around and the tennis courts are almost done. Thank you very much. So as a concerned Richland resident, I'm here to, I don't want to say demand, but I guess it's pretty strong, but that this body bring the Atlas Agro, Mark Gray Group, and Hammer area annexation agreements out into the daylight through a standalone public town hall meeting. So that's the main request here, is to bring a town hall meeting so that we understand. We are told that because of the holiday vote in December 2025, our hands are tied and that the moratorium is legally impossible. I don't think that's true. You do not have to sit back and watch Richland residents absorb the 8.5% power hike and breathe toxic diesel emissions during winter inversions while a foreign corporation drains our grid. You have four concrete legal alternatives to protect this city right now. First, stop the unlawful piecemealing of the environmental reviews. You're allowing developers to parse the BPA lines, the data centers, the fertilizer plant, the new 744 acre Hanford annexation into separate tracks. Use your legal authority under SEPA to order a single unified cumulative impact review immediately. If we wait until the final building permits are requested, it'll be too late and the city will face catastrophic financial risk as a result. Second, enforce the independent power directives laid out by President Trump and the EPA. That was during his State of the Nation this year. Force these data centers to be 100% off-grid and self-powered. We live next to the nation's premier nuclear corridor. Demand that they deploy next generation small modular nuclear reactors or localized clean energy, the original purpose for the land. Protect our public grid and our residential rates from industrial demand spikes. Third, protect our water utility rates by updating our sewer codes. Do not let this new Hanford annexation become a loophole for foreign private equity firm to dump raw industrial cooling into our systems. The last one, fourth, vote down and indefinitely table the Hammer area annexation. The city is under no obligation to accept the land, denying it cuts off their backdoor utility pathway and forces them to face independent federal and state scrutiny for their own river discharge permits. So this is my opinion and I'd just like to make sure that you have some of that information so that you can address that as you consider your vote tonight.

Thank you, Mr. Hanson. Also, member of the audience, we want to maintain a level of decorum in here and be fair to everyone presenting. So please, no applause, no comments. Let everyone speak to their issue. Is there anyone who would like to speak next? Mr. Munoz.

Good evening. I'm Ed Munoz. I live in Richland. I got three things I want to mention. The first is I wanted to thank the council for giving us the three minutes now instead of just the two. We appreciate it. I think the community needs that extra minute sometimes. The second thing is I wanted to thank Director Waite for the work he did out at his team did out at Lawless and the park looks great and no sooner did they pick up their equipment the park was in use people were out there playing the course so thank you and um just a kudo for director wade he's just been doing a fantastic job you guys did really good hiring him so thank you the other thing is the uh the house on pullen street or rather the remnants of the house the city shelled out a bunch of our money to get a contractor to clean up the mess and they did but for some reason they left the gutted remains of the house there. I don't know if there's a plan to remove it or if there's some legal problem where this contractor couldn't take it out but it's still sitting there. It's all cleaned up all around it, all the junk is gone but we still got the house sitting there and the first thing I thought of was the house on Simons and Thayer. The one that sat there for years burned out hulk that finally went out I think last year the year before but it was there for a long time and I just don't want this house to be there for years it's not fair to the neighbors there that's bringing their value their property values down it I just don't understand why it wasn't removed you know everything else is gone just what's the remnants of the house is still there so if there's some insight you all can get the communities, because people are wondering. I drove by there about a week ago, and it's like, wow, really? What did we spend all that money on? I know it's a couple hundred grand, and I think there's another hundred grand in the contract value. use that to finish the job, you know? So just a vacant lot would be a lot better than what's there now, especially for the neighbors. That thing stinks. It smells like burnt garbage, really, you know, and it really needs to be cleaned up. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Munoz. Who else would like to address the council? Please raise your hand. Seeing no other people wanting to come in at this time, Clerk Rogers, would you please read the consent calendar?

Oh, OK, in the back row.

I'm with Richland. I live in Richland. I'm here about the data centers. Your presentation was great. A town hall meeting would be really nice. And on the side, I'm really discouraged because I feel like we're being squashed. And we're the ones that are the taxpayers. And I feel like our feelings are being squashed. So you guys can't respond to me. I understand that. But as a citizen, it's really frustrating. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further comment? Seeing none, Clerk Rogers, would you please read the consent calendar?

Items on the consent calendar have been distributed to the City Council in advance for reading and study, are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion of the Council with no discussion. Council members may transfer individual items to items of business for deliberation before voting. Starting with the minutes, we have the approval of the August 5th, 2026 City Council special meeting minutes. There are no ordinances for first reading under the consent calendar. Ordinances for second reading and passage include ordinance number 2026 17 rezoning approximately 10.26 acres identified as a revised parcel 2 of record of survey for boundary line adjustment number 6250 from agricultural and suburban agricultural to retail business ordinance number 2026 18 amending the 2026 budget to provide for additional appropriations and various city funds Under resolutions for adoption, we have resolution number 202697, authorizing amendment number two to contract number 21715, with Common Street Consulting LLC for right-of-way acquisition services. Resolution number 2026-111, setting a meeting to consider the proposed annexation of 28.75 acres known as short plant number 1311 French. Resolution number 2026-112, awarding commercial facade improvement grant funds to Kennewick Investment Group LLC for property located at 1970 Center Parkway. Resolution No. 2026.113 Authorizing a First Amendment to the Purchase and Sale Agreement with Dual Mayock for Property located at 2443 Henderson Loop. Resolution No. 2026.114 Authorizing Change Order No. 5 to the Construction Contract with Prater Electric Inc. for the Thayer Substation Bank One Replacement Project. And lastly, under expenditures for approval, we have the expenditures from July 1st, 2026 to July 31, 2026 for $37,518,938.68. Thank you. Thank you. Council members, are there any items that you would like to pull for further discussion? Seeing none, may I have a motion and a second? So moved. Second.

A roll call vote is needed here.

Mayor Richardson? Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Van Dyke? Aye. Council Member Holton? Aye. Council Member Jones? Yes. Council Member Meyer?

Aye.

Council Member Samuel? Aye. Council Member Witten?

Aye.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. That leads us to items of business resolution number 2026-115, extending the six-month moratorium on citing less restrictive alternative facilities serving sexually violent predators. We have a presentation with deputy city manager, Mr. Shishel.

Thank you, Drew, and thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the council. This is a relatively straightforward item here regarding Resolution 2026.115, and it extends an existing moratorium that we have on the books regarding LRA housing or less restrictive alternatives that serve sexually violent predators. Just a little bit of background on the issue in regards to why we set the moratorium to begin with. In this state, following incarceration, sexually violent predators, as defined by the court system, are allowed to transition into less restrictive alternatives, and that means housing. So we've been calling that LRA. One form of LRA is secure community transition facilities. And those are, sometimes you might have heard of them, they're the single family houses that are either operated under contract or not under contract with the state, housing sometimes several sexually violent predators as tenants. On March 3rd, this council decided that we had to place a moratorium on LRAs. That moratorium prohibited the siting, the filing of applications for licenses, permits, or other approvals for LRAs. This moratorium was initiated because we had determined that the city's existing land use regulations do not adequately define LRA facilities, or they also do not contain sufficiently specific standards addressing several items including compatibility, public safety, security and life safety considerations. A moratorium isn't an opportunity just to block a land use. The state does require that the government takes affirmative steps during a moratorium because a moratorium is not intended to be a permanent prohibition. So during this last six months, staff has been working on this issue. We've continued to evaluate the state law regarding LRA. We have reviewed the city's existing regulations. We have begun drafting potential new regulations. And importantly, we're now beginning in coordination with the cities of Pasco, West Richland, and Kennewick regarding a regional approach on this issue. In addition to that, Representatives Connors and Bernard hosted a panel of subject matter experts from across the state on this issue, where these four cities came together to talk about other cities' experiences with this land use. So if adopted and following passage of this resolution, over the next six months, you know, again, because the city needs to continue working on this issue because it's not intended to be a permanent prohibition, the city would complete our code analysis. We would develop proposed regulations in collaboration with our other city partners and then prepare and present permanent regulations to the Planning Commission and to Council for consideration over this next six months. So in conclusion, passage of this resolution will extend the existing moratorium another six months. The extension is necessary for us to collaborate with our other cities to develop a regional approach and to develop effective permanent draft regulations. And this extension would expire in six months or would expire if the city adopts new development regulations on this issue, whichever comes first.

Thank you for your work on this issue. It's serious and I appreciate the collaboration with the other jurisdictions. Council members, Council Member Meyer.

Yep, thank you. Appreciate the back story. When we first passed this moratorium, I said that I was supporting it because, in my opinion, the state had dropped the ball on collaborating with local communities about where and how they cite these things. I saw in your presentation that there's been some communication around this topic with other agencies. Is there any movement at the state level on this or are we still on our own?

I would say that our current representatives are in the political minority on this issue, if I'm being frank. If there's realistic traction to be had in this next upcoming session or maybe the next two upcoming sessions, In my opinion, it would be around the issue of contracting or not contracting with the state for this housing. And the region seems to be gelling around this notion that in order to be a qualifying LRA, you probably ought to also have a contract with the state so the state can regulate from a contractual viewpoint rather than cities just regulating via land use regulation. So a layered approach of contract management on top of land use regulation would be a more effective sort of mitigator for this use. So we'll be bringing our potential legislative priorities forward, and I'll be surprised if this one's not on the list.

Okay, and you also mentioned some collaboration with our neighboring communities. Is there any kind of solidified effort there? In other words, are our neighbors basically coming up with similar regulations to the ones we're drafting?

We'll see soon, I think so. I think we'll see some gelling around the notion of performance standards and then picking a zone that makes the most sense. Each jurisdiction has a little different technique on how to condition these land uses. Richland happens to be in a very strong position where we have an existing section of code for essential public facilities and an LRA is an essential public facilities and that's sort of a think of is like a supersized conditional use permit so it has really good public notice opportunities a lot of opportunity to get public feedback and then the chance to put really good conditions on projects to protect the public safety. Okay thank you.

Thank you. Seeing no further comment or question from council, may I have a motion and a second to adopt this resolution? So moved.

Second.

Okay. Consent vote is acceptable. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Hearing none, motion passes unanimously. Next item on the agenda is resolution number 2026-116, setting a meeting date to consider the proposed annexation of 744.5 acres owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. Deputy City Manager, Mr. Shishel, presenting.

Thank you again, Madam Mayor. This resolution 2026-116 is, again, an opportunity to consider the Department of Energy's proposed annexation of over 700 acres. So the DOE has provided their notice of intent, which is a requirement in state law to commence annexation proceedings. The area in question is 744 and a half acres, and their proposed annexation is within the city's urban growth area. What is an annexation? It's a process by which the city incorporates contiguous unincorporated territory into its municipal boundaries. And it's regulated under RCW chapter 35. Importantly, what it is not is it is not a change in property ownership. I have seen some threads on social media and other information where there might be some confusion around this issue in the public. So I do wanna iterate tonight that an annexation is not a transfer in ownership. It's just a change in jurisdictional boundary. State law sets out a rather rigorous multi-step process that needs to occur over a 180-day schedule. The first of those steps is a notice of intent, which we have received. Once we deemed that notice to be complete, that started the 180-day clock. So I think we're 20 or 30 days into that clock now. The yellow highlighter in this slide is the step we're at tonight, which is to consider the scheduling of a meeting with the proponent. If we decide that's a good idea, this resolution would set that meeting date for September 1st, which is your next meeting. After that, we would host that meeting on September 1st, if this resolution is approved. And that's what I labeled here, a go or no go situation. State law doesn't use that terminology, but what the law will give council the ability to do is to accept the proposal, to reject the proposal, or to modify its boundaries. I call that a go-no-go. So that'll be our chance on September 1st. If we decide to reject the proposal, the process stops and there is no consideration of the annexation for this round unless they resubmitted. If we're a go, then the applicant would go back and circulate a petition where they need to gather the right number of signatures representing the value of the property. They will not be a heavy lift for the Department of Energy because they are about 99% the property owner in the area. I assume they would sign that. And then we would host a public hearing where the public would have an opportunity to provide feedback on the proposal. The item will go to Planning Commission. Planning Commission would recommend zoning for the property for council's consideration. And then at the end of the road, council will consider an ordinance. There's a lot of detail that would go into all of that. We really only know so far that the Department of Energy wants to annex, and we've had about one total meeting on this issue, and we don't have a lot of detail yet. That's what the future steps are for. The map on the left is what the Department of Energy submitted to us. That's a Hanford map. The blue outlined areas, there's four of them. Those represent the four areas that would be subject to the proposed annexation. Again, between those four polygons, that area represents 744.5 acres. It includes a substation. It includes Hammer. It includes the Horn Rapids solar facility for which the city has a battery, has a tenant with Energy Northwest, is part of Director Whitney's grid. There's the second box from the left where my pointer is now. is called the Department of Energy Homestead Site. That is the location of a former homestead that was considered historic at one time. This is a managed landfill that's owned by the Department of Energy. And then this is the lion's share of the 300 area, the polygon furthest to the east and north. The map on the right is the city's map. And it's important to compare these side by side because the line work is slightly different. While the DOE map shows the Hanford boundary, we do not. What we show in black line work here is the city's urban growth boundary. That's the line under the State Growth Management Act that the city has determined to be where we plan to grow into. So that line has been on the map for a very long time and has been the signal to the community that the city intends to, at some point, have our city limits match that line. And that's consistent with what the state asked cities to do. The red line are the city limits lines. And so essentially in this proposal, the red lines would move to match the black lines. And so the city limit line would move to be consistent with the urban growth boundary. And that's exactly what the State Growth Management Act requires that cities do. So in conclusion, passage of this resolution would merely just set a meeting date to meet with the annexation proponent. That would be September 1st. That September 1st meeting would be council's go-no-go opportunity to determine if that multi-step annexation process should commence. If it does, that process would include plenty of opportunity for the public to engage through a hearing process and at the Planning Commission to make their wishes known as Council eventually would get this proposal on your desk for consideration toward the end of that 180-day period.

Thank you for your presentation, Council. Are there any questions? Councilmember Meyer.

Hi, it's me again. I suppose whether we want this annexation to go forward or whether we don't, this meeting needs to happen either way. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. I would recommend that we support scheduling this meeting. I would also recommend that the DOE... attend the meeting fully prepared with reasons that we should be annexing the 300 site in particular and exactly what the hell is in this for us. I understand that it's in our urban growth boundary but you know, if it's 99% owned by DOE, then it ain't exactly generating property taxes. So they need to have a coherent story for why they've kicked this off and what they intend to do to make it palatable. That's all.

Thank you. Are there other council members wishing to comment or have a question? Seeing none, could I have a motion and a second?

So motion. Second.

A consent vote is acceptable. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you for your presentation. That leads us to resolution number 2026-117, approving the 2026-28 collective bargaining agreement with the Richland Police Professional Staff Supervisor Guild. Presentation by our Human Resource Director, Lacey Paulson.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. As you just stated, we're here tonight to bring forward approval of the city's first collective bargaining agreement with our Richland Police Professional Staff Guild. That's a mouthful, so I'm just going to call on the Supervisor Guild for the rest of my presentation. But just a little background on this. This is a newly established bargaining unit. They filed a petition for representation with the Washington State Public Employment Relations Commissioner, PERC, back on March 21st, 2025. Around the same time, we also got a request for representation for the non-supervisory, non-commissioned employees at the Richland Police Department as well. PERC continued their process, no objections were filed, and so the Guild was certified back in May of 2025. This unit consists of approximately three supervisory non-uniformed employees in the Richland Police Department. So first, we negotiated the contract with just the non-supervisory staff. That was concluded earlier in the year. And so in March, we began negotiations with the supervisors. The city and the guild met regularly and bargained in good faith. And we reached a tentative agreement that covers wages, hours and working conditions and other terms of employment for this group. They did ratify that agreement on July 31st, 2026. And then we held a public hearing earlier in the meeting as required by the charter. Just a little bit about this group. So it is a three-year agreement from 2026 through 2028. It covers the wages, hours, and working conditions. It's basically a me-too agreement that you approved previously in the year for the support staff. Since these employees, the three employees are supervisors, they're in a separate agreement, but it's basically the same of them. the as the rank-and-file but it covers a seven-step wage schedule with annual step progressions. There's cost of living adjustments for 26, 27, and 28. Similar to the support staff they negotiated a paid meal period of 30 minutes for every five hours that they work. They do a lot of they have to be available when officers call in so it made sense to have them on-site and give them a paid meal a period like the supervisors that there are the employees that they're supervising. They negotiated a uniform allowance, and then the rest of their benefits, so PTO, deferred compensation, health insurance, is going to remain status quo with the unaffiliated or the nonrepresented staff. And then there will be a transition for these employees to be non-exempt when this contract is fully executed, and I'll get throughout in a few more slides. A little bit on the wage structure, it's very similar to the support staff. They move to a seven-step schedule where initially, based on their current hourly rate, they will be put in the 2025 wage table before the 2026 cost of living is applied. So they won't receive any decreases to their hourly rate. They'll just be placed in the next step that's closest to their currently rate. current rate and then they will progress through the classification steps or the steps every year on the anniversary of their position until they reach the top. The cost of living adjustments, so it's all based on a CPI calculation. We use CPIW all U.S. cities, and so they negotiated 100% of CPIW April to April. So for 2026, we would look back from April 24 to April 25 to get what that CPIW number was. So we know for 2026, it was a 2.1%, and we already have April to April numbers from 25 to 26. It came back at 3.9%, so they get that cap of 3.5% for 27. And then we'll know next April what their 2028 increase will be. Other key provisions, we already talked about this a little bit, employees working five or more consecutive hours will get a 30-minute paid meal period. They have the uniform allowance that's the same as the support staff, and then their other benefits are going to remain unchanged, very similar to what our unaffiliated staff receive. With the FLSA status, the state of Washington, in order to be exempt from overtime, there's a salary threshold. So in 2026, that amount is $80,000, 168.40. And that is continuously rising every year. And so during this contract cycle, we anticipated that these employees would no longer meet the salary threshold to be exempt employees, which means they're not eligible for overtime. So rather than having to open the contract, re-up and renegotiate overtime provisions, we thought it would just be easier to change these employees to non-exempt employees upon contract ratification so that they are eligible for overtime. And so what that means is if they work in excess of 40 hours in a week, they would receive overtime. And so there's overtime provisions in their collective bargaining agreement. Like I said, this is their first agreement. It's going to cover the three-year period. It is within the parameters that we came to council for before we started bargaining. It does give them predictable wage adjustments with that cost of living every year at the beginning of the year, establishes a formal wage progression structure for them, maintains existing benefits that they already received before they unionized, and then it will address the FLSA classification prospectively. And with that, that's the end of my presentation. Staff's recommending adoption of resolution 2026117, which will approve the collective bargaining agreement and authorize the city to execute that agreement with the guilt. But I'm happy to answer any questions if there are any.

Thank you for your presentation. Council members, Council Member Meyer.

Yes, I'm back. I've been on both sides of this kind of table too. I've been a union member and I've been management in negotiating these contracts. And my job, my day job in computing is super easy because if I can learn enough facts, then I can just do the only right answer and it's fine. But your job is much harder. And it requires a lot of understanding of a lot of different topics and an ability to come to an agreement with somebody who, by the nature of the discussion, is sort of adversarial. And it takes a real professional to be able to juggle all that. And so I don't have any questions. I just wanted to express my admiration for the kind of work you do and to thank you for taking it on for us.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you. Council member Jones.

Yeah, thank you for the presentation. So just curious about the uniform. This is professional individuals, office people.

Yeah, non-uniform. So anybody that's not commissioned. So it's our police records staff. It is police public records. And then there's also professional staff. So this individual that supervises like the crime analyst or evidence technician and code enforcement officer. So it's those three different groups that it supervises. Gotcha.

Thank you.

Yep. Thank you, Council. Are there any other questions or comments? I would, Council Member, Mayor Rattan and Doug.

I move to approve Resolution 2026-117. Second.

Consent vote is acceptable. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion passes unanimously. That brings us to reports and comments. Starting off with Deputy City Manager Shishel, would you like to comment?

Thank you, Mayor. Three items. First, just a little preview on next month's workshop, or next week's workshop on the 25th. Just one item. Finance Director Allen will work with other directors to step us through the proposed 2027 Capital Facilities Plan. So the 2027 budgeting process is underway. Second, we learned this morning that the Benton Franklin Health District has notified us that cyanobacteria has been detected in the Columbia River at Howard Amon Park in levels that could be harmful to sensitive individuals and animals. In accordance with our established protocols, the Health District will take the lead and install educational signage in the park and will notify the public of water conditions on their website and through other methods. Public has other safe options for cooling down in Richland if swimming was their thing, including George Prout Pool, the historic Howard Amon wading pool, and the Badger Mountain Park splash pad. I do want to emphasize that while this advisory affects recreational use of our surface water, the city's drinking water remains protected and safe. Last and third, I'd like to take a moment to recognize HR Director Lacey Paulson, as today is her last day with the City. I'm very proud how this organization has embraced our respective roles and responsibilities. Council sets policy and staff carries it out. As City Manager, John could not implement Council's priorities without exceptional people. Lacey is one of those exceptional people. She and her team have done a tremendous job over the last 11 1⁄2 years developing what I believe is the best team in local government. Lacey, we appreciate everything you've done for this organization, and we wish you the very best as you take on a new professional growth opportunity. Thank you.

Thank you. And did Lacey leave the room? Oh, okay, I didn't see you down there. Yeah, thank you. Deputy City Manager Scheschel, I have a question. There was a member of the audience that had a question about the Poland house and why the house is remaining. Would you please comment on that?

This matter is still in ongoing litigation, and I would recommend that we not discuss it in open session at this time, but I would be happy to educate council on the reason for that decision in our executive session coming up in a few minutes.

That's what we needed to hear publicly.

Thank you.

All right. Let's start off with Councilmember Samuel.

Madam Mayor, City Council, I just wanted to give you an update. I sit in with the Planning Commission, and they continue to review and comment on the proposed updates and revisions to the City of Richland's comprehensive plan, which is going to come before City Council later this year. You know, we are very fortunate to have commissioners like Kara Hernandez, Casey Anderson, Aaron Lambert, and the Chair, Jett Richardson. They have asked very insightful questions and have provided staff with a number of excellent comments and observations. So these commissions you mentioned tonight, Parks and Recreation, You know, citizens can make a real difference by serving on these commissions. And even though there's not an opening on parks and recs right now, that situation changes all the time. And so, whether it's the Planning Commission, Economic Development, Arts Commission, Library, Code Enforcement, these are all great opportunities for citizens to be involved in Richland City government. And it's my hope that when my term as council member is up in December, that I can get reappointed to one of these commissions, because I think it really makes a difference. So I just wanted to report that.

Thank you. Council Member Holton. Yes.

Grabbed the wrong computer, so I've been trying to reconstruct my notes. I hope I don't forget anything. The parks meeting, let's see, Jim Buell, who's been there for a long time and is a great user of all our bike paths, said he thinks that the illegal e-bikes has really gotten so much better and the paths are so much safer. Also that the police have been doing a great job in our parks of redirecting and informing people of services that are living in our parks or trying to live in our parks. And that has been greatly, I will attest that that's been greatly improved by where I live. There was a resident that requested that Stevens Park, which is by the Cupcake Church, if people understand that reference. Van Giesen and Stevens become a dog park. And it was really nice not only to, I agree, to be part of these commissions, but also just to come and speak at the commissions, because I think that's a great way for people to get input. And so he put his idea to the Parks and Rec people. The cameras have been very successful. There's fixed cameras, I think at Clay Bell, two at the Uptown Shopping Center, and Badger Mountain somewhere. They really reduced crime and graffiti and vandalism. There are a couple of mobile units. I think it's called Top of the World Park, which is the park near Yokes off of Keene has one. Columbia Park by Richland High School. And now there's a new one down at Leslie Groves Park. And so those, they have the ability to move around. And they've been very effective. Carlos presented from the consultants the bike and sidewalk improvements. And that will be coming soon, I think, to the city council. Am I correct on that?

OK.

And I think people will be very pleased with the improvements that are going to be made for our sidewalks and our bike paths. I think they'll be excited about that. I'm excited to get the presentation here. I was personally at a very, very large potluck down at Howard Amon on Sunday. It was extremely crowded, but it was plenty, still plenty of room for everybody, which was nice to see. We could have had more people down there, didn't have trouble parking. So it was very, very nice seeing the well-loved park, extremely used, but still we had enough space for everybody. I missed the retreat, unfortunately, but my husband and I have been going around with our list of parks and visiting those and seeing what's there. I was in Greece and so I've been extensively photographing shade structures whenever I see them because that's one of the priorities of parks is shade structures. And the Haynes Avenue house, fortunately, was forced to sell. And I think that's final now. I was able to talk to the new owner, and so they are eager to get to work on the house. And so we are all excited to see that. I think that's it.

Thank you. Councilmember Jones. Nothing from you. Okay. Councilmember Whitten. Would you like to comment?

Yes. I'll just say that I'm sad that we are losing Lacey Paulson, and I wish her well in her future endeavors, and I'm thankful for her service to the city. I have no further comments.

Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Meyer.

Yes, it's me again. A while back I asked John for information about automated license plate readers in the city. Our contract with Flock has ended and the Flock cameras, as far as I know, have been removed, but we have automated license plate reader service from a different company called Axon and that's a pretty big difference Axon has a much different data protection and data access methodology than flock does And I asked for some information about that and I got it But I think that might be worth brief presentation about specifically Axon ALPR data protections just because I know this is even though we have moved on from Flock and they have taken their cameras back a lot of people are still wary of that technology in general and so I'd like for as much information about how we protect the information generated by these devices as we can get and so I've spoken with with Joe earlier to kind of let him know that I was planning to ask for this just in a future meeting just a little five minute here's how you get to the data here's who can get to the data here's where it's stored that kind of stuff And finally, I'll lead back up. For BFT, the free fare month ended. The grace period is over. We're all paying for bus fare again. But early reports indicate that we had a 15% year-over-year jump in ridership during that free month. So we really got our tax dollars out of Ben Franklin Transit in the month of July. Unfortunately, I was out of town for work for the library board meeting. My colleague has offered to step out and attend that meeting, so I won't speak further to that. But the last thing I'll say is a personal plea. There's been an uptick on messages that we get to council that are generated by AI. And I'm begging you, please, if you get the urge to generate some text to send to council, just send us the prompt. I would rather have three badly spelled, badly grammared words from a human being than 10 pages of computer generated text. So please, just type what you mean and send it to us. I promise we'll read it. There's so much AI stuff in the inbox these days.

just a personal plea thanks thank you mayor pro tem van dyke

Thank you. In support of getting that information on data retention and data management policies on cameras. Library board meeting. Thank you for that. That was excellent. I actually really enjoyed it. They are a great group. And there's going to be openings for two board members here shortly on that. So those that are interested, please consider that. I was at the Richland Chamber of Commerce meeting today. They are a growing and energetic bunch. It's a lot of fun. If you have a chance, please join them. Ironman's coming up on the 20th. Spoke to Mr. Lewis again today, and we globally now, we're ranked number one on the running path for Ironman, which is phenomenal for being a second year. And he made a big deal about, it's not because we have the best path, and it's not because we have the most scenic path, while it's quite nice. We do. But the point that Kevin made was it's because of the involvement. We have, I think, 1,600 volunteers that come, and everyone along the path cheering them on, handing them water. It's our community that makes a difference. If you haven't been to one of these, they're phenomenal. The energy is great, and it's just a great way to support those athletes, but also support and be part of our community. I highly encourage you to come if you can. And then lastly, Lacey. Let me tell you why you're going to be missed, at least from my point of view. I think you're an excellent example of servant leadership. You've developed trust and respect across the board with our stakeholders and our bargaining agreements. You've shown staff appreciation by recognizing them as new hires and as our retiring staff. I've always enjoyed those portions of things. Thank you for doing that. I think it makes a difference and helps ground us as council as well. I think you've been a consistent and positive member of our senior leadership team, and you've been the leader that's trusted to develop your staff that's led to a successful succession plan. I'm really looking forward to that. You've been gracious while onboarding council members, and I just wanted to thank you for all that you've done for our city. You'll be missed.

Thank you, Lacey. In my comments, I just want to pile on to that and just say how remarkable it is when you reach the finish line and you've been able to pass the baton to someone. And you've just done so well and very well respected. So wishing you all the best in the next season in your life. And so glad that we were able to have you for quite a bit of time here. And please don't become a stranger. Okay, all right. With that, that concludes this portion of the meeting. We have an executive session per RCW 42.30.110 to discuss current or potential litigation with legal counsel, anticipating it to be 45 minutes. So This time now is about 721. See you again in 45 minutes. Thank you. It is 8.05 p.m. and the executive session is now over and no decisions were made. This meeting is adjourned.

Report that financially.