City Council - Regular Meeting

I call the Wednesday, 02/18/2026 council business meeting to order. I met with the council members at 5PM in the 6th Floor Council Conference Room for a briefing to discuss tonight's agenda. At 05:30, we moved here to the 1st Floor chambers to conduct the council business meeting in person. And because we encourage community involvement, we invite the public to join us in person or attend being remote option through Zoom or view on BCAT. In response to previous comments that were not germane to city business and not accepted per council rules and procedures, the council will be temporarily modifying the public comment process to only accept written comments.

The council wants to ensure there is a safe, respectful, and productive environment that also encourages engagement. Continued discussion is planned to develop updated procedures, and we appreciate your patience. Written comments on business items or any other city issue may be sent to city dot councilbremertonwa dot gov or to 345 6th Street, Suite 100, Bremerton, Washington, 98337. We will start tonight's meeting with the consent agenda.

Thank you, council president. For approval on the consent agenda are the following items. A, claims and check register, approval of the following checks and electronic fund transfers. One, check number is 413879 through 414024, and EFT number is V45511 through V45635, in the grand total amount of $3,179,722.79. Two, regular payroll for pay period ending 01/31/2026 in the amount of $1,236,872.42.

Three, regular payroll payouts for pay period ending 01/31/2026 in the amount of $4,223.54. B, minutes of council meeting, 02/04/2026. C, minutes of study session, 02/11/2026. D, confirm reappointment of Vanessa Scherto to BCAT community advisory committee. E, 2026, ex excess workers compensation insurance renewal with Safety National Casualty Corporation.

F, public works agreement for the purchase of playground equipment for Buell Recreation LLC for the Kitsap Lake Park Playground. G, National Fitness Campaign Court grant application. H, utility relocation agreements for Site B and Site C with Kiewit for Washington State Department of Transportation Fish Passage Project. This concludes the reading of the consent agenda.

Thank you. Written comments were accepted until Tuesday, February 17 at noon at city council at bremertonwa.gov. We will go to council for a motion.

Move to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Seeing no further discussion, let's vote on the consent agenda.

Council member Chamberlain? Yes. Thank you. Fry?

Yes.

Camerata? Yes. Good now?

Yes.

Mochler? Yes. Tift?

Yes.

Rebelowski? Yes. Motion carries unanimously.

With no general business items, next, we have the mayor's report. Welcome, mayor.

Alright. Good evening, city council, city council president, councilors. So a couple slides for you. And still still actively recruiting, and as for the for Bremerton's active transportation plan, needs some we need volunteers to step up, and you can see on the PowerPoint, the commitment is three two hour workshops over the next eighteen months, and so we're looking for, you know, some some goals from the community. The broader the perspective, the better.

And so as you're out in the community and you you're interact interacting in their circles, Let's let's see if we can get some some folks to step up and do this. Next slide, please. So this this is a sign that we're getting close to being done with the winter. So it you know, and we all we all love the winter. Right? I mean, we we do in this in this beautiful town here and and our Northwest Region. But spring is something to look forward to, and the garden club has been, again, as they do on an annual basis, partnering with our parks department to get those baskets planted.

So those will be coming soon to the city, and it's just wonderful. And again, just something our city does to beautify,

you know, just to help beautify all of our what we do. So yeah. Now this one here, always try to highlight, and you'll notice a theme, highlight the partnerships, how important they are. And you know, can't speak enough about the Lions and all they do for our community. This will improve accessibility for the tennis courts, tennis pickleball courts at Lions Park. So, yes. So it's it's a wonderful thing. And for this part project right here, can see on the check, that's a $15,000 check Tim Tim's got his hands on. He's probably already cashed it,

and

yeah. So it'd be nice to get those those accessibility improvements in order. I walked this one today. Actually, the

That looks beautiful.

It's down there a couple times during construction. I wanted you to see this. This is brand new performed by our our street street crews, and this is part of a a larger project. As you can see, the it was the sewer force main replacement. This partnership with the Navy.

And so a change order, 1 plus million dollar in addition to the project at no cost to the city, and we were able to improve, as you see there, new sidewalks, street, curb and gutters, storm storm water collection system, slopes were improved to for that collection system. Sinkholes were addressed. We had sinkhole problems on this in this section right here of road. So I encourage you to get down there. It's a nice little pedestrian and cycling path from up in the Union Hill neighborhood down into the Charleston Business District neighborhood.

So this is it's it's really nice. And again, take a chance to go down there if you can and and check it out. So that's it tonight, counsel. Have a good meeting.

Thank you. This is an Sorry. This is the last council meeting of the month, and this is an opportunity for council members to provide an update on any issues or events taking place in their district, announce any events they've recently attended or plan to attend, or to speak at any other city related topic. First up tonight would be District 7 council member Rick Tiff. Thank you.

I have no report tonight. Okay. Next up would be District 6, Council Member Anna Mochler.

Thank you. May I have the there we go. So this is Eric Harold of the Salvation Army and Corey Dessenberger, I'm messing that up, at the point in time count on January 29. Just getting all the volunteers ready. This is the fourth time I've done it, so I had pleasure to take pictures.

Next slide, please. Here's just some more from Project CONNECT. Katie Sharp, who heads the KITSAP Housing and Homelessness Coalition. In the bottom left, see KCR case managers, Housing Solutions Center, and then I got permission from both this gentleman and his stylist to take their photograph because they were given out free haircuts and updos and makeovers and so forth. It was pretty nice.

Next slide please. Just to finish up on Project CONNECT, it's the annual point in time count where homeless people are counted here at Salvation Army, and then also outreach teams go fan out to people who aren't indoors. This is really good incarceration, I think. These are strapped to the chain link fence at the public works facility on Oyster Bay Avenue. I'm particularly happy about some of them, which I won't name.

This is a a capture, which is I believe largely done by Chris Smith, so shout out to Chris Smith. That's all. It was just good incarceration. Next slide, please. So this was the, quite lightly attended, everything you wanted to know about the budget town hall on February 9.

And here, Mike Reilly and I'm sorry, I'm blanking on their names. Missy Gaines and Okay, a third person, had prepared all of these things like parks and recreation, the mayor's office, the municipal court, communications department, which, you know, we don't have, and people went around and put paper clips on them to indicate what they wanted to spend their money on. And you can't see it in this picture, but the there was a little heap of paper clip clips on affordable housing. So Mike Riley was sad to have to say, if we do this, you know, we can't have police, we can't have fire, we can't have streets. We're a pretty lean, bare bones budget here at Bremerton.

Next slide, please. Oh, okay. So if you would go back to the budget. Thank you. So the March 9 town hall will be on houselessness solutions that work, that are working in our region.

You know, I'm not reaching out to San Francisco or Geneva or anything like that, it's like what's working around here? Safe Park, is working with the faith based community in Pierce County to provide safe parking for mostly the working poor who are living in their cars. And they have been having really wild success with like, the neighborhoods around are are happy about this, So that seemed to me like a solution that's working. The Tacoma Rescue Mission has a day center where people can come in during the day and get services, including socks and warm clothes. And if they want to talk to a case manager, case managers are there.

And it's it's a good entry, and it's also something I've been advocating for here in Bremerton, except we have no service provider. Like, Tacoma has one, we don't. So we don't have anybody to to oversee this. But it is a solution. It's and looking at solutions that work, I think, is helpful for us to pick what we want to do next.

Bremerton Housing Authority is pretty much confirmed. Maybe, they are going out into shelters to distribute section eight vouchers, and Kitsap Community Resources will do a brief presentation on their coordinated entry system. I'm hopeful about Michelle Fleetwood of Eagle's Wings, but that's it. Five is already one more. That was pretty much all that was happening in District 6.

I'm really proud to be representing this district where, and you guys have all heard me say this a million times, where people are very concerned about the homeless, and what they want us to do is give them homes. And if I had a magic wand, I would be I would have waived it. That's it for me tonight. Have a good one. Stay warm, everybody. Yeah?

Thank you. Next, district five council member Michael Goodnow. Your report, please.

Alright. I think I just have one slide tonight. Just wanna from the Charleston Business District, shout out. Congratulations to local photographer down in the district, George Stenberg, whose photograph, the magical ferry ride, has been selected for inclusion in the Open Air Gallery, a public art installation in downtown. Stunning piece was beautifully captures the spirit of our waterfront community and will be a meaningful addition to the public art experience. We're proud to see George's work recognized and shared with the broader community. And that's all I have today. Thank

you. Next, District 3, council member Christy Kamarata.

Alright. Oh, I get to start with the happy stuff. Okay. This was an event that happened on January 30, and I kinda had to take a beat for a second with it because I'm a crier, so there was no way that I could present what had occurred down at Hound and Bottle without tearing up. So it I literally had to wait two weeks just so that I could get through this.

If you're not familiar with Hound and Bottle, it is a restaurant that is in the Minette area on eleventh. And what they did on January 30, I saw it on Facebook. So this is kind of it it wasn't a lot of fanfare, but I saw that they had made a post. And if you haven't seen it, it's on their Facebook website, and I highly recommend you go because it gives a beautiful story of the background of why they were doing it. But I will read, hopefully without crying here.

So on January 30, this is Alan, he owns Hound Model, and he decided to fire up a very large pan of paella as you can see. And as part of the Facebook post, I'll read it. In honor of showing up how we can, Alan will be firing up a big pan. Paella will be served starting at 4PM on Friday. You're welcome to dine in or take a dinner to go.

We ask that you or we ask only that you do what you can, volunteer, make a donation, give a high, or give a hug. And so that is an amazing thing, and I think that that really shows Bremerton that this is an amazing restaurant that my husband and I absolutely love going on date nights and experiencing and, you know, just kind of doom scrolling on Facebook and you see something like this in your community. I instantly I ended up running down to see this. I was in sweatpants with the messy bun of, Alan, can I take a picture of you, please? So he did give me permission on this, and I just wanted to shout out that this is an amazing business in our area that chose to do something amazing for our community.

So I just wanted that to to be said. Next slide, please. Alright. So this is I think this is the Bremerton Parks is doing this, if I'm not mistaken, but, they are doing on Washington Avenue an open air gallery unveiling celebration. That'll be on February 23 at 3PM, and it's in the roundabout on the Minette Bridge, not on the Minette side, the other side on Washington there. So if anybody wants to head on out and see the unveiling, that is again February 23 at 3PM, but if you ever are in that roundabout, you'll get to enjoy it every day. Next slide, please.

The best side is the best side.

We're having a turf war now? Wow. So the last slide that I have is light up Bremerton. This is the lantern parade. So this is on Friday, March 6. This was presented two weeks ago, I believe, in the mayor's report, and so it's just a reminder because, this will be coming up by the time we have another city council meeting. For this, this is going to be everybody's meeting at Quincy Square. And do you you sign up at the Roxy. Is that correct, Michael?

Question. I think so.

Okay. At at 05:30, bring your own lanterns. And so my family has just purchased some white lanterns on Amazon, and we are hand painting them and having just a really fun time doing it. So we can't wait to get out there and give this a try. And I think that's it. I don't I'm good. Thank

you. Next is council vice president and district two council member Denise Fry.

Thank you. Thank you. It's a wonderful lead in council member Camerata's report talking about positive things that are happening in the community, and if you haven't been to the Village Event Center and enjoyed an event there, you really should drop by sometime. It's the site of many feel good coming together type of events for the community, and recently, Kitsap Strong hosted an event there, or the village hosted them, And it was to recognize what I consider to be unsung heroes in our community, and that's parents. You know?

I can remember when I was at the Chamber of Commerce during the pandemic, I became very conscious of the impact of the pandemic on parents who were having to juggle careers and children out of school, and going to school in their homes, and all of that. And I hadn't really thought about it too much since then. It hasn't been on my mind, and yet parents, you know, they're raising our children, and some of them are doing it against great odds. It just so happens that our council member here and her husband, you know, Christy Camerado, our our new council member, happens to be married to a lieutenant in our fire department, Benny Camerado. And so they both were nominated get this award as parents.

And just think it's really special that both parents and a family got nominated. Not just one of them, but both parents. And the more I'm around your kids and have the opportunity, it it it it pays off. And so to all the parents out there, truly, we know you're there, and we know that it can be a struggle sometimes, a lot of times. And I'm going to try to keep that in my consciousness a lot more often, even though I'm a 70 year old grandmother at this point.

So congratulations, Christie, and congratulations to the village and the DePyre family and everybody over there. Okay. I think that's it.

Thank you. Next up is district one council member Jennifer Chamberlain. Hey there. I have no slides, so but I

just wanted to a couple things. I noticed when I was going on to, onto our pages that now you can click onto our pages and find our phone numbers. We have council phones, and you can, give us a call if you wanna chat, leave a voicemail, in addition to, leaving us emails. So I just wanted to make sure that you knew about that option. You can get to it by, going to it's not easy either, let me tell you.

There there used to be an easier way, I feel. But you can get to it from the city council website, and then going to council districts and clicking on your councilor's name, then you get the staff directory, and you can find the information from there. Or with the with the different districts, can find on the homepage for each district, a link that will take you to email and also our council phone numbers. And I also wanted to, just throw that out there because I'd love for folks to get a hold of me if they want to if they're interested in being part of the Stephenson Canyon Stewardship Group. We're gonna have a meeting coming up in March, and, I would love to just start with a walk through Stephenson Canyon.

And so if you're interested, if you've been a past volunteer or if you'd like to be a future volunteer in this, please find me and call me or send me an email. And with that, that's all I'd like to share. Thank you.

Thank you. And next is my report. This great thing I saw on Facebook the other day is coming to Bremerton as a care portal. It's mostly, to my understanding, religious organizations and nonprofits that sign up. And what it is, is somebody can write in and say, I need a mattress for my bed, or I need size six pants for my child.

And so all the local members can just look at it and quickly respond to these needs all over our city. So there's a meeting, this Sunday at City Chapel after their service, and I think it's at 11:30 it starts, where you can come and get more information. And I hope a lot of other religious organizations and volunteer groups do come and learn more about it, and consider having your organization join in on it. Okay, next slide, please. So this shows where Care Portal is currently busy, but you can see how much impact they're having over our whole country.

And you know, it started it appears to have started in the Midwest, and it's just starting to come out to our area. So I think this is a great way. A lot of times people don't know how they can help somebody right away, And this seems to be a good way that you can do immediate impact. Next slide, please. So this was Ben Kryfels.

He was a veteran. He was pretty young, and he committed suicide. Can I have my next slide, please? The Port Orchard Rotary is hosting a function at our Bremerton City Convention Center, and it's called Permission to Start Dreaming. And it's a fundraiser to support our active duty military, veterans, and first responders.

And I hope a lot of people look into it and consider attending or sending a donation. Suicide impacts all families, but it especially seems to impact active duty veterans and first responders at an even higher percentage. So let's all figure out how to help them more. Next slide, please. So upcoming meetings, that you may be interested in zooming in on is lodging tax advisory committee is tomorrow at 03:30.

Parks finance investment and parking committee is on the twenty fourth. The city council study session next week is on the twenty fifth. The public safety committee is meeting on March 2, and then our regular, council business meeting will be on March 4. So a reminder that the next regular study session will be Wednesday, February 25, beginning at 5PM in the 6th Floor Council Conference Room with a remote option available. Our agenda and package should be posted, by the end of the day, Friday.

So if you have if you look that over and you have any comments that you would like counsel to be aware of or to for us to ask questions to the presenters at the study session, try to get those to us by Tuesday afternoon. And this concludes tonight's business meeting. Thank you for coming.