City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

One, I can't actually lean back on it.

Oh, you can? Good

evening. I'll call the, Federal Way City Council meeting for Tuesday, February 2026 to order. Would you all please rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Alright. Well, good evening, everyone. Okay. First, we have under, we're on item three a. We have the World Down Syndrome Day proclamation, and, council member Asafid Hassan will start us off.

Proclamation. Thank you for being here and thank you for your story last a couple of weeks ago. Beautiful and I really appreciate it and for our gifts and everything. So I just wanted to acknowledge that before we get started. So once we read the proclamation, you guys, if you want to go up there and say a few words. And then we also have another recipient, but unfortunately, they couldn't be here. So they're going to be on Zoom, I believe, Doctor. Okay. So we'll get started. Meanwhile, Doctor.

Wozee. Thank you. All right. Proclamation World Down Syndrome Day. Whereas Down syndrome is a genetic disorder affecting one in over seven hundred babies or approximately six thousand births per year in The United States and whereas Down syndrome is a naturally occurring chromosomal arrangement resulting in an extra or third set of chromosome number twenty one and whereas individuals living with Down syndrome are independent, valuable and active members of our community who are dignified participants in a wide range of educational, occupational, social and recreational activities and whereas the theme for twenty twenty six World's Down Syndrome Day is Together Against Loneliness highlighting the common and painful experience that many with Down syndrome feel each day and whereas creating real inclusion, welcoming spaces and meaningful relationships help to combat loneliness and whereas individuals with disabilities have the right to be treated fairly and have the same opportunities as everyone else.

Now therefore, we the undersigned mayor and city council members of the city of Federal Way do hereby proclaim March 21 as World Syndrome Day and Federal Way and urge all residents to continue to build a more inclusive and welcoming way. Signed this March 2026.

Thank you. And we'll have, Ariana Graham and Alicia Viella with three twenty one Buddy Foundation. And if you wanna step up just a little bit, it's okay.

Hi, guys. It's me Ari. Thank you for seeing me. Thank you for hearing me. Thank you for celebrating me. And all my friends with Down syndrome. You can celebrate with us more in October. Get your calendars out. I am inviting you to be part of my buddy walk team. On 10/03/2026 in Tacoma,

One more thing.

Hard hands are fun to do.

But

did you know they are even more special when you make the heart with another person? Go ahead and try it.

Hi. My name is Alicia Valeila, and I'm the executive director of three twenty one Buddy. And first, we would like to thank you all for seeing us, for seeing our families, and seeing our loved ones. Because of children like Ari, so many of us families are given the support to advocate and educate people about individuals with Down syndrome. Ari has been a leader in our community as her family has also supported her. So thank you so much for seeing her and seeing all of our children.

I'm Andrea, but most of you and most of our community actually knows me as Ari's mom. I'm not as cool as her, and I could never be. It's that extra chromosome I'm sure. Eleven years ago, when I held her for the first time, we adopted Ari at birth. I made a promise to her that I would advocate as her mom until she could do so herself.

And as you all saw three weeks ago as she stood in front of you, she advocated for herself for the very first time. I promise I held it together here, but I was a hot mess at home when I rewatched it, when we shared it, because that's what we're going for. Ari built her speech and all of the things on her ace AAC with our help. But if she doesn't like it, trust me, we know it. She lets us know.

So those are her words, and it's amazing to watch her grow into that. But that's exactly what we hoped for eleven years ago. We advocate because the world is aware of Down syndrome, and we often hear Down syndrome awareness. But the world is aware. And with that awareness often comes kind of a negative perspective or fear.

People see those with Down syndrome as unable or not going to be a person within our society that is successful. We know individuals with Down syndrome that have graduated college, that have degrees, that got married, and there is a young woman in Washington DC lobbying right now that has Down syndrome. It is possible for our loved ones as long as our community sees them and hears them and accepts them. And so we ask for acceptance because with that acceptance comes a community that comes around Ariana and helps her grow into be the most amazing person that she's going to be. And that's our goal, and that is why we advocate so hard.

And so I appreciate and thank every single one of you here for seeing Ariana, hearing her three weeks ago, and acknowledging that she's part of the Federal Way community because she makes Federal Way a better place to be. We'd like to give each council member some paperwork. We, Alicia and myself and a couple other families here, started a program down in Tacoma. The Tacoma group is called three two one Buddy, and we have a buddy walk that we're doing as Ariana invited you all to. Once I have her team made, will be over the summer, she'll we'll send out an invitation to the city council.

We'd love to have you guys join us. But I'd love to share information because we also opened up a community center for people with Down syndrome where they can go with their families. It's a resource to teach different things such as reading, job skills, and so on. But we are now in the process of next week, we are opening a day center for individuals not just with Down syndrome but with disabilities. And so if I could hand them and have you guys fabulous.

And one last thing, we had a goal, as Ari shared, to spread 21 or replace 21 heart hands. Unfortunately, Ari got sick, and, we had to lay low for about ten days. She has a slew of other health stuff that got in the way. So she has hidden well, not hidden, but she has placed heart hands inside, outside, and will finish this evening around the community for people to find her.

Thank you. Oh, and as you pass, pass that out, you can give that to the city clerk and she'll pass it Alright. This

Thank you so much.

Thank you. And, Arie, I put my, hard hands on my Arie, I put my hard hands on my, shelf in my office. So thank you so much for bringing those. It's great to see you both today. Thank you. Okay. And thank you, council member Asafo It was council member Asafo Dawson Dawson. Who put this on the who, suggest we put this on the agenda after we heard from Ari. So thank you council member for following up. Okay.

Now we've got mayor's emerging issues and report. We've got, recent events. Okay. We had, in this very oh, yes. That's when we did the, Zipline. I that's Jared Newhouse who works for Zipline, but he's also a council member with the city of Bellevue. And he kept insisting even though there's a little bit of snow, that we have umbrellas. I'm like, you don't need umbrellas for snow. But, anyway, that's right outside the city of Federal Way, and we're having a couple of different, Internet providers. Thank you.

Bye, you guys. Bye. Thank you. And they're coming to the city of Federal Way, and and we did one function at Steel Lake for one company and another in the in the snow. They kept pushing the umbrellas.

Alright. Next. Okay. In this very room, we had probably one of the most monumental and significant events, that has ever occurred in our city hall chambers, and that was, that individual on the bottom picture is the head of the Seattle FBI office. And, they the, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, put a federal way case, a a defendant, Samuel Ramirez, on the one one of the 10 most wanted, in the nation. And there was a news conference in this room. Myself, I I spoke. The chief spoke. The head of the Seattle office spoke. The U United State assistant, United States attorney handling the case.

It was the five hundred and thirty eighth case that the FBI had ever, in, I think, over seventy years had, placed on the 10 most wanted. Within an hour and thirteen minutes in Mexico, mister Ramirez was found, and put into custody and flown back later that day, where he now sits in the King County Jail awaiting charges for the horrible murders of two individuals in our community. And I just wanna say a very special thank you to the chief, to the FBI, to everybody involved, and, I was just very, it was great to see the federal right mirror here, all the regional media, and, we're very gratified that we got an answer to that. That individual had fled, not only the state, in our jurisdiction, but had fled the country. And we needed federal law enforcement assistance, and, they also worked with the Mexican authorities, and made the arrest in Mexico, within, like I said, a record time of an hour and thirteen minutes.

So that was in in it's a silver lining, and now it's time for accountability and justice. So that event will we'll keep you posted on how that case goes. As I mentioned, we had the Zipline fiber groundbreaking right here in front, and it was one of those days where it was snowing pretty hard. So it was great to see the team with Zipline, and we've had several other companies breaking ground. And and what that really means is greater access to our community for, you know, what the things that connect us all together, that connectivity, whether it's for education or work or, you know, the things that that help us compete in the in the marketplace or get ourselves educated or just to connect to our neighbors and friends in the nation.

So that that those connections are ongoing and different companies are, installing that that hardware essentially that that infrastructure into our community. The bottom picture was, myself, council member Walsh, Jaime Munoz, in the sort of mental middle left there. He's the owner of Azteca, and Meredith Neal, our economic development director at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon. It was a very interesting luncheon talking about searches and AI and and all kinds of how that's changing the marketplace and and changing the dynamics of the marketplace. Next.

We had the Federal Way Korean American Association celebration, the, swearing in to their new officers, and, that was on March 7, Saturday night at KOAM. It was a great celebration. It was, great to see everybody there, and congratulations to the new officers that were sworn in. Congressman Adam Smith was there as well. Upcoming events, we've got the repair cafe on March 28, and that's over there, where where the tool library is. We've got the community clothing swap on April 11, same location, and the drive thru shredding event on April 16. Is that at that same location as well, EJ?

I believe the drive thru shredding event is at Red Canoe Credit Union.

Okay. Great. Thank you very much. Okay. And that's on April 16. Alright. Next. Okay. We've got Parks Appreciation Day on April 18. We've got the several locations there. John, can you tell us the three locations for the Parks Appreciation Day?

Steel Lake, Brook Lake and Celebration Park.

Very good. Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

We've got a town hall meeting on April 30 at the at Olympic View Elementary. I believe it's on twenty sixth at about March. It's a beautiful rebuilt school, and we'll get started there at about 6PM. And we're an opportunity to talk about all kinds of things that have been mentioned. Previously, we had talked about whether we were going to have a meeting, just on, the issues related to ICE and federal law enforcement, but we wanna talk about all the things that are happening in our city. Our council will be there. The, directors will be there. And, again, town hall meeting, April 30 starting at 6PM. We've got the I'm hooked, on, I'm hooked family fishing event. That's, May 2 at Steel Lake.

I would get there early, and the gets a little crowded. And council president Honda, you normally attend that event. Any any descriptions or suggestions?

Dress for the weather, and don't be afraid to catch a fish.

I try every year. Alright. Last year was pretty comical. Okay. Next. Senior health and resource fair on May 12. And let's see here. Then we've got and now we assume that's over at the Performing Arts And Events Center?

Yes.

Yep. And what time?

Ten to one.

Ten to one. We've got Touch A Truck on May 16, and that's going to be over John, where's Touch truck this year?

That is at Wild Waves this year from eleven to two. It's gonna be a great event.

Yeah. And that's a great event. The kids absolutely love it. They've got fire trucks, garbage trucks, dump trucks. It's a pretty fun thing. Remember taking Ben. You know, I, it was I remember one year I got stuck in the, didn't they have one of those mini, hydroplanes?

Yes.

It was a lot easier getting in than getting out. But anyway, it was, they they bring all kinds of things there. It's a lot of fun, and you guys do a great job every year. Okay. Let's see here. We've got Kickin' It Federal Way, June for the World Cup. That's gonna be a lot of fun. Meredith, just a couple of quick highlights on that.

Sure. So Kickin' It is a three day festival, festival, June. It includes a watch party of FIFA World Cup games that are happening that weekend. So there'll be, I believe, 12 matches played at the Performing Arts And Events Center. There will also be a live music stage, games, activities, soccer tournaments and clinics, food vendors, and a lot more. So it's free, family friendly at the performing arts and events center.

That's great. And the senior health and housing health and resource fair is a big deal. A lot of folks there, they fill up the the atrium there and the performing arts and events center. It's a great time. And any anything else to say on that?

We have 85 vendors, and so we're full once again. And every year, it's a great event. It's if you know a senior or you plan on becoming a senior one day, you should attend.

Very good. Okay. Okay. Council committee, and that concludes my report. Thank you, Ben. Council committee reports and regional committees. We got council member Walsh, our land use and transportation committee. Chair.

Yeah. On our last meeting, we talked about a number of items. Items a through e on tonight's consent agenda came out of that meeting. And our next meeting will be April 6, Monday April 6 right here. Though it doesn't pertain directly to the Land Use and Transportation Committee, It's parks on April 18.

Once again, as the mayor said, parks appreciation day. I expect everyone on the dais to be there and everybody in the audience to be there as well. It is a wonderful this will be the twentieth year for the Parks Appreciation Day. Literally, thousands of volunteer hours have been spent over the last twenty years improving our parks and making them Federal Way, a better place to live and play and work and everything else. So be there.

Alright. Thank you. Alright. Councilmember Sesems for Parks Recreation Human Services and Public Safety Committee.

Thank you, mayor. Our committee met on 03:10. Our next meeting is April 14 at 5PM. Among other things, we did have a chance to take action on several items. You can read about them, items f, g, h, I, and j.

We also discussed several an information only item that included approval for city hall emergency roof repair. There were three information items moved to the April 14 Parks Committee meeting due to time constraints. So again, April 14 is our next meeting, at which time we will be taking up taking on the following, the flag policy overview. We'll have a pack update, and we will hear from hear a presentation about capital projects priority list. That concludes my report.

Alright. Thank you. Alright. Council Member Kuchemaher, Finance, Economic Development and Regional Affairs Committee.

Thank you, mayor. Our next Federac meeting will be March 31, 5PM in Council Chambers.

Alright. Council Member Safa Dawson, Lodging Tax Advisory Committee and pick, I believe, as well. Okay.

Thank you. The lodging tax, we're gonna be meeting on Tuesday, April 14 twenty fourth, I'm sorry. Fourteenth, okay. And we're going to be reviewing we've already talked about and met with all the grant applicants. And so we're going to be reviewing the applications, discuss them and come up with funding allocation for each of those programs.

And so that's going to be April 14. And with that, I conclude that report. And with PIC, we had a meeting two Wednesdays ago. And as Council President Susan mentioned at the last meeting, this had to do with King County's transportation district where they were asking all the cities to pay to increase taxes, sales tax and put 1% towards building the streets on unincorporated King County regions or areas and the cities were not going to benefit from that. So it was a very long conversation, long discussion, and we had to cancel the other agenda items just to focus on this.

And finally, SCA, Sun Cities Association, came up with a proposal that went to King County Executive suggesting that maybe a percentage of whatever they raise come to the cities to use them for streets. So we don't know what the outcome is going to be, but that letter is going to or has already gone to King County Executive for their consideration. And so that's where we're at. And so hopefully, our cities will benefit from this tax that could be potentially would be collected for, again, unincorporated King County streets. And yeah, that was it. So thank you.

All right, thank you. Okay, Council President Hollande.

Thank you. Just to add a little bit to council members of Dawson's report, the King County Transportation Board did hold a meeting, an emergency meeting last week. I was unable to watch it and haven't been able to watch it since, but I I plan on it. They didn't make a decision moving forward, but it is expected that they will. It'll be a 0.1% sales tax increase.

Hopefully, the cities will get some benefit from it, but most of the benefit will be for the roads and unincorporated King County. If you have an opinion about that, I would suggest you talk to the King County Council, including our representative, King County Council member Von Rothbeyer, and let let them know your opinion if you have one. So anyway, we do expect that will be a decision made sooner than later on that. I also wanna talk about our upcoming retreat as a council. It'll be held on April 4, which is a Saturday in this room.

We'll be sitting down here at tables so that we're not as formal. Doors open at 08:30, and the retreat starts at 09:00 and will conclude at 03:00. And the public is welcome to attend. We will be talking later during council business about our trip to Washington DC, so the rest of my comments will will be during council business. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. Alright. Now the most important part of the evening, which is public comment. These items have or actually on public comment, You've got three minutes unless you've got individuals that are present, five, I believe, and that would give you five minutes. I'll go ahead and list the individuals. And please, if you could queue in the back. We've got Pam Ash, Stephanie Papke, Mike Bullich Ziegler, Paul McDaniel, Jeffrey Tanqueridi, Jan Barber. I see a few more coming in. Alright. Miss Ash.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you, mayor and council. Actually, my my comments were more of a question than a statement, and it's already been answered because you did mention that at the upcoming town hall meeting on the thirtieth, you are considering putting the issue of the February 17 meeting that was so contentious on the agenda, was the discussion of federal law enforcement activities in federal way. And so I hope that you will consider doing that and ultimately decide to do that. I don't know if anyone in the audience has read or familiarized yourself with the comments from Superintendent Danny Pfeiffer, Superintendent of Federal Way Public Schools.

But she did issue a very heartfelt and serious comment in her weekly newsletter last week indicating that the staff of the district administration as well as some building staff have been participating in training in terms of how to address this issue and to be more of a support and guidance for our families and our scholars. I have taught at Federal Way High School for thirty five years. It is ranked as the eighth most diverse high school in the state of Washington and seventeenth most diverse in the nation. So I know that this is of major concern to our students, to our staff, and to our families. There there have been families already impacted in my building by encounters with federal law enforcement.

We have students who are, as we mentioned at the February 17 meeting, fearful of even leaving their homes to come to school. So this is an issue of import and concern, and I think it deserves to be mentioned at that town hall meeting. I feel like if the superintendent of our public schools is aware of how deeply this is impacting our students and has gone to the effort and taken the initiative to show concern and caring and support for our families, I think it's only fitting that our city government do the same. So I would really appreciate that being put on the agenda and giving some very serious, and heartfelt attention to that issue, which does deeply impact our community, particularly our students at Federal Way High School.

Thank you, miss Ash. It we schedule it for the express purpose of following through with, my statement at the at that meeting in February, and, it will be one of the very first items we discuss. It will be on the agenda. It will be discussed. That's actually why, we're going to be calling the meeting, but we'll there's all kinds of issues in federal way, we'll talk about the talk about those as well. Alright. Stephanie Papke. Is Stephanie here? Okay. Alright. If Stephanie reappears. K. Or is that yeah. It's in person. Okay.

Mike Bolich, Ziegler.

Good evening. My name is Mike Pollack Ziegler. I'm a federal federal way resident in the Twin Lakes neighborhood. Unfortunately, I'm here this evening because kids in the city keep getting struck by drivers, and the city needs to act. At least four kids in the last five months have been struck at the intersection of Southwest Campus Drive and 19th Avenue Southwest. That's the intersection next to the post office in Twin Lakes. The most recent one was this Sunday when it sounded like a 13 year old was struck in the intersection, and it was reported as a hit and run. In January, two kids were hit head on by a driver on their way to Tafet Sahali. The kids went on to the hood of the car and tumbled to the street, and all the other kids on the way to school rushed over as first responders. In October, another child on their way to school was hit by a driver and flung about 10 feet down the street.

These are kids who are in the crosswalk and crossed with the lights in January and October. I'm not sure the details of this weekend's collision, but so many kids use that intersection. It's a very busy and chaotic area. And I can only assume there have been more incidents of unreported close calls given the high number of collisions. I've shared these concerns with the city traffic folks. I understand this intersection and the area surrounding it will be a focus area of the city's traffic safety action plan, which is great. It's needed. But plans take time, and I am doubtful any of the recommendations will have immediate funding. The city must prioritize funding for these projects and ensure they are completed as soon as possible. These kids, unfortunately, didn't have time for that plan to be made, and I fear more kids and others won't have that time either.

I'm sure there'll be lots of conversation this evening about public safety and how we fund it. This is a public safety issue. And unless the city wants to have officers there on crosswalk duty twenty four seven, it must invest in design improvements that prioritizes the safety of pedestrians, in this case, primarily children. In case you weren't aware, the penalty for running over or striking a child in the crosswalk with your car is a $200 failure to yield ticket. That's a small price to pay compared to the lasting physical and mental trauma these kids will have after being struck. This is essentially another form of violence, and no one, especially our kids, should have to experience it. This intersection is clearly unsafe, and immediate action is necessary ahead of any any hopeful longer term improvements the city may take. Please do not wait until another person is struck or worse. Thank you.

Thank you. And, Mike, immediately following public comment, what I'm going to be doing is we'll go, we'll respond to each one, and that'll be I've I've written that down. We're gonna talk about that, and we'll likely have an a follow-up item in the next meet in the next meeting. But, we'll do follow-up after following a public comment. Alright. Paul McDaniel, for five minutes. I see you've got the signature of five individuals.

Hopefully, won't need the five. Thank you. Good evening, Paul McDaniel, resident since the nineteen nineties. I'd like to start by pretty much making a statement. I will not be going anywhere. I'm also here to help. I'm not just here to bring up uncomfortable situations a lot of the times. I believe light is needed sometimes and sometimes transparency and accountability are two things I really care about. So with that said, I'm going start off with my main concern I've had for the last couple of months and it's going to be an $8,000,000 change in the expenses. I received an email from director Groom explaining that to me and how the upper money was transferred from its fund to the general fund and how that upper money was then used.

I believe it's pay police salaries last year and that's where the $8,000,000 difference was. Now with that change, the Citi if I understand correctly and I did send an email out but I believe Grooms, did you happen to receive an email today?

I don't we don't we we Oh, sorry. Sorry.

Yeah. I believe I had some people mention that emails were not coming through. So I'll resend that one to find a way to get it to you. One of the questions I had was with the current standing, it shows that the 2025 standing for the funds were unfavorable by 1,000,000. My question that I have in there is that 1,000,000 included the $8,000,000 of ARPA. What would be if the ARPA money was not there? What would our real standing balance be without ARPA? Then I'm going to move on to the revenue streams that I looked at through the financial reports. I had to use '25 and '26 since it's split up now. Sales was unfavorable by $1,200,000 REIT is unfavorable by $1,600,000 and this is for 2025.

Business licenses were unfavorable by 40,000. Red Lights, which pays for credit through cops, was unfavorable by $1,200,000 Permits is unfavorable by 300,000 Investments is unfavorable by 135,000 But utilities actually had a gross increase of 12.8% and electrical electricity utility rate tax collected by the city was actually increased year over year by 21.4%. That's massive. I bring those up because I was told that we were in a good standing. And every time when I was on FedRAK, I brought this up, I was always told we're in a good standing.

Today, you guys are going to ask about money. You've been asking for an increase in sales tax. I'm very confused on why we need to increase the sales tax if I was told for two and a half years that everything was fine. So I'm gonna move on to the Target property. Target property is supposed to be sold. We had not collected the 10,000,000, so we had to redo an inter fund loan for 4,900,000.0 costing the general fund a $180,000 in interest to ourselves. Again, still a $180,000 that cannot be used towards the arts or some other party some other commission. Right now, my property taxes were increased. King County is looking at adding a 0.1 tax sales tax increase. The federate community center fees are going be increased.

I now have to charge a 10% sales tax to my customers. Some of my customers are now gonna be hit with an income tax because I don't work for poor people, they cannot pay me. And now utility taxes, I will see a rate increase in almost every single one of my utility taxes and I've heard electrical will be a double digit increase. So you guys do not have an easy job ahead of you, it's a budget cycle, monies are down, they're down everywhere but tonight you guys are gonna be talking about sales tax increase of point 1%. I do not think you guys have enough information to make that decision.

I do not like that the fact that you guys have been given one meet parks, not even FedRAC parks to talk about it is now being brought forward to be voted on. That's a huge change. And then on top of that, you told if you do not vote on today and do not vote on the next meeting, you will not make the cut for this year. You have till 2028 if you want to increase the taxes. My recommendation is to wait to collect all the information to find out what the real standing of the financial situation of the city is. And then once you have all the information, if it is necessary to increase the sales tax, to do it then. Right now, you are taxing everybody out of their houses. The number one population who gets hurt with this is the senior citizens. This is a regressive tax. Almost everything I mentioned was an regressive tax.

And I will also point out our property tax, which we increased by 1% the last two times even though I voted against them. The first time, it brought in a 150,000. Last time, it brought in half of that. Our property for the city is slowing down and is increasing value. That That means property tax will bring in less money every single year if we continue this. And the last item is gonna be our revenue. We actually have money that comes in from investments. Our investment income is down. If your investment income is down this year, there is no way to make up for that next year. We have built in that investment income into our budget. So guys need to take pay need to pay attention to that. You also need to get a full picture of what's going on before you vote on something tonight. Thank you for your time.

Alright. Thank you. Jeffrey Tanqueridi.

Good evening, mayor mayor, council president, council. Welcome back from Washington DC. My parents were born and raised in Northeast, so a city I love and very familiar with. Mayor Jeff Tan Creedy from the West Campus area of Federal Way. Mayor, three years ago, I went to the Pacific Community Center because I heard that our state representatives were there.

And I I I decided, I might as well go and check it out. So as I walked in, it's a small venue. As I walked into that venue, the lady at the door said, write your question down. So I thought for a minute, and I wrote my question down. So the state reps were at the front of the table.

So the question that I wrote down and they read to the audience, my question was this. What are you and your colleagues doing to the state reps? What are you and your colleagues doing to reverse low standardized test scores for African American students in the federal way k through 12. My question wasn't finished. I continued.

From 1870 to 1955, the students at all black Dunbar High School in Washington DC scored higher on standardized tests than two of the three all white high schools in the District Of Columbia. One of the three state reps answered for the other two. I won't say who was not necessary. The one state rep said, we do not wanna go back to segregation. I'm not joking.

That was the answer. That tells you how much of an appetite that our state representatives have to tackle a serious problem. And in fact, you can go to any deep blue city in The United States. African American students in the k through 12 have the lowest standardized test scores versus Caucasians and Asians. The Democrat party has failed the black community.

I want you all to understand that because in this state, the Democrat party controls the executive, the legislative, and the courts. And that's and I gave suggestions to the school board president. I gave suggestions to the superintendent on how to reverse that here. They they don't wanna hear it. They don't wanna have a discussion. How about more federal way public academies? How about school choice? It's really sick. They're worried about federal law enforcement. Hey. If they're gonna look for a gangbanger or a criminal, they're gonna get them, and there's not a damn thing you're gonna do about it. You focus on Federal Way and helping these kids with their test scores and uplift the black community instead of crapping all over them.

Jen Barber, then Nathan North.

Mayor and council, thank you for this time. I have something that is gonna take more a little bit more time and some planning, but I wanna talk to you for a minute about about sharps and the best way to dispose of them in Federal Way. I have been researching this ever since I discovered that both Auburn and Federal Way, which currently have an outdoors freestanding, they call them sidewalk disposal bins for sharps, they were the contract for those are discontinued as of March 28. And and I was the one by by working thank you, mayor Farrell, with by working with your office, that information was shared with also HR in Auburn. It was the only way they learned about it was my cell phone picture of the of the discontinuance notice.

I have learned since that $21,000,000 is used for our from our property taxes for hazardous waste disposal. And I saw a chart, 60 or so was going to wastewater treatment. There are many, many things that are necessary. But in Auburn, they said, why not ask the health board to do an ad campaign? Show people the proper way of disposing of sharps in a rigid container with a label.

And yeah, I had one. Because people don't know. The recommendation, CHAT GPT, says that 3% to 8% of any county is gonna be people that use sharps. And for they recommend one sharp disposal bin or whatever for every 20,000. Anyway, our city would come up with five.

Auburn has 80,000 people. We have a 100,000 and counting. I did learn that the public health that what's happened is the bins are used for everything else besides the sharps. So I understand that that can be a problem. And one time I went, and it was jammed open with with stuff.

I I don't know what was at the bottom of the bin. I could see anyway, this is a problem, and I'd really like to I'd really like to connect with other people that are willing to, spend some time solving and coming up with with a solution that's gonna help. Because leaving us out in the cold is not gonna work. It will be a toxic problem and a public health problem. Thank you.

Thank you. May I

add something?

Yeah. Of course.

I learned about disposal of sharps at home, and our toy poodle was diagnosed with diabetes and needed injections twice a day. And it is illegal to put sharps in your garbage. And if if you're caught, you're gonna be fined. So there needs to be a solution. Alright.

Thank you very much. Alright. Nathan Worth followed by Harold Booker.

Good evening, mayor Farrell and council. My name is Nathan North. I'm a resident of Federal Way. A regressive tax is one where the lowest income earners bear the highest percentages percentage of the burden relative to their income. Sales taxes fall into this category because people living paycheck to paycheck are already spending everything that they make.

Adding a sales tax forces them to either spend less on necessities or take on credit card debt. At Gamble, many take hoping to push their current burden onto a higher earning future self that may never materialize. If spending less means spending less on food, the city gains a little revenue while creating more hungry people who then go on to burden social programs whose costs only escalate. The net gain to the city may well be nothing if we end up needing to plug those gaps we are needlessly creating. Consumer spending is already down in this economic climate.

And with job losses accelerating from Trump's tariff disruptions and the rapid largely unregulated unregulated growth of AI, that trend is only going to deepen. I'd suggest a different approach. Last year, Paul invited me to council chambers and walked me through the previous budget. You all know how much Paul loves the budget. One detail that stood out was how much revenue the red light cameras generated.

Enough, if I recall correctly, to cover somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 to 13 officers. I don't remember the exact figure. I'd expand that model. Pack Highway and South Dash Point Road has seen multiple fatalities in the past year. Motorcycle versus RV, car versus pedestrian, right in front of an emergency room, and it's still one of the deadliest corners here in Federal Way. So I would put a camera there and and maybe look at other corners where you're seeing lots of accidents. That way, you're targeting people whose behavior can be moderated, and you're targeting these deadly crashes rather than targeting the poorest people in our city. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Nathan. Mister Harold Booker, he's, specifically requested four minutes. On a one time basis, I'm gonna do I you'll you'll see he's got a topic with regard to the council retreat. But, sir but, four minutes. The floor is yours, sir.

Thank you, mister mayor. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name's Harold Booker. I've been a resident of Federal Way for since 1963. This evening, I wanna share a story from my life in this city. During high school, there was a group of four of us, Eric, Lenny, Tom, and me. We really came together as friends in the end of our sophomore year. We came from similar socioeconomic backgrounds, and we'd all grown up here in Federal Way. But that was where the similarities ended. We had different approaches to situations.

We had different religious beliefs. We had different political feelings. What we shared was a common goal to do what was in the best interest of our student body, our constituents, and a willingness to listen to those different perspectives. Over the years, we've drifted apart from each other and reconnected countless times. Life, families, distance, and countless other distractions have been introduced, but our friendship has survived.

Almost fifty years, we've continued that friendship with diametrically opposed on a variety of issues that cover the length and the breadth of the spectrum. But how did we make that continue to work? We truly listened to each other. We appreciated the differences, and we learned from listening to those differences and learning from that. I think that's why it works.

We really listen to each other. I was thinking about the city council and my observations over the last year or so. You're a diversified group of people thrown together with different backgrounds, perspectives, personalities, points of view, and approaches to problem solving, who have a common purpose, trying to do the best for your constituents, the citizens of this city. So how do you develop a working relationship? How do you build a team?

Seems to me that's what the citizens of this city are expecting. Seems to me you got a really large mountain to climb. Personally, I've observed a lot of talking at each other, but not talking with each other. My humble suggestion is this body and each of the individuals involved needs to take a step back and consider your role and how we got here. Each of you, including the mayor, has played a role in arriving at this place.

If you don't make the effort to step back and make an honest assessment of the one thing you can control, your actions, I don't know how you get to a place where you can have an honest working relationship. I wish you good luck, godspeed on this journey. We, the citizens of this city, are counting on you. I'll close my remarks this evening with a quote from a World War two veteran, Vernon Baker, also a congressional medal of honor winner. Give respect before you expect it.

Treat people the way you wanna be treated. Remember the mission, set the example, and then keep going. Thank you for the time.

Thank you, mister Parker. And that retreat will be in this will be in these chambers a week from this Saturday, which is April 4. Fourth. So Saturday, April 4. He will get started about

Doors open at 08:30. Retreat starts at nine and concludes at three.

Thank you very much. Okay. Now just a quick couple quick follow ups. That's the last public comment I have. We've got some folks have signed up to talk on, one of the agenda items. But with regard to, EJ and the chief, 348 And 19th Southwest. You, EJ, you wanna maybe start with this?

So I'm not familiar with an accident on sun on this past Sunday. So I haven't seen an accident report for that yet.

Okay.

There

Go ahead.

As was mentioned, as part of the citywide traffic safety plan, we have received a number of feedback on Southwest Campus from the partner agencies that were involved in that study. So we went back and forth on two different locations to study in further details we're required to under that program. And as was mentioned, Southwest Campus roughly centered just slightly to the west of that intersection is the selected focus area. So, we've already authorized the consultant to start a deeper dive into the crash statistics for the last five years, as well as the design refinements and the city standard designs that are used throughout that corridor to see what we can do related to traffic safety. Because there is an elevated crash history through there, you know, in that entire corridor, not necessarily that intersection.

So, that is what we're looking at. But to the point that was made, that's a study that identifies what should or could be done. It's not actual construction projects. So, we need to do that work first and figure out what we're talking about before we can do that. But certainly, as accidents are attributed to certain intersections, there's a a sense of urgency in there as well.

Okay. Thank you. Chief? I

believe the intersection we're talking about is Southwest Campus Drive and probably 19th Avenue Southwest.

That's it. That's it. Correct.

What I could tell you is that over the years, in the city is for safety reasons, we put photo school zone photo enforcement, when school's in session on Southwest Campus Drive and also on 21st Avenue Southwest. And as a main arterial street, we do conduct enforcement periodically on those on the roadway. I'm not aware of these four accidents that it was mentioned. Was it four accidents?

I think that's what mister Yeah. Bullock Segaler said. Could you, let let's do this. Why don't we add this, to an item? And we're gonna we're gonna call on, council member Moore in just a moment and then the council president. But could you research, the recent, maybe in the past year, the accents of that location? And then, EJ, let's let's talk internally about this and about where the where this stands, and let's talk about this at the next city council meeting for a presentation since it was raised publicly. Council member Moore and then the council president.

Thank you, mayor. I appreciate it. AJ, thank you for your content and what you said and recognizing that it is a sense of urgency. I did send out an email to chair, Jack Walsh, seeing if we can maybe add this to the land use and transportation committee to kind of study it further because I'll I also know that Rick had if my memory serves me right, Rick had put together a prioritization of sidewalk, school zone, sidewalk. I forget what it was called.

And I wanted us to kind of review that in that committee potentially. But the question I had was, is there something that can be done in the meantime? Is there something temporary until then? Because you just said to yourself, there's a study to study what, you know, what's happening, but that's not the construction. So I just wondered if there could be a discussion between maybe the mayor and staff or whatnot about what can we do temporarily to

I think we dig into it a little bit potentially, but I I don't think that's something we can sit here and and figure out from the dais. I mean, we we need to look at the accidents and see if there's a causation that has something that we could temporarily do to it.

Sure. Be able

to get

you an answer.

Yeah. I'm I'm I'm not asking for the conversation to be happening right now. I'm just saying can can it be discussed of what we can do temporarily soon

Well

and whatnot.

We're gonna bring it back at the next city council meeting with the accident history where we're at. Council president?

Thank you. I was actually in an accident at that intersection years ago picking up my kids from Sahali by an impaired driver. And when Sahali opened, my my oldest son was a seventh grader. And the day before school opened, had a fatality. A student was hit on 21st Avenue and didn't survive.

And it was devastating. 19th And Campus Drive. The only thing I I drive at in there a lot. Suggest that I can think of that might make it safer would be no right turn no no free right turns unless it's green because there's the post office, you have the crosswalk where going across the street, and I can guarantee you people are not looking if there's someone in that crosswalk. They're just looking to see if cars are coming, but they're not looking at the crosswalk. It's just a suggestion from years of experience of driving that road.

And a big apartment complex with hundreds of units just on the other side, on the north side. So well, we'll look at it, and let's talk about it internally. Thank you, chief, and we'll look for look for those numbers. And then, Heather, let's make sure we calendar that, and then let's put it under mine, and we'll have it on the last we'll talk about it at at agenda setting. Okay.

And then the second item, was, Steve Groom. There was a mention is there any I know that we're in a budget year. I know that you give we all know that you give, you know, monthly updates in regard to the the financial position of the city. Any comments? There was a a mention of transferring $8,000,000 from from ARPA and any comments you'd like to make now in response just preliminarily as we start

the budget year? Mr. McDaniel brings a lot of questions. And to give a short answer is well, I can tell you that the $8,000,000, it came to city council on a budget amendment. It was a carryforward from unspent funds that were originally from the ARPA grant brought forward from one year to the next.

And it made a big significant difference to the general fund balance. We weren't able to book that, though, of course, until we brought the budget amendment to city council. We meet monthly at FedRAC, and I update city council monthly on how revenues are coming in. Our revenues come in at one and two month lag, so do our expenses as invoices come in. So we bring all the information publicly as as we get it done, and I'm I'm always happy to answer questions.

Okay. Alright. And we do have a Brian, any any comments on this or not?

There there was a comment that when miss McDanney was on council, he was always told that everything was fine. And I I if I misquoted you, I apologize, but that was kind of the message that that I heard. The the responses that we gave at the time was that we were aware of a potential shortfall, but that we did not need to take any action at that time to correct it, but that we would monitor it as Steve mentioned as things came in. So if we I don't believe we gave the impression that everything was fine, but that we were monitoring the shortfall as things progressed throughout the year.

All right. And what would you characterize for those in the audience and watching at home? What is the scale of the potential shortfall at this point? In rough terms?

Sure. It's it's about right now, it's about 1 and a half million from projected revenues with our current expenses. Now revenues are actually up from actual revenues that is are actually up from last year, but the budgeted amount is is short. And that's what we'll have to correct this year. We'll have discussions with the council about how to accomplish that. Very good.

Okay. Alright. Well, the conversation will be ongoing. Thank you, mister McDaniel, for sharpening the I always wanna say metal. The the iron on this side. So thanks for bringing the iron, and we'll we'll continue working on our end. Okay. Now that concludes public comment, at least for now. We've got the consent agenda. These items have gone through the committee process.

It could be passed all at once or I after I read the all the items, I'll ask if accounts member wants something pulled for separate consideration. Item a, approval to submit to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, the NPDES annual report. Item b, authorization to award street sweeping services contract. Item c, authorization to bid an 85 percent update for the sitters City Center Greenway project. Item d, contract increase authorization 2024 Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA retrofits.

Item e, resolution, setting public hearing on the proposed street vacation of a portion of 16th Avenue South. Item f, authorization to award the Federal Way Community Center electric vehicle EV charger stations contract. Item g, authorization to apply for King County four cultures grant building for equity project development. Item h, authorization contract, Federway Community Center gym curtain replacement. Item I, Washington State Department of Enterprise Services piggybacking goods and services agreement for generator maintenance services.

Piggybacking. It's not a a phrase you normally see on an agenda item. And item j, authorization to award the Civic Plaza turf project to FieldTurfUSA Incorporated. Counsel, are there any items you want pulled for separate consideration? Hearing none, council president council presidents Honda.

I move approval of the consent agenda items a through j. Second.

Been a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor?

Aye. Opposed?

Matters passed unanimously. Okay. Council business item six a, Northlake Management District Advisory Committee appointments. Council member Sesems. I move to appoint the following to the Northlake management district advisory committee. Larry Fleisher to position number four for a term to begin 04/01/2026 and expire 03/31/2028. And Darren Nash to position number five for a term to begin 04/01/2026 and expire 03/31/2028.

Second.

Alright. There has been a motion and second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Alright. Those, individuals have been, confirmed. Thank you very much, and good work council on doing those interviews. Okay. Item b, council confirmation of the human resources director, Julianne Briggs. Brian Davis, our city administrator, will make a brief presentation.

Thank you, mayor. Members of council, it's my privilege to introduce Julianne Briggs as the mayor's nominee for the human resources director. I almost feel like she doesn't need an introduction, but I'll give a brief one because she's been here with the city since 1994, one of our longest serving employees. She started off in the parks department as an office tech and and then switched to human resources in 2009 and has seen and heard a lot. So she knows the city well. It's great to see a promotion like this to director from within, especially in a position like this. So the mayor's recommendation is to confirm is for you to confirm his nomination of Julian Briggs as HR director.

Counsel, any questions? She's

here to say a little bit if you so desire to answer any questions that you have directly of her as well.

Right. Counsel, any questions? Oh, I see. Councilmember Safa Dawson and Councilmember Moore.

Not a question. I just wanna say congratulations, and we're happy to have you in this role and long lived.

Thirty two years. My Councilmember Moore.

Brian, thank you. I'm excited for this. I mean, obviously, I think I think one of the things I appreciate about you is is your nature, your personality, easy to connect with, easy to talk with. I think it's a really important role for whether you're applying for a job or needing to be in the hot seat. And so I just appreciate it. And and really thank you for your dedication to to the city of Fetalea. We're we're truly lucky to to have someone that served this long in our community. Thank you.

Great. Council president Honda.

Congratulations. Thank you for serving for so long here, and we appreciate you.

All right. And with that Can I ask member question? Okay. I'm sorry.

It's in the way.

The water is blocking. Actually It

would be nice if you came to the podium so everybody else could see who we're talking to.

Hello.

Yeah, so your name and your title.

Yeah, my name is Julianne Briggs. I will be, hopefully, the HR director here at the City of Federal Way. I have been here for more than half my life, and I feel a deep connection to Federal Way, its citizens, its electeds, and most of all, maybe its employees. I feel like HR is a little bit my calling, and I appreciate this opportunity, and I hope I serve you very well.

Thank you. Thank you, Julianne. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Alright. Thank you. And thank you for your long standing service to our community. Alright. Council President, do have a motion?

I move to confirm the mayor's appointment of Julianne Briggs as human resources director. Congratulations.

Second. There's been a motion and multiple seconds. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? It's unanimous. We have a new HR director. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Okay. Now, we're onto the National League of Cities NLC congressional city conference report. And why don't I just turn this over to the council president? We'll go from there.

Thank you. I'm going to start with an introduction of what National League of Cities is, and then we're going to go down through the council, and everyone will discuss their conference and what they learn from it. I've asked no more than five minutes from each council member because there's seven of us. And I will also have our EJ talk about what the project is that we went to ask money for in a little bit. So National League of Cities or NLCs, which we will be calling it from now on, has 2,675 cities from around the nation as members.

It is 100 years old as of last year. And the mission is to advocate for and to protect the interest of cities, towns, villages by influencing federal policy, strengthening local leadership, and driving innovative solutions. We have been a member since 2019. However, the city of Federal Way was a member earlier before the Great Recession And during that time, needed to save some money and so chose to step away for a little bit. NLC has two major conferences a year, one in November, one in March.

The March 1 is always in Washington DC. It's a shorter conference. And our mission there is to go to Capitol Hill and bring home some money. I am on the board of WMICH, which is Women in Municipal Government, and Apomo, which is Asian Pacific Islander Municipal Officials. And on the first tier, Council.

You can only serve on three committees at NLC and I have been serving on three for several years. I've also served on the Public Safety and Crime Prevention Commission and the Information Technology and Communications Committee which when I was asked to join that I was really excited because I like to communicate. But it was all about technology and I'm not very good at technology. But it was an interesting committee. Other members of council are also serving on committees at NLC as well as staff.

This year the theme was local governments deliver. And we had a lot of talking about how local governments deliver and why local governments are your best government. We talked about civility, and it was really an interesting conference. So what going forward, if we can ask EJ to talk about the reason we went there, which was to get $5,000,000 for the City Center Access Project so you understand why we went. Is that okay?

Yeah. Course. EJ?

Sure. So happy to, council president. So City Center Access Project, as a brief background, is a project that's been going on since the early two thousands. It looked at multiple options historically. And then in a couple years ago, a preferred alternative was selected, which is to create a braided interchange at 3 20th and add capacity to 3 24th.

So, for anyone that's familiar with 405 through Bellevue, the fourth and eighth interchange, where you get off at 4th, but then you have a choice to either take 4th or continue on the Flyover Bridge and take eighth. Basically, we're talking about the same setup as that for get off at one gore point off of I5 and then you can either take 3 20th or 3 24th. And the driver behind this project is we can't keep adding lanes to 3 20th. We know that there's a large portion of the population that wants to get into Downtown Federal Way to shop and recreate and do everything there. But there's also a significant number people that want to get past that into their houses or to their, you know, down towards the water, whatever the case may be, but are trying to get through that area.

So, the City Center Access Project is multimodal. So, it is looking at cars, freight, buses. It does integrate the light rail train that's been constructed recently to increase the capacity and ultimately expands the city core as well. So the project holistically was costed two years ago and cost approximately $500,000,000 to build everything, including new bridges across I-five at 324th, expanding the bridge at 320th, adding bike lanes, extending the BPA Trail, and much, much more. So, Project one or Phase 1A of it is funded already through collaboration with Sound Transit and their early work to move transmission lines and build the roundabout at 23rd And 3 24th.

So, what the phase 1b project is, which is the only council president recognized, is expanding 3 24th from that roundabout that's being constructed as part of the light rail project down to Pack Highway. So, phase one will expand that to the ultimate cross section, increase the capacity of that section. Phase one c, which is not funded at this point, is redoing the intersection at Pack Highway at 3 24th, and then extending that all the way through to the end of the existing BPA Trail at Celebration Park now. But this is a huge project that will take twenty to thirty years to build out, realistically. And the goal is that we can get this project to a position that ultimately, the city does a bunch of the early phase work via actually performing the work.

But then, it's we position the project that WSDOT takes it over to do the interchange work that, you know, we as a city cannot change the interchanges. That's a WSDOT task. But we need to get enough of the legwork done to position this project for them to be able to take over. So, total cost includes everybody's washouts portion, our portion, etcetera. So, phase 1a is fully funded with the financing that city council lobbied for this past week. Phase one b will be fully funded, which is very exciting. And phase one b is shovel ready at this point. So, once we have the funding secured, we are ready to go. Very good.

Thank you. We also requested $2,000,000 for the Celebration Park turf fields and don't know if we'll get that. But our both the the meetings with the senators were very excited to know that the city center access project needed $5,000,000, and they were very interested in listening to us. I also wanna say before council starts talking, we had economic director Meredith Neil accompany us, and our very own Amy Glandon from the council office was there, and we could not have done what we did without those two. So thank you very much.

Councilmember Esafo Dawson, you want to start? And then we'll just go down the line, and I'll finish. Thank you. Yes, we did. I'll use these.

Okay. Thank you so much. This was a great conference and one thing I like about it is the diversity of workshops that they offer and unfortunately some of the ones that we were really interested or excited about cost extra money or additional money so we weren't able to attend. But the ones that we attended, at least the ones I did, there was a lot and I'll just kind of look at my notes and see what the nuggets of each workshops that I went to. The first one that I actually attended was around reducing community based violence for safe healthy and hopeful communities and I did like that hopeful word in there and so they talked about public safety, the values of public safety and public safety redefined.

And so redefining was like interrupting the cycle of violence, dismantling systems of inequity and investing in infrastructure. And so there was a lot about that. And then also talking about the public health approach. And so as you all know, public health, when they talk about it, usually they talk about how ZIP code defines people's lifestyles and their health. And so that also with public safety that does follow that the zip code idea.

And so using the public health approach to make sure that everyone has equitable access to services is one of the things they focused on. Then there was roadmap. And one thing they said is develop a plan that will outlive the people. So what we decide here today should support and help the young generation that is in our room today. And how do we not focus on what's in it for me or for, you know, I want this or I don't want that, but you but how do we come up with a plan that really lives outlives us as leaders here on the dais?

There was more on this, but okay. And then actually the first tier city is one of the groups that we belong to because of the size of our city, a little over 100,000. One thing that was really excited about that was different cities who have who had like light neighborhoods and redevelop the downtown. And so there was like Goodyear, Arizona. I did not know there was a city called Goodyear, by the way. So like their downtown revitalization and then how they did it, and then there's another city. What was the name?

Retail.

Yeah. So different cities. Right? Actually, were all fighting over their names. But around marketing, around videos that they showed and then their strategies for revitalization.

And so as we're building our downtown in TC3, I think there's some nuggets there that we could utilize and see how they did it and what they did. And then one city actually, I think it was Goodyear that talked about when they were planning this, they didn't even think about egress and ingress and so traffic is really now impacted because that wasn't really in the plan when they were designing this. And so it looks beautiful, it's great when you look at the before and after, but yet there's that issue. How we need to make sure that those things are addressed. And then there's the opioid settlement funds and how they're being used in the different regions.

And then yes. And there was one on bridging community divides and strict and strengthening civic trust, and that's the one Susan touched a little bit on. And there was we learned about dignity index and what was the other index? Oh, civility, pillars of civility and dignity index. They were really helpful and I think as we engage with each other and as we have these different discourses and different conversations, I think there's some useful tools in this as to how we can communicate because we all want the same at the end of the day, we really want the best for Federal Way.

And so if we look at the human composition and humanness, then maybe we have these different tools that we could use so that we see what the other person sees or what the values that bring us here. I don't think anybody is here to harm Federal Way at all. And so how could we have that civil conversation? And then immigration was a very interesting topic. But before my time's up, I want they were talking about 2030 census.

And they are going to be doing so they're concerned about accurate count and why it's important. One is, of course, for funding because each state gets funding based on their population and then also for representation. And so again, the delegations that are sent is based on the population. And so undercounting is a very huge concern, especially depending on what form they use. So there's going be a pilot study here or pilot they're going go out and do some.

And I don't know what pilot areas are. But there's a census test or there's the American, I think, community survey. And this one, the American community, I believe it is, asks citizenship questions. And so the question then the concern is, are there people who are, of course, are not going to complete or fill do participate in the census counting again which impacts our cities or our states I'm sorry. And so and this one is actually in English only.

And so and USPS does all the testing so it's it's actually as they're doing delivering their mail is when how that's going to be done. And so yes, so that was a little concerning and we'll see how that turns out. And then it's of course, census is for 2030. And so they're rolling out all these and testing and checking out and making sure, trying to see what works best. But again, there was that concern that came up. And I think I will end mine here. Yeah.

Thank you very much. And we are going to the mayor is gonna time everyone.

Five minutes. Alright. Let's start.

Oh, boy. Timing when that starts to like, Never mind. Alright. Well, mayor and council and to the public. First, I wanna give a shout out to our students from Federal High School. If you can wave, do the princess wave. Thank you for being here. I know you'd rather be doing other things. Thank you. And I know that you'd rather be texting and and calling your buddies and whatnot but you're choosing to be here and so I really wanna say thank you.

With that, for the purpose of our students and we're obviously given a report from our trip from DC and and why it matters and whatnot and what we got out of it. This conference obviously brought together lots and lots of local elected officials from across the country to discuss challenging challenges facing cities and to advocate for policies and resources that support our communities. A primary focus of this conference was preparing city leaders to effectively engage with members of Congress, particularly as federal decisions continue to have significant impacts on local governments. One of my most valuable aspects of this experience was hearing directly from other cities that are navigating many of the same issues we are seeing locally. I attended sessions focused on simplifying federal grant processes, workforce development, strengthening civic trust, and understanding the legal responsibilities local governments face related to immigrant population excuse me, immigration policy.

A key takeaway from these conversations is that cities across the country are working to navigate a complex federal requirements while continuing to deliver services and maintain community stability. Many cities expressed the needs for clearer tools, guidance, and partnerships from the federal government so that they can effectively respond to the level of impacts federal decisions are having right here in Federal Way or local other local jurisdictions. As part of the Association of Washington cities, we also traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with US Senator Patty Murray and US Senator Murray Cantwell to get a briefing. And they as I just said, they provided updates on congressional activities, infrastructure investments, and how they are working to deliver resources for Washington communities. They also discussed challenges they are currently facing and communicating with federal agencies noting that some traditional coordination channels are not operating as they typically have in the past.

Despite these challenges they emphasized their continued commitment to assisting local governments and advocating for Washington residents. And this was this this kinda took me back a little bit you know. A lot of people call into local governments in our city council to ask for help. They do the same thing with the state and they do the same thing with congress. You know everyday residents calling to say I need help and normally it takes a US senator to communicate with federal agencies but this time they're having a very difficult time doing so.

Sometimes they're not even communicating with the US senator and so they're having to somehow solve that individual's problems and they're committed to that and that was something that kinda took me back a little bit. We also connect with staff from our US senators offices to discuss the needs of our city and ensure Federal remains part of the conversation when federal decisions and budgets are being decided on. I can say with confidence that this trip was successful because we are coming home with stronger relationships because of our attendance over the last three years and clearer pathways for resulting for federal. I believe it's three years that we've gone. Is that right? Tell the president is it four years?

Maybe four.

Okay. Thank you. In addition, we had the chance to meet with our federal lobbyist. I really appreciated the opportunity to ask Luke questions, gain a better understanding of the strategies being used to advocate for our city and get to know him. Based on those conversations, I am really confident that confident in the work being done to represent the interest of Federal Way at the federal level.

I really was convinced and walked away being really impressed. I also want to acknowledge Amy who coordinated this trip. I like to call her our chaperone. She did a very good job at that. She really made the experience extremely smooth and easy to navigate and her support throughout the whole process was really really helpful.

And I wanna echo what council president Honda said which is Meredith. She also went and she was a fantastic leader who attended many of these workshops with us. Was I really appreciate having that support system there. Another important part of attending conferences like this is the opportunity to spend time with colleagues outside of the council chambers. I'm grateful for the opportunity to spend time with council member Jack Walsh as we explored Washington DC, and we certainly got our steps in. I also appreciated the dinners we shared where we had the opportunity to better get to know one another.

That's time.

That's time. Well, let me just finish. I just have one couple more lines. Thank you, mayor. Moments like this are really important because our community deserves leaders who can work together collaboratively to help govern and manage the this incredible city. Overall, attending this conference helps ensure the federal remains informed, engaged, and well positioned to access partnerships and resources that benefit our residents, which is you. Thank you so much, mayor, and I will give it back to you.

Alright. Thank you. And now we've got council member Hamilton.

Thank you, mayor. Well, this was my first time participating in the NLC conference. Oh, and I I need to just make one statement. I had a dental procedure done today. So if you're hearing a little bit of a a speech impediment, that's why. I just thought I would put that disclaimer out. So this was my first time participating in the National League of Cities conference as was some of the other council members on the dais. And I have to say it was a great experience. It was

a

rewarding experience. We got to meet with our federal delegation members. We have three. We have congressman Adam Smith who represents us as as a representative, and then we have senator Murray and senator Cantwell. Let's see.

We we thanked congressman Adam Smith for helping us thus far. He's been a great partner at the federal level with helping us secure federal funding for our city. And then we were able to hear an update from senator Murray and senator Cantwell on one of the days, and then the next day we went back, and we were able to lobby for what our city needs, with their staff. And, overall, I felt like it was a very positive response. I felt like it was a very optimistic response, and the trip was, I would say, a success.

And we'll be able to begin improving our downtown core infrastructure, which we heard about the city center access project, hopefully in the very near future. So that's the most important part of the trip, in my opinion, is to bring the bacon back to our community. And that is what I call the tush push of local government. And here in Seattle, we call it the barnyard, I know, but it's the toast push. It's when we all link arms together as colleagues, and we push for what our community needs.

When we weren't meeting with our federal delegation, we were able to learn about different issues that were affecting local communities through roundtables, general sessions. I chose to attend three of those. The three that I attended was one on economic development, and that was about what federal tools and resources cities are tapping into and how that's helping supercharge their local economies. The second one was the roundtable on immigration. And with that one, really, it was about understanding how federalism, the supremacy clause, and the tenth amendment all intersect and what that means for local governments.

And then the third one that I attended was probably my favorite one, and it was titled bridging community divides and strengthening civic trust. And so a consistent theme at this year's conference was the importance of restoring civility in local government. And many of the speakers noted that the the the local politics is increasingly mirroring the partisan federal politics, and it's not a good thing. It's it's a lot of division. It's a lot of focus on conflict and performative politics rather than on getting results.

And the key takeaway that that I took from that was just how we treat one another matters. It matters a lot. And disagreement, it's it's gonna be, you know, expected. That's that's that's we're debating policy. We are debaters. We're professional debaters. That's what we do. So there's gonna be disagreement on the. But it it needs to remain respectful at all times, and it needs to be focused on policies, not personal attacks. And civility really is a sign of strength.

It it's a sign of strong leadership, and it's it's essential to building trust in our community and with one another as colleagues. And so as city leaders, I think we all took away that that we set the tone for our community when it comes to civility. And one of the speakers made the statement that if the goal is being in the headlines, division will get you the attention you want. But if the goal is to be effective and to deliver for your residents, civility is the better path. And so that's my commitment to you, and I think I think we can all probably make that commitment together as a city council.

I was really glad to participate in this year's NLC conference. And one thing that my colleague did not mention was that he celebrated a birthday at the conference. And so happy birthday, Martin. We went out to dinner and celebrated Martin and people have out a candle when we sang happy birthday to him.

You know, I have to say thank you to to Amy and to my colleagues for that. And and I have to say, council president Honda and Hamilton actually made me laugh pretty hard. It was a a good good session.

Very good. Thank you. Casper Walsh. Alright.

Amen to the the comments that my my colleagues have made. I'll keep this they've they've covered most of the stuff really. It was a very successful successful time there. I I think that, you know, this is the third or fourth time that that I've been there. I think that our meeting with the the one that that council president Honda and and council member Sesems and I met with Patty Murray staff.

And I think that that meeting with Patty Murray staff is one of the most the one of the meetings that we connected the best with of all the times that we've met with the different different senators or staff members. I was very impressed with that. They they listened. They they were very attentive, and and I think that we made some great progress there. One of the things that's important to realize is that that that developing relationships with the staff of the senators and congressmen is equally as important as developing relationships with the congressmen and senators themselves.

Because the their staff is who helps them put in their place their priorities, and so that's that's very important. Some some great great sessions with the one that was mentioned on on bridging community divide. I I I thought that that was outstanding. One of the one of the speakers that it was was Tim Shriver. He is probably best known as he's the chair of the of the Special Olympics International.

His his mother was he is a nephew of of of president Kennedy, and his mother was the was the the one of the founders of of Special Olympics. But he was one of the creators of of what was has been mentioned the Dignity Index. And the Dignity Index, there's there's eight steps to it. And he talked about how it's important to be on using on on step, five or higher on the the different things. And and the top step, goes with each one of us is born with inherent worth, so we treat everyone with dignity no matter what.

I think that's that is the ultimate goal. Number one place, just the opposite is they're not even human. It's our moral duty to destroy them before they destroy us. You know, a a little bit of a of a of a difference here. And so we need to take that that higher plane, step five that we need to be at this step or higher is the other side has the right to be be here and the right to be heard.

They belong here too. And I think that that should be the the minimum of what we go with. I think that every most people here have heard me say repeatedly that it is that you can disagree without being disagreeable. And and disagreement is part of the American way. It it's if if we all agreed on on everything, life would be kind of boring also.

But we but we can disagree without being disagreeable. And and really, truly, the things that unite us are much greater than things that divide us. All of us want want what's best for Federal Way. We may have a different idea of how to achieve that, but we all want the want the best. I think that spending time together as a council was was great.

I I enjoyed, you know, the the the the long walks after sessions with council member Moore. I think that his feet may be still recovering, But anyway, it was was very, very good. And afterwards, I spoke briefly with with Tim Schreiber, and I mentioned a book that I had read a while back called Love Your Enemy by Arthur Brooks. And he said that much of what he came up with with the dignity index came from that book. And it's a book that I would recommend to everyone here in this in this room is take a look, read, or listen to Love Your Enemy by Arthur Brooks.

I mean, a profound statement on on what we can accomplish. And anyway, with that, that is it. Thank you.

Thirty four seconds to spare. Hey. Alright. Get we're getting better. Alright. I oh, was that my outside voice? Councilwoman Sesems?

Yes. Attending the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference last week was an awesome experience. It was incredibly valuable experience for me as a newly elected council member. The conference provided a strong foundation for understanding the broader national context in which local gov governments operate while also offering practical tools I can bring back to serve federal way. The opening general session set an inspiring tone, reinforcing the importance of local leadership in shaping resilient and inclusive cities.

I also found great value in the workshop entitled public safety and tech, what local leaders need to know session, which highlighted emerging technologies and the responsibilities that come with implementing them effectively. Additionally, the workforce development session was particularly impactful as it deepened my understanding of strategies to expand employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities, an area I'm eager to support more intentionally in my role as a council member. Beyond the sessions, the opportunity to connect with peers and leaders from across the country was equally meaningful. Attending the AWC or Association of Washington Cities reception allowed me to build relationships with fellow Washington leaders. Had a chance to get to know Deanna Dawson, who's the executive director of the ADC AWC Wall Tuesday's workshop entitled bridging community divides and strengthening civic trust workshop provided thoughtful insight into fostering unity and public confidence in local government.

The workshop entitled the immigration roundtable understanding local legal responsibility session was also highly informative, equip equipping me with a clear understanding of the legal landscape cities must navigate. A major highlight of the conference was participating in Hill Day on days two and three, where I had the opportunity to hear directly from senators Maria Cantwell and senator Patty Murray and representative Adam Smith. Listening to their perspectives on legislative priorities and engaging in the federal local dialogue reinforce the critical role local leaders play in advocating for our communities. Most importantly, I had a chance to meet with the senior staff of Patty Murray, as my colleague, council member Jack Walsh pointed out. It was invaluable.

Mister Steven and mister Noah met meeting with them to advocate for $7,000,000 in funding to complete two projects here in Federal Way, 5,000,000 for the city center access project and 2,000,000 for Celebration Park turf fields. We we did receive very positive feedback from our lobbyist, mister Luke, to highlight what council member Walsh said. Overall, this experience strengthened my confidence, my knowledge, and reaffirmed my commitment to effective and informed public service. Going to this conference with my colleagues really gave me a chance to get to know them a little bit better. I look forward to continuing the dialogue.

I hope that we we can get some business done once our cards are out there on the table. And by going to this conference, I'm able to see or was able to see a little bit more clear how things are operating. So I appreciate the resources that we we were able to tap into to enable us to go. I think I'm a more stronger, more confident leader, and I'm happy to answer any other questions. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Time to spare. Okay. Council member coach Mark.

So at 4AM on the day to go to the plane, I went out to my car, suitcase in hand, threw the ice and slush in it, head down. So, I wasn't able to go and it's probably a good thing because we would have had an emergency on the plane and I would have been looking for a doctor and heading back this way. So, I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there with my colleagues, but I have gone 13 times and to let you know how important this is, there are two eighty one cities in Washington State, not all of them go, not all of them are fortunate enough to go, but if you don't go, you're not gonna get anything. You may go and not get any money, but at least you're at the table and it looks like we're being successful. And it's not a one time and done, it's a process.

And so thank you, you did a good job. I'm glad you all got along so well. Think that was wonderful. And I think moving forward, I think that was a really, really good start for all of us. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Council present.

So to wrap it up, my first meeting I attended on Sunday was transportation and infrastructure services federal advocacy committee. And what I learned there was repeated several times throughout the conference. There is a bill going through Congress called the Basics Act, Bridges and Safety Infrastructure for Community Success. And it needs support. So if you want more information, please ask me.

But that was talked about at almost every class I attended on the importance of that. My favorite class was bridging bridging community divides and strengthening civic trust. And I was able to get up and talk about a few years ago when we had a young woman come in and ask us to sign a civility pledge, and then she took that to congress. And that was before COVID, probably 2019. And 2019 was when I was first introduced to the dignity index at the National Foundation of Women Legislators.

And so it's been around for a while, and I know we're gonna be using it on here in in Federal Way. We also, as a city, sent a project that the Diversity Commission did to the celebrate diversity awards. We did not place this year, but I was a judge last year. And so I attended the breakfast this year. Bellevue came in second place on a community event that they had.

I've already thinking about what we can submit next year because I think that the arts explosion would fit in really well with what diversity in arts and bringing the community together. So I'll be talking to staff about that and to the arts commission about how we can celebrate that. Washington DC didn't disappoint from a high of 87 to a snowstorm to tornado watch to an earthquake the day I left, it was interesting. I'd like to thank Luke who is one of our lobbyists in Washington DC for his help and his support. He made going to the Hill successful in my opinion.

And I'd like to thank the council for being prepared. And I think we did a great job in DC and represented federal way well. So thank you.

Okay. Mister Moore?

Thank you so much, mayor. And I I think we'd be remiss if if we didn't acknowledge the the fact that when council member Coach March slipped on ice and still took upon herself to pick up council member Hamilton and still drive to the airport. When

I heard talk

about that.

Yeah. When when I heard about that, thanks to Amy and and Susan sharing that, I was a bit and and quite frankly, council member Hamilton stated that as well. I was a bit floored and shocked. And I think we can now say that council member Kochmar is one of the strongest German American individual.

I was wondering what I was gonna say if Andy stopped me. Right. Hide my arm under my coat or something.

I have to say that took a lot of courage, will and absolutely phenomenal. So I just wanted to acknowledge that effort.

Alright. So this was my book, My on it was well used. I keep these forever. Thank you very much. And moving on to our next item of the day.

Well, great job, counsel. And I gotta tell you, I really it's the first time I've seen the dignity index. And, you know, when I as soon as I read through it, I thought it sure would be nice if our you know, we all watch the congressional hearings.

Yeah.

And it's it's kinda sad to watch both sides, you know, kinda go back and forth. And and, I I think, the our our congressional leaders, should probably be reminded of this as well. It's easy when you're in the in in, you know, you're giving that argument and you feel so passionate about the issues, but it's really about the people. It's what it's actually what people in Reichbauer's taught me a long time ago. Was about, you know, most of most all things come down to relationships. And, and so, it sounds like it was a total success. Glad you did it, and and thank you for bringing this back and and all of the lessons you learned. Okay. So now, we are on to item seven. This is, the ordinance.

First reading, council bill nine thirty three. It's an ordinance condemnation for Pacific Highway, non motorized corridor, 16th Avenue South, South 308 Street to 2 88th Street, project. First, we're gonna hear from John Cole, our civil engineer, then we'll have an opportunity for some public comment. John.

Thank you, mayor, council president, council members. I'm here today to, present present condemnation ordinance for Pacific Highway non motorized corridor phase two project. Maybe. There we go. Should my policy question for you today, should city council enact an ordinance authorizing property acquisition through condemnation for the Pacific Highway non motorized corridor phase two project?

Background information, the ordinance describes the property required for each project, and I have a map of the parcels here for you. There is one tracked and then two other parcels. Actions taken tonight as or that we've already had done is certified mail has been sent and legal notices has been published. Next step is the next council meeting. We'll have the second reading to enact as scheduled to occur at the next council meeting. We will communicate with property owners as always in an attempt to reach and negotiate a settlement. And as always, I'm always available for questions.

John, for those folks at home and in the audience, can you just briefly describe why we're doing what we're doing, where we're talk I mean, it's obvious around the 288 area, but why are we doing what we're doing?

Right. Right. This is a non motorized corridor, a trail, and parts of it, it's it amounts to a wider sidewalk, 12 foot sidewalk. Through the majority of this area, it's kind of where I grew up. We called it a pole line or service road that runs through there. It will get, bicycle foot traffic, safer routes to schools, off of Pack Highway, and onto a non motorized corridor. There's just a couple of parcels here that are left. Actually, the majority of them are temporary construction easements. They're not even property takes. They're just a use of.

Right. And there's a some historical context. Some of this goes back to the eighteen hundreds and

Eighteen hundreds original Platt.

Who's no longer with us. Could you just briefly explain some of that?

Right. Right. Original plot, eighteen hundreds, nineteen hundreds, named, was supposed to name King County as successor for right away through here. So it's we call it an a non, awarded right away through that area. And, because it was it was not named to the county and left in the names of the family, then we have generations and generations of people that are impossible to track down to, locate. So, through our law department, has facilitated trying to get the the proper ways of notifying the public of what we intend to do here.

So we're just cleaning up the books here?

We really are.

Yeah. Alright. Counsel, do you have questions on that, for for John? Thank you, John. Stay close. Is there any public comment on this? Okay. Thank you, John. So, would the city clerk please read the ordinance title?

Council bill nine three three ordinance condemnation for Pacific Highway non motorized corridor 16th Avenue South, South 308 Street to South 2 88th Street project, an ordinance of the city of Federal Way, Washington providing for the acquisition of certain property for the purpose of constructing right of way improvements in the vicinity of SR 99 at 16th Avenue South from South 308 Street to South 2 88th Street, known as the Pacific Highway non motorized corridor, 16th Avenue South, South 308 Street to South 2 88th Street project, describing the public use and necessity of such property, directing staff to exhaust reasonable negotiation efforts to purchase such property, providing for the condemnation of the property, and directing the city attorney to initiate all necessary actions and proceedings in the manner provided by law for said condemnation if attempts to purchase are not successful.

Alright. Thank you. Council member Walsh, do have a motion?

I move to forward the proposed ordinance to the 04/07/2026 council meeting for second reading and enactment.

Second. There's been a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? That'll pass unanimously. Thank you very much, John. Thank you. Alright. Alright. Now we are on, to item b, first reading, council bill nine three four ordinance authorization to enact a point 1%, one tenth excuse me, point one tenth of 1% local sales tax and use tax for public safety and criminal justice purposes. First, have a presentation from Brian Davis, the city administrator. Brian.

Hello again, mayor and council. The policy question before you tonight is should the city council enact an ordinance authorizing a one tenth of 1% local sales and use tax for public safety and criminal justice purposes. This is authorized through legislature through hospital twenty fifteen. To this was presented to the parks committee, and there were we had some good discussions at that committee level in preparation for this meeting tonight. Some of the questions were related to some of the things that I'll talk about tonight.

This graph is an indication of our current public safety expenses in relation to our current sales tax. And as you can see from the graph, the darker shaded bar chart on the bottom represents the sales tax over the last few years. The last one being in 2025. So last year when the books were closed and then everything that is unshaded moving forward is what is projected. And as you can see from the line above, which is the public safety expenses that we're expected to see those increase over years and the sales tax to increase slightly, but not to keep pace with the expenses that we expect from public safety tax.

As was indicated earlier, the the property tax is a is is a something that increases. It's a fixed amount. It's not something that is keeps keeps face with expenses. And then we have other funding sources as well that help out with this. But the sales tax is the most variable that we can gain insight into comparing expenses versus revenue.

And again, as you can see, line will the rate of increase of the line will exceed the rate of increase of the bar charts below. That this is a forecast and it could be different. But based on what we've seen through the salaries sorry. Let me go back here. Okay.

Let me go to this one first, then I'll go back to the other bar chart. But the the as I mentioned before, the cap property tax is something that doesn't allow us to rely on heavily for increased expenses, then that's why we're shifting to increased reliance on sales tax. As a result, the sales tax trajectory currently, we're in a cycle and right now, we're in a cyclical pause on seeing that sales tax increase. There's a number of other factors as far as expenses goes. Two examples are when we used ARPA to purchase vehicles, the replacement.

We're trying to replenish the funds that replace those vehicles over time in addition to the ones that we did not purchase, but the ones that we will or that we have purchased will need to replace those in the coming years. And so there is an increased cost to that as well as salaries and benefits we see as project on a trajectory to exceed inflation. So with that in mind, again, you can see from this, the line is what we see as being that increase. Now, what we're talking about tonight is a percentage of the sales tax. We're talking about a oneten of 1%.

So as you see the the bar charts increase slightly, the we're talking about a rate of taxing on those on the taxable goods and services in the city. And so that would increase only at a as you can see from the bar chart, it would it would not increase the the rate. It would just increase the amount. And so why I mentioned that is that this is going to we're gonna have to have likely to have discussions in the future about how to correct this this this gap that we'll be experiencing. Now, as you can see from previous years, we have been able to control that somewhat.

And we've had good leadership, good financial stewardship that has helped us stay within range, but those costs are going to become a factor in the future. And so every little bit is going to help. So even if we were to talk about this year alone, That's that's we're not talking about that. We're talking about the this is the long game that we're talking about for this proposal tonight. It's not just to correct this year, obviously.

There was a question about what percentage of our budget is public is related to public safety. Public safety including the police department, includes the municipal court, court includes the jail, includes public defense, prosecution, and a number of other things, other criminal reduction services that we, use, and it's about a half. There's been a couple of things in recent years that have skewed that, the main thing being ARPA, and then also the recent issuance of the bond for the maintenance and operation facility. When we're talking about percentages that kind of skews that somewhat. And so the red box indicates, give us a good picture of what percentage of on a regular basis of what our public safety is in relation to the rest of the budget.

Pre pandemic analysis of that. And it's just under half of our of our of our budget. Okay. And I mentioned this already, we're we are seeing increased budget pressures. And again, we've had we've we've seen similar pressures before and we've been able to manage them.

Again, we can with your with with the mayor and council's leadership, we've been able to manage those pretty effectively, but that's gonna be become more difficult in the future. So this gives you a brief history, at least for the last ten years of sales sales tax in the city of Federal Way. The big one is the ST three in 2017. That was the big increase of of point 5% point point 5% for the among other things, the light rail that we now enjoy in the city. The the the that particular revenue stream went for the entire system and for other upgrades throughout the system, but particularly for Federal Way, we do see a light rail station in our city too if you count Star Lake in our city now, which is a tremendous asset, but did come at a cost.

And then starting in 2021, there was a series of legislative measures that allowed the county to increase sales tax for a number of items for permanent supportive housing, for cultural access programs, and then for public safety, which the county has acted on. They acted on it late last year. And then what we're the bottom line is is proposed and that's what's before you tonight. And that is for the city to take that action. So I really appreciate the the comments before about that the, you know, that the increased taxes are a burden, which they are.

This is the first time the city on its before this body is proposing to to increase from from my memory. So, this is this is not I wouldn't characterize it as the city taking any measures to, overtax its citizens. This is the first time, again, in my memory that the city has proposed this. What we see from from other cities in the region, these are comparable cities within the within King County. And these are the ones that have taken action on this so far.

When we met at the parks committee, there was a lot of things in flux. We do have a better picture now of who has moved forward on this. And so this gives you a sense for who has taken the proposed action that is before you tonight. Couple of comments on this graph. Des Moines is is not over 50,000. We're we're deleting cities that were under 50,000. That was one that we neglected. So I apologize for that. However, it does give you an indication that there are several other cities, which I did not include on here, who have taken action on this. But just they're not comparable with Federal Way, but there have been several that have done that.

The other item that I do wanna mention is that Kirkland is I've showed on here that they have enacted a 1% tax. They they did that not through house bill twenty fifteen, but this is something that they took action on their own about seven years ago, and they did that on their on their own. So I did include them that they have taken a taken action to increase their local and new sales tax on a one tenth of 1%, just not under the house bill that is, allowing us to do it at this time. But this gives you a flavor for what has transpired thus far, in the region on jurisdictions jurisdictions taking access action on this this on this legislation. Question of how much will I have to pay?

So if we if you in fact move forward with this, then the federal tax sales rate would go to 10.4%. So for every $100 that you spend in the city, then you would pay 10¢ as a result of of the tax. And that's, again, that's similar to what you would spend in any of the other cities that have increased their sales tax since taking that action to increase it. So the option before you are to adopt the ordinance or to not adopt it, and the mayor's recommendation is to adopt it.

Okay. Let's hear from the council, what's your pleasure, George? Actually, why don't we have questions for Brian first, then we have the public comment. Council, questions for Brian while he's here at the podium? Councilmember Hamilton?

Are you wanting us just to ask questions or to debate the issue?

Oh, just right now as he's any questions for the the presentation?

Okay. No questions then.

Okay. Alright. Thank you, Brian. You may wanna stay close as the, we're gonna hear from, the folks that we work for. We've got public comment. If you wanna comment on this, I've already got pink sheets. I'll call the ones I have now. And if you don't hear your name and you want to, please submit a pink sheet. We've got, Mike Bullich Ziegler, Harper, Vilani, Sara Lee, that's virtual. Let's do a a Sarah Lee, last after we've done the in in person, and Paul McDaniel. So Mike Bullich Ziegler.

Hello again. I'm here to speak at best skeptically of this tax, especially the rushed feeling of this process. I listened to the council committee discussion, and I'm unconvinced that the city needs to act right now. During that committee discussion, I heard that this tax is a requirement to receive grant funding, but it sounds like King County has already passed their tax, And so it doesn't seem like that's actually required of us for the grant that's unrelated to this tax. That's just, like, a separate process for public safety.

I also heard that the city will have to make public safety cuts if it doesn't pass this tax now in time for July. But as I understood from that discussion, it sounds like they aren't cuts to existing services, but instead delayed future hiring and delayed increased spending. I wanna hear how long term the city is addressing its revenue shortfall and prioritizing its spending before it quickly acts enacts a regressive sales tax. If the city were to implement this tax, it should be in the greater context of our budget planning process. This tax may make the difference between a budget that includes cuts or investments to essential services and other services over the next couple of years, but I personally wanna hear the bigger picture on how the city plans to address its revenue shortfalls.

Is it making decisions on what to cut or invest in, and how is it working to increase nonregressive revenue? In the context of this rushed process, I have been thinking back to the many discussions and many meetings the city had just to release funding for the day center, which was, I think, $50,000. How much time did the city and public spend to ensure their concerns were addressed compared to this, which is one council committee meeting and two council meetings the city will hold in order to pass this tax that was expected to bring in 3,000,000 from residents and those who shop in Federal Way. In the grand scheme of things, this tax on its own will result in a fairly small increase in cost, which I am personally okay paying as long as I know how the city plans to use it. This tax and any other small increases will have a much greater impact on our lower income residents, and the seriousness of that impact cannot be overstated.

I'm only supportive of this tax if it's utilized to free up general revenue funding from PD for other services, especially after hearing our police chief state the city is more or less happy with the forecasted staffing levels and department funding. Without knowing those budget details and how that freed up funding will be directed, which I don't think the council and city can commit to right now, I think you should delay. I think the city should, at minimum, take more time and have a detailed and public budget process before passing this tax increase. Thank you.

Thank you. Harper Vilani.

Sorry

if I stepped on the applause there. Sorry. Didn't mean to.

Okay. Hi. So I am not Harper, but Harper had to leave. So I have what they were going to say. So I'm just gonna be their voice here today.

Can you tell us who you are?

Oh, I'm Rachel Jones.

Great. Hi,

Rachel. I live in Federal Way.

Very good.

Okay. Actually, can you hold can you hold on for a sec? Yes. Can you restart her clock, please?

Oh.

Alright.

Okay. So this is what they were gonna say. I don't believe this tax is fair or necessary for the reasons a previous commenter mentioned, But in the event that it does get passed, the funds it generates should only go to meet the current budget of the PD. This tax should not increase their budget. Instead, the extra money from this tax should be used to fund other city services that make Federal Way truly safer, not just in terms of crime, but in terms of emotional well-being, safer in the knowledge that your community has your back.

Instead, I would ask at least a 100 k from this tax should be added to the neighborhood traffic safety fund to double the funding to 200 k total. This funds traffic calming project projects on neighborhood streets. After this, any excess funds should go to funding mental health programs and social services that provide financial stability to residents. More funding for the police is not the only thing we need to invest in to make federal ways safer. We need to spread the money around in order to create well funded services with specific goals and agendas.

It should not funnel into the PD, which it seems will never have enough funding. So if this bill is passed, we should put the money towards programs in which we would see visible and real change in our communities. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Paul Mcdaniel.

Thank you. Like the previous speakers, my recommendation is to table it till you guys have more information. Just seeing the results of that presentation gave more insight. It's $20,000,000 difference per year. This is a 3,000,000 tax. That's a big jump still to make up on. So I don't know how you guys plan on doing that in the near future. I will actually put a little blame on Olympia. If you look at that chart, you'll see a big dip in cost. That's when the defund the police movement started and because of that, it has blown up our cost of police expediential.

I mean, that number is radical in what it cost. People talk about how we don't have as many police per thousand of citizens, but look at how much we pay compared to it. We have had to increase the bonuses continually in order to bring police to even get onto the force. It has thrown off the whole economy in that area. One of our biggest issues is we provide vehicles for every police officer. You guys need to look at your contracts and make that after they've been here for three years. The police vehicles alone are what's causing most of this problem. Every single one is provided a vehicle. Those vehicles, in fact, in January, with this budget issue we have right now, we bought 16 more police vehicles. 16.

That's a lot of vehicles when we're having a tight budget. And what's more important, vehicles or personnel? And then one of my other comments I'll make on this one, it's not a pause not one that most people like or agree with is when you're running for office, police and safety might be number one. When you're actually in office, it's infrastructure. I cannot build roads. I cannot put that stuff into play. I have a second amendment, and if you have a clean record, you can protect yourself. You can hire security. There is ways for people to protect themselves. You cannot build roads.

So when you take into consideration, think infrastructure needs to be thought of as number one, and then this police need to be thought of as number two. And that's just in the budget side of things. I also mentioned that we bought drones, clock cameras, excuse me, flock cameras, Tesla vehicles. Tesla doesn't make a police vehicle, but yet we bought them for testing. Is that good use of our budget? Is that good use of our money? Is it we've also flown multiple officers outside the state to receive awards. Is that good use of our money? You're gonna take the money from us, you better spend it wisely. I do not think it's being spent wisely right now.

I think you need to look at maybe tightening up your budgets a little bit more and seeing instead of putting people in room to write up grant proposals, seeing what can be cut. I'm tired of being threatened with my safety every time a budget gets short. It's either the kids or it's my safety. It doesn't need to be. There's a bigger picture here to be played. You saw the numbers there. Your $3,000,000 doesn't even get close to covering what's gonna happen in the next couple of years. Look at the big picture, take your time, do not rush this vote. Know what's going on before you make the vote.

Thank you.

Thanks, Paul. Doug Stensby. And then we're gonna have Sarah Lee on the phone.

I'm Doug Stensby. I've lived in in Federal Way for for twenty one one years. I will say that I mean, certainly, as a taxpayer, I I read the news and I think to myself, oh, boy, not another one. And on the other hand, I do recognize that public safety is a priority. Perhaps as Paul Paul says, it's not not not the only one, but it is something that needs needs to be supported, and certainly the costs there are going up.

I understand. What I would ask is for the assurance that this task tax will go to to that particular place and not be funneled off to something else in the general fund. Thanks. Thank you.

Thanks, Doug. All right. Now it's time for Sarah Lee. Hi, Sarah. Can you hear us?

Hello? Yep. Hello?

Okay. Sarah, the floor is yours for three minutes.

My name is Sarah Lee, and I'm a homeowner in Federal Way. We are in a time of economic uncertainty due to inflation, tariffs, the war in Iran. We're also in a time of uncertainty regarding how federal way plans to protect its residents should I show up and illegally detain them regardless of their criminal or immigration status. As such, I'm not supportive of attacks to increase funding for the police department. Supposed safety funding is already going to things like flock cameras, which endanger our immigrant population now that ICE has access to them regardless of the police department's stance on that.

A new camera just went up in an immigrant heavy neighborhood yesterday. Mass surveillance does not make us safer as history has proven time and time again. There are better ways to raise funds that don't impact the most vulnerable residents in Federal Way, such as those mister Orth suggested. However, if this council votes for this increase and Federal Way receives the King County grant already applied for, Federal Way will be able to maintain its current police department budget and staffing levels. So I'd like guarantees that the city will use this tax revenue to fund other services that help make Federal Way safer, like the neighborhood traffic safety fund, mental mental health programs, library funding, or public school funding, or any other social service that provides more economic, health, or educational stability to residents.

All things that prevent crime more so than making our city into a surveillance state. Building a strong community that takes care of all our residents will always be a better investment than that. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Alright. Would the, city clerk no. That's the last public comment, sheet that I have. Would the city clerk please read the ordinance title?

Council bill nine three four, ordinance authorization to enact 0.1%, one tenth of 1% local sales tax and use tax for public safety and criminal justice purposes. An ordinance of the state of federal Washington relating to the imposition of an additional sales and use tax of one tenth of 1%, 0.1% for criminal justice purposes as authorized by RCW eighty two fourteen three forty five, and adding a new chapter 3.7 to the federal way revised code entitled additional 0.1% sales or use tax for criminal justice purposes.

Alright. Thank you. Alright. To get us started, council member Sessoms, do have

a motion? I do. I move to forward the proposed ordinance to the April for second reading and enactment. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Council member Hamilton?

Yes. Thank you, Brian, for that presentation. We had a very lengthy discussion on this in one of our committee hearings. So I just wanna give a little bit of background. This is a result of house bill 2,015.

That was a house bill that was supported by your state representatives, representative Reeves, representative Taylor, and senator Wilson. I will be and also, I I wanna say thank you to the public for for coming and sharing their concerns. I share many of your concerns as well. I will be urging a yes vote on this adopting the point 1% criminal justice sales tax, but I wanna start here. I don't generally support tax increases because I understand very well what our citizens are going through right now with all of the state taxes.

And I wanna emphasize that. The state taxes that are being levied, we are feeling the pressure. But this is the one funding tool that I will support because I know what the consequences for our community are going to be if we leave this funding on the table and we walk away. We do have a core responsibility as local government to provide for public safety. That is our core responsibility.

Core responsibility of the state legislature is education. The core responsibility of local government is to provide for public safety. So that includes police, prosecution, public defense, and I'm gonna talk about public defense in a minute, courts, the justice system as a whole. At this time, Washington State ranks dead last in the nation for police officers per capita. I have a few theories on why that is.

I think it's because of the parade of anti law enforcement bills that were passed over the last several years, and we're we're still recouping from that as a state. So this bill was one of the bills that was put forth to try to solve that issue for our state. Now in regards to public defense, the Washington State Supreme Court levied a policy decision to reduce public defender caseload standards, drastically reduced public defense caseload standards. What that means is that we're gonna have a huge expense on our hands here. Real soon, we're gonna have a crisis with not having enough public defenders.

We have requested as a city for the state legislature to provide for public defense. Public defenders defend constitutional rights. If we don't have public defenders, cases are either delayed or more likely, they are dismissed outright. I think, personally, that is a huge injustice to victims, whether it be individuals, businesses, or society. We have asked repeatedly for provision for public defense.

This is the funding tool the legislature gave us. It's not my preferred vehicle. I would have liked to have seen a different, funding mechanism for this, but this is what we got. So what I will say is that this does have to be used for criminal justice purposes, and that's pretty clearly defined. It's defined as domestic violence services, public defenders, diversion programs, reentry work for inmates, reducing homelessness, improving behavioral health, community placements for juvenile offenders, community outreach, alternative response, mental health crisis response, as well as hiring and retaining police officers.

As far as hiring police officers, there's been a mass exodus. And so it's been difficult, and it has become very competitive to try to get good officers. We want good officers here in Federal Way. We we don't want bad officers because that's not good. So we do need to remain competitive.

So the issue here is, do we adopt the point 1% sales tax authorized by the state legislature to fund criminal justice public safety services, or do we attempt to meet these obligations without this funding tool? And another way to look at this is, are are we gonna use the same funding tool that every city around us is gonna be using, or do we choose to do it differently? And I would argue that that we would be trying to do this at a disadvantage. This funding tool is unique to me because it's going to broaden who contributes to public safety. And as a sales tax, again, it's 10¢ on every $100 purchase.

It's not paid only by Federal Way residents. It's gonna be paid for by people who visit our city, commuters, regional shoppers, people who benefit from our public safety are gonna be paying into this system and help share with the cost. I think that is more fair because we all benefit from public safety. The the big thing too is I I believe it's gonna reduce the pressure on local property owners. There is a huge push in Olympia to remove that levy lid on on property taxes.

I am adamantly opposed to that. If we walk away from this from this funding tool, the the argument against that becomes stronger. So I know I I hear I hear that we need to be wise with our budget, we need to be frugal with our budget. I think Federal Way has has been pretty good about that. But I also think that we need to be open and transparent about the cuts that we're gonna make in services if we do choose to to do our own thing and to walk away from this funding tool.

What city program and services are we going to cut? I think we owe it to the public to lay that out. What are we going to cut specifically when we walk away from this if that's what we choose to do? So, again, I completely understand the concerns. I don't like taxes either.

I definitely don't like what's going on in Olympia. Again, if you're feeling a lot of pressure like I am with state taxes, please reach out to your state legislatures. There there's ways to to let them know how you feel. But I I know that if we walk away from this and vote no, Federal Way is gonna be without the resources that every other city around us is gonna have, and that's gonna put us in a real bind. So, again, I am urging a yes vote on this. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilwoman Dawson.

Yeah. Thank you so much for your for what you said, council member Hamilton. Mine's kind of a question also. So King County did pass the point 1% also for the same thing. Right? And then King County is also gonna is considering to do a point 1% tax if it passes for the transportation that we talked about earlier. And so if King County already passed it for the same reason, then it's almost and I don't know if federal would even benefit from what King County is doing, but it just seems like we're paying double taxing taxation, I think, on the same purpose? Or maybe you can explain that to me or how that works.

Yes. So they my understanding is they benefit from the taxes of the entire county jurisdiction, not just the unincorporated areas where the county law enforcement area administers the services.

So it doesn't come back to us in any way. Right?

So the there's there's two taxes that currently in play with the county. They passed one in the nineties that we do share from. The one that they most recently passed is for again, that's for the entire jurisdiction that they then collect for for the for the sheriff. Well, I shouldn't I shouldn't just limit it to the sheriff. How they administer it, I don't know, but it's for it's for county law enforcement crime reduction purposes.

So yeah. So it doesn't come back to Federal Way or doesn't pass through back to us?

Not not that we've seen.

Not okay. And so it's just yeah. I know every you know, it's like point $10.10 cents I mean, not point 10, but 10¢ on every 100, but that's what we keep hearing. And so it just becomes problematic. But at the same time, I do hear what you're saying because this is an opportunity. Know, the other cities are also implementing the same tax. Yeah, it's so next we can still have this conversation at the second hearing, right?

That's right.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Yeah. Council, any other questions? Any other comments? Council member Walsh?

Yeah. I, you know, I fully support public safety. I I do think it's the the number one priority of of the the local government. And the things that that council member Hamilton said, I they are very, very valid concerns, very valid concerns. With that being said, you know, if you take a look back at the the the graph that was shown before of the of the tax increases, In 2020, the sales tax was was 10%.

With this, in all likelihood, the King County is gonna pass a another one tenth of a percent tax for for roads, which would bring it to 10.4. So this would bring it to 10.5. So actually, a half a percent. And thinking that that in in five years well, six years, I guess, has gone from 10% to 10 and a half percent. And I'm concerned about that that creep.

With that, I think that the time that I spent on the city council, this is the vote that I'm the most conflicted with. You know, absolutely, Public safety is the number one priority, but I am con very concerned about about taxes as well. You know, you think that that, just those few cents on a on a $100 thing isn't much, but it it accumulates. It accumulates. It accumulates.

And so, like I say, I am I am conflicted with it. If this does not pass, I will fully support the police. You know, it it would mean cuts to other areas, but I don't think we should be cutting public safety at all. And so if we need to as dear as some of the other programs are to me, they would would need to be cut rather than public safety. And so those are my those are my thoughts. Alright.

Thank you. Councilor Coach Meyer?

Well, I think that we need to stay competitive with other police agencies. We need to All of our surrounding agencies are all pulling from the same ever shrinking pool of folks that are willing to put their lives on the line in our ever changing world. And I really think that it's a small amount that if we don't do it, I think we're going to be behind where we need to be. And so this is simply a vote to move it forward from this meeting to our next regular meeting. But I am concerned about being competitive.

Alright. Councilmember Moore and the councilmember Sapodossa again.

You know, mister mayor, I just wanted to know if someone put something in my Pepsi Zero because I'll tell you, I appreciate the words of councilmember Hamilton and what councilmember Coach Moore just said. And that ought to be breaking news. I see Keelan right here. So, yeah, there you go. So councilor Hamilton, I I appreciate what you said.

I think you hit up on a lot of good points. I think the real debate is is is how if this gets passed and the funds start to come in, how are we gonna utilize it? And I think that's where I really wanna have a watchful eye as the legislative body of of of the council and and have that debate. And I think I'll be voting yes on this. And I'll be voting yes because I I believe what council member coach Marder said is we need to be competitive.

And and that's that's something that is absolutely important. And I'm voting yes on this because I'll tell you, I am absolutely reminded, and it's a sign I think I'm gonna put in my office, but the answers are within the community. And I I find myself saying that quite frequently. The answers are within the community. And, you know, we know that we're gonna be hitting up a a we're gonna be discussing our upcoming budget cycle, and it's gonna be difficult.

I think there's gonna be a lot of challenges. And my job is to deliver. My job is to deliver for the people. And like we've all said and we've all sworn to, and that's to protect the people of Feta White. And public safety is our paramount duty.

I wholeheartedly agree with that. I agreed with that for the eight years that I served in the council, and I agree with that as I return on the council. And, you know, I think for me, it's very disheartening for me to hear individuals saying that community is not safe, you know, or maybe realtors saying that our community is not safe. I just recently saw a video that we're an undesirable place, so to speak. You know, the fifth undesirable place kind of.

And and so for me, I look at we've we've got to strengthen public safety. That is just absolutely important. We cannot walk away from that. And and I think for me, we're talking about $3,000,000. Yeah. That that's small. But that's $3,000,000 that could be going from as the mayor looks to build his budget, that could be $3,000,000 that could be diverted to somewhere else. Am I right, Brian? Am I right? Okay. Thank you, mayor. So so therefore

Was that a excuse me. Was that a yes?

That is it's a it's a qualified yes. So the as council member Hamilton said, this is restricted by statute that we need to dedicate whatever income we we receive from this tax to law enforcement. The the shortfall that, at least for this year, is is gonna we've looked at everywhere else in the city. We're now at a point where gotta look at the police department. So, yes, to your question, but the majority is gonna we're looking at the police department to fill the this gap, and

so

this will help that specifically.

But if before I lose my my train of thought, if this tool wasn't here, we would have to be looking at $3,000,000 to put in here. And because this tool is here and there's a potential that we could use it, that could mean that $3,000,000 could go somewhere else from the general fund as we build it is what I'm trying to say.

Yeah. I I wouldn't say all of it, but yes.

Okay. So so that's that's my point. And and so for me, I know that we'll be I'll be looking at how do we fund mental health because that's a serious problem. How do we fund youth organizations like progress pushers, like other organizations, maybe even young life that help create that that keep our kids on the right track and and keep them busy. And I think that's really, really important because as I meet amazing organizations that do a lot of incredible work, I'm I know that I I'm thinking to myself, how do we fund them?

How do we support them? And this could be a tool for that. And and so that's why I'll be really, it's the biggest reason why I'll be voting yes for this. And and I think so I'll leave it at that. I'm sure I'll have more to say, but I wanted to at least provide that as part of the conversation. Thank you.

Okay. Council member Sesems, then council member Assev Adassin, council member Hamilton, and then the council president. Sessions?

Yeah. I am leaning very much towards voting yes for this. Councilmember Hamilton, you raised many salient points among which that this money can be used in a variety of ways, mental health programs, diversion programs. Public safety is a very broad term, and and the members of the community deserve to feel safe and secure in their persons. So with that said, public safety the money for public safety, this money will enforce the the the police department enabling the chief to be able to identify qualified qualified people to hire and support their salaries.

I'm, you know, I'm I'm excited for the fact that what you raised in your testimony, council member Hamilton, that this burden will will be shared by a broad range of people, not just Federal Way residents. We're talking 10¢ for every $100 spent. That's not a lot of money. And I know we're that's a lot to say during these trying times, but, honestly, 10¢ is a dime. It's it's it's it's not a lot of money.

We can we can definitely and and should go after this money while it's on the table and not let it get away, especially going into a tough budget cycle like I've been hearing. I I would hate to leave this money on the table and then cut services that we're going to need, that we know we need, and because we don't have the funds. So I appreciate you bringing all of those things up. I'm I'm leaning heavily towards voting for it. Yeah.

I I I just feel that because of the flexibility that we'll we'll have in in spreading this money around, just towards the police department but other services. I'm likely to vote for it unless something emerges. Don't know yet.

All right. Thank you. Councilwoman Sabadawson.

Yeah. What I was going to put off for next week to better understand is what I'm going to talk about now. But my question is, am looking at the ordinance, I didn't see, correct me if I'm wrong, none of the things that you brought up around mental health professionals corresponding. And I remember council member when you were council member Paul Mcdanner this is something that he really brought up and pushed for to see how we could do that and that did not you know that didn't happen and then we talked about DV programs youth you know all these things and homelessness and I did not see that in the ordinance. What I saw, if I remember, is around training and other things that are just within the police department.

And so all these other things that are being brought up, I did not read. So I want to make sure that if that's what we're doing or if that's how the money could be spent, I really wanna see that happen in in order to enhance public safety and not just be spent on police departments. So if if it wasn't there and I missed it, please let

me So Correct. Council member Hamilton brought this up. The statute defines what we can spend it on, and it includes many of the things that you have all have discussed this evening.

But it's not in that language then in the ordinance?

I believe it references statute, if I'm not mistaken, which then includes all of that.

Right. So the list that you're referring to is the qualifications that we had to comply with in order to be eligible to get the grant that makes us eligible to pass the tax. So those aren't the things we plan to spend the money on. Those are things we've already done to make us eligible to be able to pass this tax.

And we'll continue.

And then the statute says that we have to use it for criminal justice purposes. So we didn't write it into the statute into our ordinance because maybe the state will change that list at some point, and we will be we'd have to change our ordinance at that point. So we will use it for those purposes that the state has allowed us to use it for.

And then if the state changes, then we have to change accordingly, or can we continue doing what we

It references the statute, so we'll just change along with with it. So we don't have to if we enumerate it in our own statute and then they change the rules on us, we'd have to change the local rule again. So by not including it explicitly in the ordinance and deferring instead to the state law as it is currently written, when they change the state law, we don't have to change it. Does that make sense?

It's about the definition for criminal justice purposes. So at some point, the legislature may refine what criminal justice purpose means, but it's always going to include police, public defenders, probably mental health issues, or just the the whole variety, but, you know, public defense, the whole variety public defense. It's about generally referring to that definition of of criminal justice purposes.

So if if they change that and we wanna continue doing, like, the mental health corresponding or homelessness, addressing homelessness or youth, all these programs, does it mean that we need to not do them if the state decides not to do them anymore? If

the state takes something away, which is highly unlikely, but if they took if they're more likely to expand the definition of criminal justice, but if they narrowed the justice the the the definition of criminal justice, we would have to use that money in compliance with the statute. So yes, we would have to find another source of funds to do those things. But that seems unlikely. The more likely scenario is that they would expand the use of these funds. Okay.

Thank you.

Alright. Councilor Hamilton, and then council president.

Yeah. Just to follow-up

on that

real quick. This is connected directly to HB 2,015, and that's where you find that language, you know, with the broad use. I I do wanna bring up just one thing that I I do appreciate about the the bill is it it does give us local control. In in an era where we're getting, less and less local control, this actually does give us the control to choose how we're going to use I mean, does have to be for criminal justice purposes, but that is broadly defined within those things that I had listed off. So that's a good thing is that we do have discretion for how we will use this funding.

I do still believe though that we need to be transparent and honest with the community about what exactly we would be cutting if we do choose to walk away from this. And so some of the the interesting thing is that if we choose to walk away from this and we cut things from our budget, a lot of those things are are gonna be probably connected to public safety in in an in an interesting way. Things like community policing might go away. We might not have coffee with a cop anymore. Things like graffiti cleanup.

That might be something we have to cut. Shopping cart removal and pickup, we might need to cut that. Programming within our parks department, youth team, senior programs, food voucher program. I think we really need to start thinking about what it is exactly we're gonna cut very specifically so that the community knows what we're gonna be looking at cutting. And I'm not saying that that's exactly what we would cut, but it's just examples.

And I don't wanna see any of those things go away. And, yeah, I just I want us to specifically, you know, think about what we're gonna be cutting if we walk away from this because there will be cuts. That's that that's a given.

Alright. Thank you. Council president Honda.

Thank you. Expanding on what council member Hamilton is talking about. The reason that this has come before us now is so that we could start collecting this in July. RCW eighty two point one four point three four five authorizes cities and counties to impose the 0.1% tax by ordinance through 06/30/2028. The Department of Revenue must receive at least seventy five days notice before the tax taxes effective date,

and

the tax may take effect only on January 1, April 1, or July 1. So that's why King County wants to pass the transportation benefit tax soon so that they can start collecting on collecting in July. And why the city wants to do it now. My concern is I don't know what we will be cutting from any programs in the city if we don't pass this. So, you know, we have a budget.

We're in our last year of our budget, and I would like to know what cuts we would be making in 2026 if we don't pass this. I'd like to know what decreases in programs we might be making if we don't pass this. And I'd like to know what would happen if we don't pass this now, but pass it and have it start on 01/01/2027. When we put the ARPA funding into the public safety budget, just I should just seem like a few months ago. That helped public safety.

Right? I mean, that that funded public safety.

It did.

So did that the money that we put the ARPA money that we put into the budget for public safety, was that money used for other projects and programs in the city? Or did the public

the one part of the portion of ARPA that went to police?

Right.

I'm sorry.

So so we put the ARPA money into the public safety budget, And that was just a few months ago. Correct? When did we do that? Steve. 2025 or 2020? Sure.

Council authorized a long list of projects to be funded by ARPA. Those projects were all shifted to the general fund, and we did charge public safety to the ARPA to fully exhaust that grant. But the ARPA funding allowed us to specify a large list. Now it did include 28 police cars that we were able to purchase. I think that was the only direct benefit to the police program.

So the money from ARPA that we put into the public fund public safety fund purchased the police cars?

Yes.

And if we didn't put that into that the public safety fund, then we would not have been able to purchase those police cars?

That's true.

There were also retention bonuses for all the staff.

Thank

you. Majority The of which would be, police because they comprise a good bulk of the enrollment or the workforce of the city.

So when this was discussed at the last at the parks meeting, I did ask if the city would advertise it so that we you know, people would know that this was happening because I I don't want I don't wanna surprise people. I wanna hear from from the public. The newspaper ran an article on it, and then just a few days ago, it's been on Facebook. And every comment I've read on Facebook has been against it. And I will not be voting for this tonight.

And I'm not gonna vote for it tonight because I wanna hear from the public. I wanna know how the public feels about it. It's not that I don't support public safety and our courts. It's because I want to hear from the people who live here in in Federal Way, and I wanna hear how it's going to impact them. The problem that we have as a city and that we've always had as a city and federal way since before I was even on this council was you have your school district, and they they do their levies and their bonds.

And then you have Lake Haven and they increase their fees. And every so often you have PSC, they're increasing their fees. You have the state, the county, and everyone's increasing their fees and their taxes. And then comes to the city and we're like, oh boy, we can't do that because people are overburdened. They're having a difficult time buying food and medication and things that they need to live on.

And right now, gas. I mean, gas is through the roof, and it's gonna only get worse. And yet, as a city, we need to also have the funding to provide the services that we are responsible to provide for. And so I'm really I feel like council member Walton really divided on this because I know we need the funding. I know we need this.

But I also know that this is going to be really difficult for people. And just because it's only a little bit of money, a little bit of money added up to a lot of other little bits of money is a lot of money for people. And I think we need to really think about that. So what I would ask for at our next reading in two weeks is I'd like to see a list of what No. No. We we won't be able to see that.

I'm sorry. Go ahead and finish your

I was just gonna ask that a list of the cuts in '26 that we might be facing.

You know, we're gonna be I'm gonna spend between now and September 1, what is that, five, six months working on a budget. We're gonna take down we're gonna go down to the studs on every budget. And we're we can't, like, give you a list in one week of that work. I mean, we're gonna be we we're gonna do that regardless. We're gonna go through and we run a very, very lean operation.

Each and every one of our departments, whether it's parks, whether it's HR, whether it's law, every department is you know, IT, chronically understaffed. So we're gonna take a look and and go through every department and find everywhere we can we could save money. But I can't give you that list in a week, and I'm not going to because what we wanna do is hear from we take a look at all the spreadsheets, and we go we're talking you we've know, got a biennial budget of over $303,150 to $360,000,000. So we're there's a lot we'd have to go through. We can give you some ideas.

And one of the things right now, we got a $1,500,000 budget. And I have to tell you right now, we've gone down to the studs in every as a metaphor, for building a house. We've gone down to every department, and we've squeezed every bit. We've denied new hires in all these different departments. The last department is the police department.

So we're talking about what we wanna do is get to where we're you know, we've got a couple of positions. We'd have to, like, hold off on those positions. We'd have to hold off on you know, it almost all of it would come down to the police department and not hiring those officers that that we told the community we're going to have. And then we're probably gonna have to try to find savings, you know, here and there, but we're gonna we're gonna go through every department. This is a budget year.

That's what we're gonna do. And, you know, right now, 1.5, right, as we've as we looked at it, most of it's gonna come from the police department and about not hiring new people and finding ways in which we can, you know, save money in that department. But we've saved this. You know? Like I said, we've gone through every department, and we run very lean. Our IT staff, park staff, all of it. We need to add we need to add people, not subtract them. So that that's my answer to that. And and I don't wanna pretend like I we can give you a list, that that would not be doing justice to the the $353,160,000,000 dollars for the biennial budget. But it's gonna take a long time before I put it together.

So well, I would just like to know how my vote is going to be impacted if I vote against this and how it will impact the city. That's what I'd like to know.

Well, I think if you're talking about $3,000,000 of just to to to answer that question, that's a lot of money. And what we what we're talking about really is making sure that we have a fully fully funded police department, that we have everything we need to address the safety of our community. And, also, it will take the it will take the the pressure off really, once again, sort of buckling down. One of the things that happened in the city, and I want everybody to know this, we when the great recession occurred in 2008 and between 2008 and 2010, this city lost 80 employees. We basically just absolutely went down to the rivets, so to speak.

And, we are still, you know, this this and we went six years at a city government without a cost of living adjustment for our employees. I want you to think let let me say that again. This city went six years without a cost of living adjustment for nonrepresented employees. That put us at a much disadvantaged position in our, in our community. I would also note that there are other cities like Kent and, that have a much more robust because of the the warehouses and the in and the infrastructure of their attacking system, that like, the city of of Kent gets about twice the receipts that we do in regard to revenue because of the because the way the structural system is taxation system is set up.

So instead of $300,000,000 in in revenue, they have twice that. And so so do some other cities. That's why we don't use Kent as a comparable with our salaries, and we have to keep comparable with not only our police officers for retention and recruitment, but every employee who works here. And we don't wanna make we wanna make sure that we don't fall below that. So while the situation is not dire, it's important.

It's serious, and it's going to take it's gonna take all efforts, all oars in the water, to get us there. And I want us to have a very I want us to have a thoughtful process in regard to the budget. And, you know, the the position of of this administration is we don't wanna leave $3,000,000 on the table for for 10¢ out of a $100.

So from I so from July to January, this would raise $3,000,000?

No. It'd probably be half that. Half that. Half that. Because we're it's half the year. So it's 1.5 for this year. Which

coincidentally is what the I mentioned what the shortfall is as well.

But that Is what the what?

That happens to be what the shortfall is. But I do wanna say that that's not just a quick plug. We're gonna go down to the rivets on every department. It's what we do. Line by line by line by line. And and really think about and and look for ways. But we've got staffing needs that we may need to add staff at certain areas like IT. IT is chronically under understaffed. And you you know that.

Know you support that.

You do you support that.

I've always supported adding staff to IT, and I I know it's chronically understaffed, and I I'm concerned about that. I I I think this is our first disagreement. But I would say that I would like to have a better understanding if this doesn't pass, what the impact over the entire city function is.

Yeah.

And you may not be able to give me a list, but you got an idea of

Yeah.

Of the the impact, and that's what I'm looking for.

Okay. That you will get. Thank So, Brian, that we can commit to. I just wanna one of one of things I wanna do is my wife taught me a long time ago, don't agree to things you're not gonna do. And and so I what I my commitment to you is is that we will sit down with Brian and Steve Groom and give you some ideas on where we're gonna you know, like, first, with regard to the 1.5. The 1.5 is a starting figure because I think we owe it to we're we're a service delivery organization. I think we owe it to our community figure out where we at parks in regard to staffing. Where are we at with IT, which is as we've talked about. And do we need to pick up a couple of positions to make sure that we're providing that service delivery and not and not burning out our employees?

Okay.

I'm just gonna say, maybe we need to turn this whole idea around because we keep talking about, you know, we've always been a very frugal city. That that's been one of our hallmarks. But what we need to do is attract business and we're not gonna attract business if we don't have a safe city. I've heard people over and over say, I'm so happy that we don't have graffiti, that we have clean streets, that we have, we now have police officers that are responding. I've heard that repeatedly and I think that that's really important if you wanna attract real estate, you can't lose planners, you need to have people for building.

If you wanna expand the city and if you wanna have your businesses that are gonna come and bring revenue to the city, they have to feel safe. That's one of the most important things, that and good schools. And so I think that we need to look at this in a broader spectrum of things. So, you can say, well, we're gonna lose perhaps a planner, we might lose something or not be able to hire who we need, but for the most part, you know, we need to move forward and make sure competitive with other cities because you can bet they're gonna pass that oneten of 1% for their cities, and if we don't, we're back being penny wise pound foolish. So, I just wanted to say that.

Thank you very much. Councilor President Honda?

Thank you. So at the Parks meeting, it was also discussed about the HB twenty fifteen one hundred million dollars grant funding for public safety and criminal justice purposes that we already qualify for. According to that, the grant funds will be used for the following purposes personnel to end commissioned officers, training at the Basic Enforcement Academy, equipment and deployment readiness, retention and workforce stabilization. And that's a grant of over $5,000,000 if we get the entire amount over three years, I believe. One time $5,000 retention bonuses for 150 commissioned officers and 36 civilian employees.

So I mean, that works into this too. It's not just a simple vote for 0.1% sales tax increase. I mean, there's other things that go into this. Want I think we need to think about the big picture. And so that's what I will leave it at. But thank you.

Very good. Oh, you're welcome. Oh, and I didn't consider this a disagreement. We'll get there.

Alright. I guess I'm sure one day we will.

Councilor Moore Hamilton?

Well, I just wanna say healthy disagreements are good, and we're having a really good robust conversation, which I appreciate. And I appreciate all of my colleagues and their perspectives and what they've argued today. Just to clarify, HB 2,015 provides two funding mechanisms, just so the public is aware. Two funding mechanisms separate but linked. The $100,000,000 grant, that has to be used for law enforcement, hiring, and and retention, I believe. And

And that's the total bank for the state. Right?

Yeah. That's the total bank for the state. We're gonna go for a portion of it. We're gonna go for, I think, 5,000,000, and we'll see what we get. But then there's what we're talking about right now, which is the point 1% sales tax. That is where we have discretion on what we can use within that broadly defined criminal justice purposes. We can also use that to retain the officers that we have and then all the other things. My thing is the public defenders. I am really concerned about that. I don't think people realize just how what a bind that is gonna put us in.

I I've I've been hearing the concerns, and here's what I'll say. I don't want our city to be left behind and to fall behind because of what's happening at the state level. Like I said, there are ways to address what's happening at the state level with your state representatives. We we have to keep pace with every city around us, and and if we don't, there's gonna be consequences. Officers, you know, they they might love the environment here, but if if Kent or Auburn or Des Moines has got better pay, that's where they're gonna go.

And so I I just wanna, you know, make that clear that that if if we if we choose to walk away from the one funding tool that the state has given us to to provide for public safety, we're we're we're gonna really have to contend with that decision. So I appreciate the robust the debate and and conversation, and that's where I'll end.

Alright. Council president Hyde and then council member Moore.

I have another question. In 2026, our the pay for our police officers and our police staff, that's already been set. So this would not impact them if we did not move this forward in 2026. Is that correct?

Right. The the so the go ahead.

Well, I was I was gonna say the collective bargaining unit sets the cost per officer. It doesn't set how many officers we have. So But in '20 how we control our costs is we have fewer officers.

In 2026?

Their salary is set.

Their salary so

Correct.

So if we need to control that number, we need fewer officers.

So in 2026, if this isn't passed, then we would lose officers, potentially.

Chief, you wanna let's let's get the chief in here because I I think he's got a chief, is that okay?

That's fine.

Okay. Chief?

Couple things. Council member Hamilton talked about two funding source with house bill twenty fifteen. So the intent of the legislator is the $100,000,000 grant is onetime funding. It'll pay for officer hiring retention for a three year period. At entry level, 75%. So the mechanism for continuing to pay the officer position is the sales tax, one tenth to 1%. That's the ongoing funding. City administrator talked about saving $1,500,000 in 2026. That's the shortfall. They've looked at every department.

They've approached me now about reducing $1,500,000, so within the police department. So what I would tell you is that we're really thin on the civilian side as an agency. So we're waiting for this grant funding. And I need to disclose to you this grant funding 100,000,000. We were just informed a couple of weeks ago that there is supplanting language that we'll need to, address that when we do the budgeting for the 2728.

But bottom line is if we have to reduce that kind of money, we're looking at probably eight to 10 officer positions that I will not be filling, to reach that 1.5 just this year. But as a policy group, you can say, we don't wanna reduce police officers. We're gonna reduce it somewhere else. You can make that decision. But if it if it's up to me to come up with $1,500,000, I probably need to reduce, not hire eight to 10 officers towards the end of the year or some sometime in the year, but I'm really waiting for this decision and also the $100,000,000 grant funding. So I hope that helps. But we're at a point where I if it's up to me to reduce that budget, I have to eliminate or not hire those officer positions to make budget.

I could I I thought at the parks meeting, when I asked about how many officers we had, I thought we were only short. I think you said three or four.

Yeah. Right now, we're budgeted 151 today. July, there's three more positions to fill, bringing us to one fifty four. So as of today at a 151, I'm short. I have four more positions to fill to get to one fifty one. So I'm at one forty seven now, paid positions. So there's four positions to be filled and three more in July. So there's little bit of salary savings already up to this point with these four vacant positions. So I have some, but if I really the if the delta is 1,500,000.0, I will not make it with these vacancies. I will have to just at when attrition occurs, let's say an officer leaves, retires, I just won't I won't be filling them is what will happen.

I won't be laying anybody off. I just won't fill positions that become available, and I'll just have to look at the math. But I'm telling you right now, if it's 1,500,000.0, I need to not hire eight to 10 officers.

Thank you.

Okay. Oh, council. Okay. Alright. There has been a there's been a motion, a second, a very robust discussion. It's time for the vote. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Opposed? Reluctant aye.

No. Nay. Alright. Heather? Council member Asafo Dawson. Aye. Council member Moore.

Aye.

Council member Hamilton. Aye. Council member Walsh. Aye. Council member Sussens.

Aye.

Council member Coach Moore.

Aye.

And council president Honda. Date. Motion passes six to one.

Alright. Thank you very much. Okay. Thanks once again. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, everybody. Now council reports. It's the second meeting of the month, so we'll start at position number seven. Council member coach Mark.

I've been otherwise indisposed. No report.

Alright. Thank you very much. And I hope you feel better soon. And thank you for being here through all this. Councilmember Sesems?

Attended the NLC conference last week. Looking forward to the council retreat on April 4. Also looking forward to participating in the Parks Appreciation Day, April 18. A reminder that the Garifuna Heritage Month celebration on April 25 is coming up. That'll be at Town Square Park. And April 30, I'm looking forward participating in the Federal Way Public Forum.

Alright. Thank you. Councilor Walsh?

Great discussion just now. And I think that it also shows that we can can disagree agreeably without being disagreeable. So anyway, great discussion. And for the sake of brevity, that's it.

Alright. Thank you. Councilor Hamilton?

Don't have a huge report. We spent a lot of time and, you know, focusing on DC, and I already reported on that. A great trip. I appreciated the discussion tonight. I think it was a good, robust discussion. And thank you, council member Walsh. And, yeah, I'd I look forward to the retreat, and that's my report.

Alright. Council member Moore.

Thank you so much, mayor. Yep. Just same thing. DC was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it. And I will also follow my colleagues' steps and say that this was a good conversation. The only thing I wanna be careful with is we have really good state lawmakers that are representing the thirtieth. And there's a lot of diversity in those votes, and I just wanna be careful with that because we consider them partners because we need them quite frankly. And so I just as we're having this conversation of sales tax, I know that debates like this can get it's easy to to to point the fingers. And I just wanna make sure that we're staying true to local.

How do you solve the local local challenges? So that's the only thing that kind of comes to my mind. But other than that, yeah, there's really nothing else to say. You.

Right, thank you. Councilmember Sapodasa.

Thank you, Mayor and I have nothing to report on.

Alright. Thank you. Thank you. Council president Honda.