City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the Pierce County Council. Today is 05/19/2026, and the time is 03:01. If the clerk could call the roll.

Council member Morales. Council member Herrera.

I'm here.

Councilmember Kruger? Here. Councilmember Ayala?

Here.

Councilmember Yombe?

Here.

Councilmember Denson? Here. Councilmember Hitchin? Here. You have seven members present.

With seven members, we do have a quorum. Four of my colleagues are in the other Washington right now, so that is why we have the telephonic participation. But they are there with our chamber and a variety of other organizations to work on behalf of the county. So thank you for spending a few minutes with us this afternoon, probably more than a few minutes. We are going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance here in a moment.

I'm going to ask that you remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of, the men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice as Memorial Day weekend is coming up. And then I will read a land acknowledgment. So for those that can stand, please stand for a Pledge of Allegiance. We acknowledge that we are on the traditional homelands of the Coast Salish tribes. Coast Salish people have lived on and stewarded these lands since time immemorial and continue to do so today.

We recognize that this land acknowledgment is one small step towards true allyship, and we commit to uplifting the voices, experiences, and histories of the indigenous people of this land. We are now at section four, which is approval of our agenda. Is there any objection to our agenda as presented? Not seeing any, so we will consider the agenda approved. On today's council agenda, there'll be multiple opportunities for public comments.

On the consent agenda, you may provide comment on any final action item. This does not include items that are on the consent agenda for introduction and scheduling. And then during sections eight and nine of the regular agenda, we'll take public comment on each item individually. And then finally, at the end of the meeting, we do community forum, which is an opportunity for you to address the council on any topic that was not up for final action, so you don't get two bites at the apple. But it's any topic that is of interest or pertinent to Pierce County, and you'll have up to three minutes.

There is what we call the fine print at the bottom of page one of the agenda if you want to learn more. We're now at the consent agenda, and we have two sets of minutes for approval, one appointment and reappointment resolution for final action in three grants. Does anyone want to remove an item from the consent agenda? Then I will look for a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'm gonna go to council member Denson. Oh, I went to your mic, though, council member Denson. There you are.

Thank you, chair. I move to approve the consent agenda.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda. I'm gonna look and see because I do not know either of these individuals just to see if they're here. Is Raya Hagan or Jennifer Nazarowski in the room? Would you like to come and introduce yourself and thank you for your willingness to serve? It's not required, but since you took the time to be here, if you just come to the podium, if you don't mind. Otherwise, my colleagues any other Washington cannot hear you or see you.

Hi. I'm Ray Hagan.

Thank you. Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself and why you want to serve?

Well, I've been in Pierce County for officially twenty five years this month. I moved here from all over the country. I was a civil engineering consultant,

so I traveled all over everywhere and moved to Tacoma and fell in love

with it, I haven't left since.

So. Okay. I think all the Planning and Public Works ears just perked up when you

said that. But

thank you for serving on aging and disability, because when we think about how we provide and support our aging population with infrastructure, what fabulous voice to have on that commission. So thank you for saying that.

It's very exciting.

Thank Thank

you for being here. And I didn't see the other person, so we will move to public comment on this. Again, not required, but does anyone have any comments on our consent agenda? You have up to three minutes. Not seeing anyone rush the podium, so we will go online, mister Dominique.

For any member of the public that would like to provide comment on today's consent agenda, please press the raise hand icon in Zoom or star nine on your telephone keypad. There are no answer this time, madam chair.

With no hands raised, I'm gonna close public comment on our consent agenda and see if there are any final comments on the approval of our consent agenda. Not seeing any, then I would ask the clerk to call the roll on the approval of the consent agenda.

Council Member Denson? Aye. Council Member Morell?

We'll come back to him.

Council Member Herrera?

Aye. That's a yes.

Council Member Kruger?

Kruger says aye.

Council Member Ayala?

Aye.

Council Member Yombe. Aye. Council Member Morell.

You may not be able to unmute at this time. So

Councilmember Hitchin? Aye. The results of the roll call vote is six ayes and zero nays.

With six ayes, zero nays. It's the consent agenda. Miss Long, are there any issues? Okay. It is approved. Thank you. So, Rhea, thank you so much for your willingness to serve on Board and Commission, and the executive's office will be in touch with what the next steps are. So thank you. Okay. We are now at section six. We have messages from the executive, which there are none. So we will go to section seven. We have two proclamations today. Our first proclamation proclaims Monday, May 25 is Memorial Day honoring our heroes in Pierce County. And I'd like to welcome and invite the following individuals to the podium.

We have Jane Hughes, the co founder of Gold Star Families of Washington here. And then I'm scanning the room for Representatives Leavitt or Richardson, and I'm not seeing them. Is there anyone else that's here for Gold Star Star? Or not for Gold Stars, but for more Memorial Day proclamation? So and then council member Kruger, I'm gonna have council member Denson read this unless you feel like you're in a place to do this.

Councilmember Denson is good to go.

Okay, perfect. Councilmember Denson, you are on.

Okay, thank you Councilmember Kruger and Chair. A proclamation of the Pierce County Council and Executive proclaiming Monday, May 25 as Memorial Day honoring our heroes in Pierce County, Washington. Whereas President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Prayer for Peace Memorial Day Proclamation in 1955, proclaiming that Memorial Day each year serves as a solemn reminder of the scourge of war and its bitter aftermath of sorrow. With the observance devoted to paying homage to loved ones who lie in hallowed graves throughout the land, having sacrificed their lives that war might end.

And whereas Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, was formally proclaimed on 05/05/1868 by General John A. Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, who designated May 30 for the strewing of flowers on the graves of those who died in defense of their country. A tradition that began even earlier among communities of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina, who in 1865 gathered to honor Union soldiers buried there. And among women across the South who decorated the graves of their dead before any national observance existed. And whereas in 1971, the United States Congress declared that the last Monday of every May be established as a federal holiday so the nation can honor, mourn, and remember the people who have given their last full measure of devotion and made the ultimate sacrifice while serving in the United States Armed Forces.

And whereas Memorial Day is a solemn occasion observed across The United States to honor the men and women of the armed forces who gave their lives in service to our nation. And each year at 03:00 on Memorial Day, a national moment of remembrance calls all Americans to pause in silence to honor the fallen. And the Pierce County Council and Executive encourages every resident to observe this moment. And whereas Pierce County has a founding relationship with the military that predates The United States involvement in either World War When in 1917, Pierce County voters approved a bond measure by an eight to one margin, raising $2,000,000 to purchase 70,000 acres and donate it to the federal government, establishing what became Fort Lewis and ultimately Joint Base Lewis McCord. And whereas today Joint Base Lewis McCord is home to more than 40,000 service members and civilian workers and an anchor to the South Sound military community of more than a 122,000 veterans, 25,000 military retirees, and hundreds of thousands of family members who take part in the civic, cultural, and economic fabric of Pierce County life.

And whereas among those we honor on Memorial Day are the Gold Star families of Pierce County, the parents, spouses, children, and siblings who did not merely loan their loved ones to this nation, but gave them permanently, and who carry that loss forward in quiet dignity every day. And whereas Memorial Day is an opportunity to renew our collective commitment to care for the families left behind and to honor their memory through service, community, and a commitment to seek peace where we can, fight when we must, and uphold the highest ideals of our democratic republic. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed on this May 2026 by the Pierce County Council and executive that Monday, May 2026 is hereby designated Memorial Day Honoring Our Heroes in Pierce County, Washington. And we encourage all community members to pause at 3PM for the National Moment of Remembrance to take part in this day of reflection and gratitude for our fallen service members, keeping our commitment to never forget the true cost of war.

Thank you for reading that into the record. It is always our history is so in entwined with military. We would love to hear from you, and then I did notice that representative Leavitt has joined us as well. But we will start with you, Jane, to hear a little bit about the Gold Star Families.

Well, Gold Star Families of Washington, we formed in 2023 to serve all family members, all types of death, all conflicts. And we thank you very much for recognizing our family members, our heroes, and we appreciate your proclamation.

Thank you so much for being here. Representative Leavitt, one of the reasons you're highlighted along with representative Richardson is the work that you did so tirelessly on House Bill 2,514, which is establishing our Global War On Terror Memorial down in Olympia. Would you like to speak to the counsel and the public just a little bit?

And I come from just having spent the day at McCord. And I'm on a flight and also spending time with the second wing and the work that they do of America's sons and daughters and the service that they provided. So it's fitting to be running from there to here. I'm grateful for the opportunity to talk about the importance of Memorial Day as well. And certainly, the war memorial that we're trying to advance at the Capitol.

If you've ever been to the Capitol Campus and for those who haven't had the opportunity, I would invite you to visit, not only because the Rotunda is a beautiful place to be and magical, but also because of the many memorials that we have on campus, from the Vietnam War Memorial to the Korean War Memorial. And so it's an opportunity to really understand the history of Washington State and the love and respect that we have for our military each and every day. And so honored to be here and honored to be a part of this memorial and certainly support the bill advancing and moving forward. Thank you, Madam Council Chair.

Thank you for being here and your partnership. I'm going to look to see if any of my colleagues have comments on this proclamation, especially those that sponsored vice chair Herrera or council member Kruber. Just wanna sure that you can participate if you want to.

I appreciate it. There's no way I can talk right now, so I appreciate it. Well,

thank you for being honest and not attempting to make it work. Any comments from my colleagues? Councilmember Gamba.

I appreciate my council colleagues and the champions of making sure that we don't forget the price and the cost of war for defending our country. I just also wanted to put in a plug for Memorial Day on Monday, 05/25/2026 at 2PM at Mountain View Funeral Home And Memorial Park is a joint services Memorial Day ceremony in Lakewood by our Pierce County, Veterans Board, and it's always a great, event and really special to to be there. So if you haven't been there, I would strongly suggest that, you and your family come out and, be able to be there. It's just really hard to describe. So, appreciate the board for doing that and, the community and just wanted to put in a plug.

Thank you. And I know that we have events happening across the county. I I was gonna highlight that one. It is open to the public, family friendly. Rain or shine, they make it work, And it really is a very they do a really exceptional job.

So that's 2PM in Lakewood. We also have wreathlings in multiple jurisdictions in my communities, both the town of Silicum and the city of DuPont are doing them. And then in DuPont, one of the things that started here locally is Wear Blue, Run to Remember, which is now a national program where they actually take the grief of young people who have lost someone in combat, family member, friends, and turn that into energy by training them to run. And so they create a huge path of all of these lost members of these families from across time, and they run or for those of us that don't run like me, walk this path and reflect on these people that are no longer here. And, I really love how they just the whole community shows up.

So and that is also on Memorial Day in the morning. That one starts at eight. Sometimes they have a helicopter that lands in the middle of the field, so it's pretty it's a pretty special, pretty spectacular show, and it's a great time. So we are going to take a picture, and I know there's only three of us, but we're gonna go ahead and do this anyways, to capture this moment in time. So, mister Dominique, where do you want us?

Okay. And we have this is a two proclamation day. Our next proclamation is a proclamation of the Council and Executive designating May 17 to May 23 as National Public Works Week in Pierce County. And I'd like to acknowledge our Planning and Public Works staff that are in the room and invite Josh Diekman, who is our Director of Planning and Public Works, and also an alumni of my high school. We graduated in the same year, which I always find amusing, to the podium. That's not in the proclamation. But go kooks.

So

a proclamation of the Pierce County Council and Executive designating May 17 through the twenty third, twenty twenty six as National Public Works Week in Pierce County, Washington. Whereas the employees of Pierce County Planning and Public Works Department are responsible for planning, maintenance and operation of infrastructure across Pierce County including, but not limited to, 3,404 lane miles of paved roadway and aperture signs, signals and illumination, 29,707 catch basins, eleven eighty three miles of ditch, six sixty five miles of drainage pipe, 70 levee miles, five fifty six storm water facilities, two waste water treatment plants and associated collection systems, two airports, and my favorite one, ferry system. And whereas these infrastructure facilities and services could not be provided without the dedicated effort of more than 800 employees in Pierce County's Planning and Public Works Department, who are federally mandated as first responders and the professionals at all levels of government and the private sector who are responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our county's transportation, water supply, water treatment, and solid waste systems, public buildings, and other structures and facilities essential for our residents. And whereas these employees answer the call twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, deploying their skills to remove heavy snow from roadways, stabilize hillsides after heavy rains, and respond to whatever emergencies arise to keep our community safe.

And whereas the partnership with our public works colleagues in Pierce County cities and towns is also essential to the success of our overall county infrastructure and its status as a regional leader. And whereas our public works professionals are committed to ensuring our community is safe through the continuous improvement of infrastructure, programs, and services that are vital importance to the stability and prosperity of our community. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed on this May 2026 by the Pierce County Council and Executive that the week of May 17 to the twenty third, twenty twenty six is National Public Workweek for Pierce County, Washington. And we encourage all community members to take a moment to appreciate the Planning and Public Works professionals and recognize their contributed contributions they make every day of the year. Let's give them a hand.

Director, we'd love to hear from you.

Thank you, Chair Hitchens and council members. My name is Josh Diekmann, the Director of Planning and Public Works. And I'm happy to be joined by a cross section of my colleagues from across department. For every person that you see standing in the room here today, there's approximately another 40 professionals providing all the services that you described. And they're all dedicated to serving the community every day of the year, sometimes behind the scenes. And we appreciate the opportunity that we have here today to be recognized. We appreciate your appreciation and the partnership that we have with the community and those other agencies that you described. So thank you for the recognition and the appreciation this week. We appreciate it.

Well, thank you. I enjoyed the video that was online, and I know I shared it on my page. I don't know if my colleagues did as well. So you're a little bit of a movie star for a little while. I'm gonna see if anybody has any comments.

Council Member

Denson. Thank you, Chair. Well, I just want to thank all of the Public Works employees. I really think that you all are the most popular and well liked employees in our our Pierce County system. We get a lot lot of constituent requests, and most of them go to public works. And we get so many responses by constituents whose jaws are just their jaws have dropped because they cannot believe how quickly the staff come out and address their issues. Whether it's a dangerous tree, a pothole, a road that's sloughing, a sign that needs repaired, brush that's blocking views, whatever it is. Abandoned freezers, we get that. Cars, boats. I mean, staff just deal with everything.

And if they're not out there that day, they're out there the next. And they just cannot believe how quickly staff respond, how what a wonderful relationship that they forge with neighbors. It's just just stellar. I had the opportunity on Monday to deliver donuts to our public works crew out at the Purdy shop. And for those of you who don't know, I mean, our public works staff are so busy that they've now transitioned to their summer schedule starting at 6AM.

And you all are so well liked that our donut shop opened a half hour early, so I can pick up donuts. We're like, we have to pick up donuts at 05:30 because they're starting at six And when I got there a little bit before six, everyone was there and ready to be deployed out to the roads or the ditches or wherever they were going. Because there's always so much work to be done. As chair Hitchin mentioned, we have so much public infrastructure in this county, and it just takes constant care and a lot of planning. I talked to the guys and gals on Monday morning about chip sealing and all the prep work that's been happening so that the chip seal program can really ramp up this summer.

And we're just very, very thankful because the public notices, and they appreciate all of that work. So thank you for making the county really, really look good. I mean, of all our employees, you are the ones that are out there in the community that that folks see with the trucks doing the work, and the interactions are just always positive. So we really appreciate your service to the community. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Yombe?

I'm gonna have a hard time. I'm just gonna say that Councilmember Denson said it really, really well. I don't often talk about my mom's side of the family, but my grand uncle was a civil engineer, and he was the only Japanese person of Japanese descent to work on the Panama Canal. And just being from on that side of the family, a family of engineers, grew up with a lot of respect for the civil engineering side and just how he worked on a lot of these projects to help prevent flooding in Japan and different parts of the world. And you all are the front lines for so much of our services.

And you know, like, if if it's not for you, then we wouldn't be getting places. We wouldn't be able to go and and and move around and do commerce and and really and like council member Densa said, you basically are like the lifeblood of the the county and it keeps everything moving. And so we're extremely grateful to you. I know District 5, you know, we have a just like the other districts, lots of strong personalities who interact with planning and public works, but you all are, you know, helping, you know, deliver customer service. You're out helping, you know, safety and and just really when you guys do your work well, we don't see it.

But then, you know, when it's not being addressed, we everybody feels it. And so I I can't thank you all enough for the work that you do day in and day out and not you know, it's not built for everyone, and so we just really appreciate the work that you do at every corner of the county. So grateful.

Thank you. Okay. I'm not seeing any of my friends on Zoom chime in, so I will just acknowledge my gratitude as well. I think the proclamation kind of nailed it. Yep, you do everything. I mean, there really is nothing in this county that can happen without the work of Planning and Public Works, planning for how people move safely, how we get rid of the stuff we don't want, how we're tracking things to make sure we stay safe, and then all the technology and all the stuff that happens to happen behind the scenes to make all that happen. So we need to take a picture. There's a lot of us. So Mr. Dominique, what are your thoughts?

So I think we can just if the council members want

to come back down in front, we can have the council members.

There's still a few council members while

the council members in the middle and the staff circle around them. Usually it's the opposite. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

So next up, we recently won some awards. And so we wanted to pause and recognize, so I invited Auditor Farmer to join us because we won two National Clearinghouse Awards for the work that we do around elections transparency. And so she is here to share a little bit about this work and just excited to highlight this really important work.

JULIE Chair Hitchens, counsel, thank you so much for having me as the second best department in the county. It's hard to follow. It's hard to follow Public Works. They're amazing. I am thrilled to be here and tell you about these awards that we won for excellence in elections administration.

These are the Clearinghouse Awards, also known as the CLEAREs, are presented by the US Election Assistance Commission, which is an independent bipartisan federal agency solely focused on elections administration. And there are over 10,000 jurisdictions that conduct elections in The US, and only 46 of them were recognized through this program. There were four awards presented to jurisdictions in Washington State, and Pierce County received two of those. So to say that I am pleased and proud of our team is a total understatement. They're amazing.

So the first award was for our work to rebuild ballot drop box chain of custody. Eighty days ahead of the primary last year, our ballot tracking software program was suddenly discontinued by our third party vendor. Not good. The software program is critical for us to ensure custody. And there was no other off the shelf replacement available, so we turned to our county IT department and they said, sure, we can help.

It was amazing. So together we built a brand new program in house. And not only was it ready in time for the election, which was amazing enough in itself, but the new system resulted in improved accuracy, efficiency, and accountability in ballot collection from our current fleet of 51 drop boxes. And if the program sounds familiar, it is. It won a standing ovation award from the county with a really cool video that you saw if you were at the EINR banquet last November.

So the second award was for our Elections Process video series. And I really wish we had a more exciting name for it, but it's really good stuff. We used grant funds and partnered with Pierce County Television to develop a series of six short videos to show people how ballots are counted, handled, and protected every step of the way. We filmed real elections workers doing real elections procedures. And the six videos are observers and public access, signature check, ballot collection, ballot sorting, ballot opening, and tabulation.

And we did this series so we can reinforce the integrity of our election system. Right now, confidence in public institutions, particularly elections, is being tested. And these videos are a proactive education tool that we can use to help reduce confusion and counter misinformation. Now I'm hoping that the video we can show one of those videos and it actually illustrates both of the awards at the same time. And it's just a minute thirty three seconds.

Working working a a so you can trust it's a trained employee handling your ballot. When a team opens a drop box, they note it with a time and date stamped seal log, proof of who opened it, and when. These seals aren't your everyday stickers. They're tamper evident. Going get do.

Very foundation foundation We're to our business. A very Oh, and those foundation drop foundation boxes? Solid steel. Over 1,200 pounds actually. And they're also equipped with fire suppression systems. That's ballot collection. Secure and tracked every step of the way. Your vote matters and so does protecting it.

It worked. Yay.

Yay. So there are five others that show the ballot collection and tabulation process. And then there's one that stitches them all together. And it's only seven minutes. And so I encourage everybody to watch it if you haven't already watched it. And experience the elections administration process for yourself. You're always welcome to come out. You can take a ride along with our ballot collection teams. You can staff a drop box at 8PM on election night, which Councilmember Denson has already done. You can be at the election center to watch the entire process.

You can also become an official election observer. You can see everything from our election observation corridor. But if you want to be on the floor in the thick of it with our workers, you need to take our training. And our next training is July 15. We have two opportunities, one at eleven a. M. And one at two p. M. And I'll have more information for that. In the meantime, I'd like to thank the elections team, Pierce County Television, and the IT department for everything that they did to make these two programs a reality.

Well, I can see why you won the awards. Feeling a little competitive, so now we need to figure out how to win more next year. So we're the only county in Washington State. But I appreciate you spending a few minutes to highlight the great work that you're doing, and I wanted to see if anyone has questions or comments. We'll go.

Councilwoman Yombe.

So this is more or less a question and more of a comment. Auditor Farmer, you the way that you have run the elections while you've been here has just continually impressed me as a person who feels very strongly about, you know, voter access and the, you know, elections having, you know, people having confidence in their election systems transparency and accountability. You have taken the agency and continuously built upon, you know, making things better and improving on things and giving more people more reasons to have faith in the systems that we have despite the fact that, I think, as a country, we're in a strange place in that regard. And your transparency when you go to not you know, you go across spectrum of political organizations and you are inviting people to come participate and be a part of democracy. And for those people who are critical, you constantly give opportunities for them to see it up close and for them to to navigate, you know, the halls of the election centers and and being able to see all the different aspects for themselves.

And it really helps, you know, nothing helps those rumors and combat, you know, the loss of faith in systems and being able to see it up close. And so your your department, I understand why you win these awards. But, you know, when people say, hey, are you confident in the people and the elections in your area? You know, I'm always saying yes because you're just always thinking about how how to stay on top and in front of, you know, the challenges that are coming this way. So I always have utmost faith in your ability to help, you know, not only modernize our systems, but make them more accessible to everybody across the county no matter where they live.

And just by the increase in the ballot access points that you've helped open and opening new, you know, voting centers and these little things that while other people are working very intently, seems to make it more difficult, you're always making it more easy. So I really appreciate, having you there, running our elections department. So appreciate you.

Thank you for the comments. We're gonna go to council member Denson.

Yes. Well, I echo all of that and just wanna congratulate you on the awards. Not surprised at all. The transparency that the council member Yanbei mentioned, I've definitely experienced myself. I've been able to do ride alongs on election night and see the ballots come in. It's so exciting. And I have been able to staff a ballot box. And that's really fun too. You see people you know, you're chatting, you're thanking them for voting, you're making sure they sign those ballots, all of the important things. And it's just an exciting way to be part of the process.

But even beyond that, the opportunities that you offer to the community to come in and tour the election centers and learn how things work, I mean, there are several of those each year that I know people really, really appreciate. And it's complicated because it needs to be, because you're making it so safe. But you'll explain it to everybody. And I just think that people really appreciate that. One of the things that I've enjoyed most is whenever Chair Hitchens is not available, I get to certify elections, which is so fascinating learning how things go.

And my favorite part is the observers that you mentioned. We have observers from different political parties. And they always just have glowing things to say about the auditor's office and the auditor's staff. And it's so neat to see these different political parties together. They like each other. They work together. They spend time together. They're there watching the process and making sure everything goes well. But it just leaves me with such a warm feeling in my heart that we've got residents from different political views, that's okay, who all care about the integrity of our elections and are part of that process by stepping forward to observe. It's just a family.

It's a really neat thing to see. So thank you for all of your work.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. I will just add my gratitude and was just excited to find a way to highlight the great work that you're doing during council meeting. We often only think about elections when there's a ballot in, and there's so much to the work that happens to prepare for each and every election. Elections doesn't shut down. However, we know that you bring on lots of extra hires, because it is a lot of people power to go to all of our boxes and count all of our ballots and track everything and then the whole process of opening ballots. So thank you for helping make it transparent so that people trust the system. You're doing exceptional work, and your team is doing exceptional work. So please extend my gratitude.

I will. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Okay. So we are now at Section eight, which is resolutions. I got a note to the councilor vice chair Herrera is not able to be here. The the motion we're looking for on this one is continuing. So this is proposal r twenty twenty six dash 147. Council member Yombe, are you willing to do that? So the motion Sure. Continue to the

I make a motion that we continue proposal number R twenty twenty six dash 147 be continued to the meeting on the week of May 26. Second.

So the motion before us is to continue resolution twenty twenty six dash one forty seven to the meeting of 05/26/2026. Is there any further discussion or anything that we need to do other than that? Okay. And this is a voice vote.

Correct.

Okay. So those online, this is a voice vote. I'm giving you a chance to potentially try and unmute yourself. I'm going to say all those in favor of this motion say aye. Aye. Aye. Gruber says aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. So we will see the resolution to schedule council member Herrera's in district next week. We're gonna figure out where and when. So we are now at item number two, council member Denson for a motion.

Thank you, chair. I move proposal number r 2026Dash151 for approval. Second.

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

Proposal number R2026Dash151, a resolution of the Pierce County Council amending resolution number r twenty twenty six dash one twenty seven to correct errors in permanent supportive housing services funding recommendations for program year 2026.

Thank you. And we have Ms. Connolly here to brief on this item.

Thank you, Chair Hitchin. For the record, Mary Connolly, Council staff. By way of background, in March 2023, the Pierce County Council adopted the Maureen Howard Affordable Housing Act to impose a sales and use tax for housing and related services as authorized by state law. These revenues are deposited in the Housing and Related Services Fund, and expenditures from this fund must be authorized by resolution or ordinance of the Council. In October 2025, Pierce County Human Services released a notice of funding availability from the Housing and Related Services Fund for permanent supportive housing services in Pierce County.

Funding recommendations were submitted to counsel by the Human Services Department. And these funding recommendations and associated expenditures from the fund were approved by the Pierce County Council on 04/14/2026 via resolution number R2026-one 100 20 seven. After that resolution was adopted by counsel, the Council Office was notified that the proposal submitted by the Human Services Department included an error. In Exhibit A to the resolution, the funding recommendations for two Metropolitan Development Council projects, Hilltop Lofts and Housing First, were accidentally transposed. So this resolution, Resolution No.

R2026-one 151, corrects that error by amending Exhibit A to Resolution Number R-twenty2027. The amended exhibit switches the two project names and descriptions so that they match their correct funding recommendations. The total amount of funding awarded to Metropolitan Development Council remains the same. And there are no other changes to the funding recommendations. The proposal has a de minimis fiscal impact and a community impact note is available. And I believe that Devon Isaacson from the Human Services Department is online if there are questions for the department. I'm also happy to answer questions.

Thank you. I will pause and see if there are any questions on this item. Not seeing any, so I would like to open this up for public comment. If there's any member of the public that would like to probably comment on resolution twenty twenty six dash one fifty one, we'll start in chambers just in case any of our committee members are here for this one. Seeing heads shaking. So we will go online, mister Dominique.

For any member of the public who'd like to provide comment on proposal number R2026Dash151, Please press the raise hand icon in Zoom or star nine on your telephone keypad. We have one hand at this time, madam chair. Angeline, please state your name for the record, and you have three minutes.

Good afternoon, council members. My name is Angeline Escurdo. I am commenting on the fact that I saw within the table for this ordinance about the Metropolitan Development Council for permanent housing. I wanted to see if maybe we can do a little bit of a pause and double check and kinda, like, cross our t's and dot our i's on this particular institution that does not follow all standards nor protocols in terms of safety, even medical administration, as well as even building safety standards to be recommended for permanent housing. They have I have had experience there to where I have witnessed patients not being given any food or even drink throughout the day or specific periods of the day, only given one one meal or none.

I've witnessed abuse, even have experienced abuse in this environment, to see that they are going to be receiving more funding for their program that's very flawed, and would need continuous audits. I believe at least a few to make sure everything would be thoroughly checked, and as well as seeing, sexual violence and not not enough monitoring either, as well as lack of curriculum for their education program in terms of what they call their care program for educating the patients that live there. So I would carefully think about having to pass this motion for this particular institution. No comment on the rest, but in hopes that something else would be added in to protect the patients as well as other members of the community that gets inserted into that system of permanent housing for to ensure their safety, as well as, ensure that the people who work there actually want to be there and provide the medical care that is needed, as well as the education and that they are all trained accordingly. Thank you for listening to me.

Thank you for your comments.

There are no more hands at this time, Madam Chair.

No other hands raised. I'm going to close public comment, bring it back before the council and see if there are any further comments from my colleagues. So I appreciate the the comments by one of our community members, and we can ask some questions, but we've actually already approved this. This is just correcting the project so that if it's audited in the future, the right amount of money went to the right program so that, like, all the things are there. And so I believe I will go to council member Denson before I say anything else.

Thank you, chair. Just for the the community's knowledge, and I know that we're gonna be talking about this at a future committee of the whole meeting. But if there is if there are constituents, residents of Pierce County that have concerns about any agencies that we fund, I don't know if we can share information about what they should do, who they should reach out to.

I would say sending it to us initially is always a good first step because we often know where to send information or have access to the human services staff more directly. So that would be a first step. I'm not aware of an official county wide portal at this time for filing complaints or concerns unless miss Isaacson is raising her hand. She's you wanna bring her over? She's our Human Services staff.

And I know we are having some additional conversations about how Human Services vets organizations and tracks and, you know, tracks performance and make sure we're accomplishing the goals set out. So we've got a lot of checks and balances in place. But I know this has come up a couple of times, so I would love to know what to tell residents.

Yes. Good afternoon, council members. I just wanted to give a little bit of information on how we handle grievances for our homeless service providers in Pierce County. So all providers are expected to have grievance policies that are given out of intake. The grievance policy should include the steps that they would follow in order to file a complaint, and that does include contacting Pierce County Human Services directly.

So if there are issues or problems, they have a direct pipeline to us. Portal currently and it is part of our plan to evolve the way that clients have access to human services and how they can file grievances with the county. But we do have a process in place and that is monitored annually to make sure that client file all of our client files have that grievance policy signed, as confirmation that they have reviewed it.

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you so much.

Thank you, miss Isaacson. I appreciate you jumping in. So, again, seems like that we're gonna do a little bit more learning on this in the near future. I wanna say next month. I'm seeing head nods. Okay. So we'll just encourage people to join us and learn with us. So the motion before us is to approve resolution twenty twenty six dash one fifty one. I'm gonna ask the clerk to call the roll.

Council member Kruger. Kruger says yay. Council member Ayala.

Can you say that one more time, Council Member Ayala? Council

Member Yombe? Aye. Council Member Denson? Aye. Council Member Morell?

I can see he's on the meeting. I don't know that. Maybe he's in a space where he cannot unmute. He's just listening.

Council Aye.

Oh, there he is. Council

Member Herrera?

Yes.

Council Member Hitchin? Aye. The results of the roll call

vote is seven ayes and zero nays. With seven ayes and zero nays, the motion is adopted. Thank you to our staff for getting this situated and forward. Okay. We now have council member Dunson with O2026Dash515.

Thank you. Chair, I move for approval proposal number O2026Dash515.

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

Proposal number O2026Dash515, an ordinance of the Pierce County Council relating to vacancies on county boards, commissions, and advisory groups, and amending various chapters and sections of titles two, three, eight, and eleven of the Pierce County code.

Thank you. And miss Long, you're gonna let us know what this one is doing.

Yes. Thank you. So the proposal before you amends various sections of the Pierce County Code to standardize the process for making appointments, filling vacancies in county advisory bodies for unexpired terms to require that such appointments be to a full term. So as a bit of background, Pierce County has quite number of volunteer boards, commissions, committees, and other advisory groups created to provide advice to county government on matters within its decision making authority. Many of these boards, commissions, and other advisory groups were created with staggered terms to promote continuity, prevent simultaneous expiration of all terms, and to encourage the regular introduction of new members.

So in the case of the boards or commissions listed and identified in the proposal before you, When a vacancy occurs prior to the expiration of a term, the appointment is to the remainder of the term, thereby maintaining the staggered terms of members. However, over time, these abbreviated term appointments have caused confusion and administrative errors relating to the term lengths and expiration dates. So to achieve clarity and stability for the county's volunteers and to streamline the administration of the appointment process, The proposal amends all of these code sections to standardize vacancy appointments to full terms. This was heard in Rules and Operations on May 4 and received a due pass recommendation. And I will note that Julie Murray from the executive's office, executive counsel, is here to answer any questions or further explain the proposal.

Thank you.

Thank you. Are there questions for Ms. Murray? Or Ms. Murray, do you have anything to add? We did a deep dive at rules. I'm not seeing anyone raise their hands, so I'm gonna open this up for public comment. At this time, if anyone would like to provide comments on ordinance twenty twenty six dash five one five, you have up to three minutes. We'll start in chambers like always. Lots of head shakes, so we'll go online, mister Dominique.

For any member of the public that will excuse me. For any member the public that like to provide comment on proposal number O2026Dash515, please press the raise hand icon in Zoom or star nine on your telephone keypad. No hands at this time, Madam Chair.

With no hands raised, I'm gonna close public comment, bring it back before the council and see if there's any further comments. So I just want to thank Ms. Murray and team for doing this. I think one of the things, as somebody who has been trying to track who's on boards and commissions and figure this out, when somebody serves a six month term or a five month term or a one month term and then they cycle back in, it's do they have two terms, one term, three terms? It's super confusing because they don't know what that partial one counts as.

And it's just caused some, I'm gonna call it frustration from multiple sides. So it's going to naturally stagger because people come in and out of boards and commissions pretty regularly. They move out of a district. They change a job. They decide they don't want to do it anymore and they stop showing up. I mean, there's lots of ways that we go through people. And once we go through all the paperwork and the interviews and all the stuff, we should just appoint them for a term. It's it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work on our end. It's a lot of work of the employees, who do the vetting.

And then it's work for these individuals and making them go through it again is silly. So, I'm excited to see this and would urge adoption. I'm going to ask the clerk to call the roll on the approval of O twenty twenty six-five fifteen, and I'm going to ask my colleagues that are in DC if you could use the word yes. It's more likely that we will hear you or no if if you're gonna vote against it because it's a little bit clearer. So just flagging that, and I'm gonna turn this over to miss Persons.

Council Member Herrera?

Yes.

Council Member Kruger?

Kruger says yes.

Council Member Ayala? Councilmember Yombe?

Yes.

Councilmember Denson? Yes. Councilmember Morales?

Yes.

Council Member Hitchin? Yes. The results of the roll call vote is seven yeses and zero nos.

Okay. Perfect. With seven yeses, this is adopted. Thank you all, and thanks for a quick change in how I wanted you to engage. It did make it a little bit clearer. So we are now at community forum. Community forum is an opportunity where we invite the public to address the counsel on any topic of interest that was not on the agenda for final action. Using our public facilities to provide testimony for or against any campaign items is against our rules, actually state law. If you'd like your name on the record, please state it at the beginning of your comments and you address your comments to the chair. We will start with those that are in chambers.

So if you'd like to come to the podium, there are three of you. And you each get three minutes or We can talk together. Okay, we're going to tag team. Okay.

Madam Chair, council members, we're very honored to be here today. Thank you for receiving us. We are from Community Health Care, and I'm honored to represent and to explain health care and health care training crisis that is unfolding now, and we seek your advice and help. I am Doctor. Donna Burksen. I'm a clinical psychologist and the director of behavioral medicine at our family medicine residency training program for the last eleven years. I'm responsible for teaching family medicine residents psychology of their practice and providing collaborative care, clinical care, to our community. This is Doctor. Whitehill.

Yeah, my name is Laura Whitehill. I'm a family medicine doctor currently working at community health care and a recent graduate of the family medicine program. So I've been working at community health care for the last

four years. And we worked together during residency. And it's a pleasure to present with you. We'd like to read the press release that we're working on and will be distributed to various organizations and people throughout Pierce County and beyond at the state level. Community health Care's family medicine residency is being forced to close as of June 30, after Virginia Mason Franciscan Health abruptly terminated their affiliation agreement with us December 2025.

CHC is a federally qualified health centre that serves low income and predominantly underserved communities. CHC's family medicine residency is designed to train our future primary care doctors to deliver compassionate care to our population to this population. CHC is an independent organisation, and its residency necessitates a connection to a hospital to fulfil training requirements. Since its inception in 2014, CHC has had an agreement with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health to provide hospital based training. In December 2025, they gave notice they were ending this relationship without any reason beyond their own internal priorities.

This left the residency without a viable ability to continue. Although MultiCare has attempted sincerely to incorporate CHC's residents, Recently, this organisation also declined to train CHC's residents, and this was announced last Tuesday, six weeks before new residents were scheduled to arrive. This decision will greatly impact Pierce County and CHC. In 2025, CHC provided care to more than 54,000 patients and the residents who has graduated 55 board certified family physicians since its inception, most of which serve in the local area. Can we continue?

Yep, we're just going to wait. Three more minutes, because there's two of you.

With the current shortage of primary care physicians, the loss of this training pipeline will impact our regions, especially the low income and underserved communities CHC serves. I'll quote our program director, Carrie Our local community has already a difficult time accessing health care in a reasonable amount of time, says Doctor. Carrie Jo Timmer, our program director for CHC's family medicine program. Who hasn't heard of a friend or family member complain about long wait times to access primary care doctor? This announcement worsens that reality.

We understand the challenges of health care organisations that stem from funding uncertainties, including recent changes at the federal level, said Doctor. Timmer. Still, it's disappointing to know that our partnering organisations have chosen to focus on other priorities. So we ask for your help and advice in bringing these stakeholders together, the hospital, multi care and CHC together. Franciscan. Franciscan as well, to solve this problem. We can't afford to cut this residency program. Can we come together and solve it so that all parties succeed? And that is our hope and aim.

Thank you.

I guess I could also just add that we provide primary care, but we also provide maternity care and deliver babies for our patients and inpatient medicine and inpatient pediatric care to our patients as well. So it's not just outpatient primary care that will be affected.

Thank you very much for sharing. We look forward to and you could email that press release to the council, just PC council, or we'll probably see it in the TNT.

We will, and I also want to thank those of you, I believe even Robin responded to Doctor. Edward Seto, has been part of this effort. Stacy Beck has been part of the press release. All of our colleagues, core faculty were here representing a group who I know would be here, but they are at the clinic taking care of patients. So we look forward to that and we will certainly, send it to counsel and anyone else you recommend.

Thank you very much for your comments.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Okay. Ryan? There's only one of you, you just get three minutes, Okay?

Oh, come on. That's Okay.

I don't

want talk anyway. Name is Ryan Hart. I work with the Office of Behavioral Health Advocacy. I'm the Pierce County Advocacy Coordinator. Was That almost my whole three minutes right there. I just wanted to say thank you to you guys, first of all. I know I've said specifically to Chair Hyechin that I appreciate the work, the good work that you guys are doing, especially in behavioral health. I see you in Zoom meetings every other week or so. And I just love everything you guys are putting out there. I don't know if it's appropriate for me to plug my event this week. We do have a behavioral health community forum and resource fair coming this Friday. It's going to be at the Dreyer Masonic Center on 134th And Pacific, which is Chair Hitchens District. So we're looking forward to having you there still. That's the case, right? Okay.

And I know I haven't bullied you into talking all the way yet day. You do not have to, but there's a spot saved for you if you'd like We'd like to talk about the behavioral health sales tax just a little bit. Our leadership is really looking forward to discussing it. But other than that, I actually wanted to comment on the earlier public comment regarding the complaints and grievances. That's what our office does.

If it's behavioral health related, substance use related, inpatient care, outpatient counseling, you have a complaint or a grievance, that's what our office does. So I'm your guy. You call me and then if it's something that actually, if I can't help you isolate the problem and get it down to let's just have a conversation, then I'll turn you over to Angela Yancey Watson. She's our advocate and she will help walk people through the process of complaint, grievance, hearing, appeal, all of it. That's what we do.

So you can go to the OBHA website, which is obhadvocacy.org. There's a region all over the state. There's 10 of us, 10 offices. So I mean, even and we also have a no wrong door policy. So even if it's not behavioral health or substance use related, I'm happy to be an emotional support human or a living two eleven, you know, and I will help get you to the right person, the right place for you to get stuff taken care of.

We want to make sure people's complaints are heard and are actually filed properly and get that lizard off your back that makes you fight, flight, or freeze. That's what we're there for. And you also mentioned that because it's Memorial Day this week or next week that there's lots of events going on. Specifically, there's one going to be at the Tacoma Dome on the thirtieth. It's the thirteenth Annual Veterans Resource Fair. Believe that's free for the public. There's also a Mental Health Awareness Night at the Rainier's at Chaney Stadium on the twenty eighth. And OBHA is gonna be there, so if anybody has questions, please come find us, talk to us, ask for my number. I'll give it out like crazy. But I'm just out here helping people, so I think that's my time then.

Thank you very much for the work.

Absolutely.

Okay. Mister Dominique, we're gonna go online for community forum.

For any member of the public that would like to participate in community forum, please press the raise hand icon in Zoom or star nine on your telephone keypad. And we have one hand at this time. Angela Lin, please state your name for the record, and you have three minutes.

So good afternoon, council members. My name is Angeline Schiarito from Pierce County District 2. I have a comment on today's proclamation on the National Public Works Week. One of the most common questions I hear when it comes to public works is what do they do? So it's nice to see them have more recognition or more awareness throughout the community for all that they do.

I'm hoping to see in the nearby future more surface infrastructure streets improvements and sidewalk expansion projects, especially near the school zones, and along routes to bus stops for ease of access. Near Pope Elementary School, there is much range of uneven ground and gravel strips, making it difficult for those with strollers, walkers, and wheelchairs to travel the walking distances. Not to mention, I have had some shoes damaged and a small rolling luggage bag lose wheels just from walking along just from a walking walking along, excuse me, two streets, 122nd Avenue East and along 152nd Street East from the dead end toward Meridian Avenue of gravel just one time. It is also a public safety concern for cars pulling over during the dark hours for kidnapping attempts. If there were more sidewalks, this would be reduced.

That is a great investment and less less expensive than stacking medical bills. There's also the request of ensuring our storm water drainage and sewer systems clear of all suspicious human trafficking activities, and no dumping or hanging of bodies of people anywhere in there. Many cities in our country have been getting cleaned out and people that I have helped rescue in at least 25 cities. I too have, have almost been captured and thrown into a sewer in Seattle while homeless on the street at night while my vehicle was stolen. Thank you for this proclamation, and may more employees in the public works field be encouraged to do the right thing and better our futures. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

There are no more hands at this time, madam chair.

With no other hands raised, I'm gonna close public comment bringing back before the council. Is there any other business or announcements from any of my colleagues or staff? Not seeing any. So thank you all for joining us. To my colleagues in the other Washington, safe travels back. Seeing no other business before us, we are adjourned. Thank you, everybody.