City Council - Regular Meeting

I will call this City Council meeting of June 2nd, 2026 to order. We acknowledge that this meeting is being held on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish people. We pay our respect to those past and present. Tonight's invocation is led by Pastor Matthew Erickson from the First Reformed Church. If we could all please stand for the invocation and then remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance that will be led by Councilmember Marshall.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and City Council. Please prepare yourself in the manner in which you are accustomed. Gracious and loving God, we gather tonight with gratitude for the city we call home, for the people who live here, serve here, work, raise families here, and seek the common good of this community. We give thanks for the beauty of Oak Harbor, for our parks, our neighborhoods, our harbor, our schools and military families, our local businesses, first responders, city staff, and all who contribute invisible and quiet ways to the life of this place. As this council meets tonight, we ask for wisdom, patience, humility, and courage. Guide the mayor, council members, and city staff as they listen, deliberate, and make decisions on behalf of the people they serve. May their words be thoughtful, listening be generous, and decisions be marked by justice, compassion, and care for the whole community. Where there are complex issues, give clarity. Where there are differing perspectives, give respect. Give us eyes to see and hearts willing to respond. Bless this gathering, bless the work before this team, and bless the community that we are called to serve. In your holy name we pray, amen. 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.

All right, this is a reminder that tonight's meeting is both a physical and a virtual meeting. The meeting may be viewed on YouTube and following the meeting on Facebook. Everyone is present and accounted for except for Council Member Wittgenstein. He's asked to be excused as he's unable to attend. So I would entertain a motion to excuse Council Member Wittgenstein. Yes, Council Member Romero. move to the up excuse councilmember Wittgenstein as stated second all right we have a motion to excuse councilmember Wittgenstein by councilmember Romero seconded by councilmember Marshall any further discussion hearing seeing none all in favor raise your right hand all right he is excused thank you very much are there any suggested changes to the regular agenda If not, I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Yes, Mayor Pro Tem.

I move to approve the agenda as presented. Second.

All right, we have a motion to approve the agenda as presented, seconded by, was that you, Council Member Peterson? Is there any further discussion before I call for a vote? Hearing, seeing none, all in favor, raise your right hand. That passes unanimously, thank you very much. All right. At this time, we are gonna move into Executive Session. The Council will move into Executive Session per Revised Code of Washington 4230.110 to review the performance of a public employee and per RCW 4230.110 to discuss with legal council matters related to litigation or potential litigation. The anticipated duration of the executive session is 15 minutes. Action may or may not be taken following return to the open session of the meeting. Executive sessions are not open to the public. And we will move into executive session at 534.

The council has announced an extension of the executive session for an additional 10 minutes. The council will return at 5.59. The council has announced an additional extension of five more minutes to the executive session. The executive session will now conclude at 6.04. Thank you.

It'll be fun. Are we good? All right, so we are out of executive session. We are gonna resume open session, and there is no action taken at this time regarding the matters discussed. Thank you for your patience. We apologize for the continued delays. We had a lot of things to work through. We have a couple of presentations coming up. The first is a proclamation from our Parks and Recreation Month proclamation, and here to introduce that is our park supervisor, Craig Lamas-Cole.

Alright, thank you. For July 2026, Parks and Recreation Month highlights the power of Parks and Recreation and the people who make this possible. Parks and Recreation brings people together, strengthens our physical and mental health and well-being, and builds more resilient and connected communities.

Oh, Council Member Marshall, read the proclamation, please. I'm sorry. I thought you were reading all of it. I was like, that was it? Thank you, Craig. I'm so sorry. I was sitting here reading going, wait, there's more.

All right.

Whereas Parks and Recreation serves as an integral part of communities throughout this country, including the City of Oak Harbor, and whereas Parks and Recreation promotes health and wellness, as well as time spent in nature, positively impacting mental health by increasing cognitive performance and well-being, and improving the physical and mental health of people who live near parks, And whereas parks and recreation encourages physical activities by providing space for sports, hiking trails, and many other activities designed to promote active lifestyles. And whereas park and recreation programming and education activities, youth sports and environmental education are critical to childhood development and is fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community. And whereas parks and recreation increases the community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of the local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses, and crime reduction, And whereas our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for children and adults to connect with nature and recreate outdoors. And whereas the United States House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month, Now, therefore, we, Mayor Ronnie Wright, and the council members of the City of Oak Harbor do hereby proclaim July 2026 as Park and Recreation Month in the City of Oak Harbor, and we urge all residents to experience the benefits derived from our public parks and recreation programs. Signed, the second day of June 2026, Mayor Ronnie Wright.

Thank you, sir. All right. Next up, we have a bench donation, the Holland Garden Park, and here to introduce that is our supervisor, Park Supervisor Brandon Cable.

Good evening, mayor and council. I'm Brandon Cable. I'm the park supervisor, and I'm here to present for hopefully an acceptance of a park bench. so on april 5th or april 1st 2025 the oak harbor garden club joined the trex challenge a community-based nationwide effort collect to collect plastic and educate about recycling the objective of the challenge was to collect a thousand pounds of plastic material within one year the reward for completing this was a trex park bench and Last year, the Oak Harbor Garden Club successfully completed their 1,000-pound challenge and received a Trex park bench pictured in the corner there. They would like to donate the park bench to the city to be installed in Holland Garden Park. uh these pictures are approximately where the bench would be installed you can see that red triangle on the right hand side is is where that would be the sod would be pulled out and the park bench would be installed Oak Harbor Garden Club is going to cover the cost of to install everything, concrete, hardware, the labor for the installation, and they're donating the bench. The city parks would be responsible for any future maintenance. We anticipate that being a yearly, maybe bi-yearly cleaning of the park bench. The municipal code 2.8 states that the department shall have no power to acquire land or property or to accept gifts of real or personal property without the approval of city council. Any property shall be required or property acquired shall be in the name of the city. So that's why I'm here for you today or with you guys today. thought I was missing a slide there. So in our previous Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission meeting, and I don't have the date for you. The parks. Oh, right, there it is. Sorry. On May 11, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission unanimously unanimously approved the installation of the park bench in the Holland gardens. And We are looking for a motion. The suggested motion would be I move to approve and accept the donation of the park bench from the Oak Harbor Garden Club to be located in Holland Garden Parks. And I'm here for any questions, if anybody has any.

Great, Brandon. Thanks so much for that. I'm going to first confirm that we received no public comment on this issue.

That's correct, Mayor. No public comments regarding this bench were received. All right.

And then I'm going to ask, is there anyone here with us this evening that would like to step forward and make public comment on this issue? All right hearing seeing none, I will call upon Council for their questions or comments at this time, yes, Councilmember Romero.

Not a major matter, but that's going to be locked down right it's going to be cemented or secured. Yes, it will be erosion resistant fasteners.

I'm not sure about corrosion.

That's my message. All right, thank you.

Yes, Council Member Stuckey.

Just a good job to the Garden Club and a thank you for the donation and even putting in the money for installation and concrete. That's awful generous and just goes to show the good relationship we have had with the Garden Club and the city. So thank you and congrats.

Council Member Peterson.

If my fellow councillors have no further comment, I'd like to make a motion to approve and accept the donation of a bench from the Oak Harbor Garden Club to be located in the Holland Garden Park.

Second. We have a motion as presented by Council Member Peterson, seconded by Council Member Romero. Is there any further discussion before I call for a vote? Hearing, seeing none, all in favor, raise your right hand. All right, we pass unanimously. Thank you very much. And again, thank you to the Garden Club. Thank you, Brandon, for your presentation. We really appreciate this. Thank you very much. All right, we're going to move forward to public comments. Comments on consent agenda items or subjects of interest not listed on the agenda at this time. Opportunity to comment on the remaining agenda items during the meeting as appropriate. Please note comments regarding public hearing items will be heard during that portion of the agenda. We have two public hearing items for today's meeting. You may visit our website for methods to submit public comments. Public comments sent anonymously or from a non-verifiable address will be shared with the mayor and council but will not be displayed. At this time, we will accept public comments on items not listed on the agenda or on the consent agenda. The clerk will call your name and the order in which you signed in to speak. Please step forward to the microphone and state your name and address. Limit your comments to three minutes. We received new public comments since our last regular meeting. Those are on subjects not related to the public hearing items and will be displayed now.

Mayor, we will display those comments after we receive public comment.

Perfect. All right. So do we have people signed up to make public comment now then?

Yes. Thank you, Mayor. We do. Those who signed up to speak on items not listed on the agenda. The first is Ferd Johns.

Thank you, uh, for having me mayor and council. Uh, appreciate the opportunity. I'm for John's. I'm a resident of Oak Harbor, a retired architect and urban designer, a boater and a member of the design committee of Oak Harbor main street.

Mr. Jones, could you just state your address please for me for the record?

51 Southeast Bay shore drive.

Thank you sir.

I'm here to reinforce our city vision statement, which says we're a vibrant Woodby Island waterfront community. And thanks for your efforts to help our marina and whatever help you can give us with that. With the dredging is great, although both of my boats float in two feet of water. I'm not really stressed by that, but it's nice that you're doing that. I urge you to take advantage of a couple of other big opportunities that are going to come and go very soon. They're going to cost time and money, like all good investments. While the dredging equipment's here, if we add deepening and widening the existing dinghy dock channel to the dredging contract, we could then be eligible for a number of boating infrastructure grants, which would pay up to 90% of the cost of installing a modest town dock. which would enhance the waterfront experience for all of our residents and provide moorage for visiting boats right in the middle of our historic downtown shopping and entertainment district. That would certainly create a more vibrant waterfront community, reflecting the heritage and character of Oak Harbor as an historic maritime town. Nearly every plan and study of our town over the past 30 years has stated the need for a convenient town dock in bold letters. We almost had one a few years back, but mission creep stalled the project and the feds took the money back. Honestly, permits to extend the dredging will be a huge pain, but dredging will never ever be cheaper. next along a long time issue the entrance to the heart of our historic downtown business district from route 20. the state's going to install a roundabout within the next couple of years and there's a great opportunity there to signal and celebrate a gateway to the historic downtown and waterfront we already have two large signs they were intended to frame the entrance as a gateway to pioneer from the roundabout One is temporarily mounted in Beeksma Park, the other's in the city storage lot, I hope. The only cost will be to mount them where WisDOT allows it. We need to work on getting their permission ASAP. The Main Street's also begun talks with the Arts Commission about having a sculpture made for the landscape center of that roundabout. Not a freebie throwaway, but a sculpture that is created specifically to relate to Oak Harbor, our history, and our character as that vibrant waterfront community we're talking about. It must point in the direction of the historic downtown and the waterfront without interfering with sight lines across the roundabout. Pioneer is going to get a road diet, which will allow us to create a pleasantly landscaped entry to our historic heart. But we have to move fast. Once those roundabout engineers finish the design, it's etched in stone. If we delay, be another opportunity lost.

Mr. Johns.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you very much.

Mayor, the next person who signed up to speak to an item not listed on the regular agenda is Jennifer Jupiter of Oak Harbor regarding Pride Flag.

Good evening, council members and Mayor Ronnie. Excuse me.

These are my friends behind me.

My name is Jennifer Juniper, and I've been a resident of the city of Oak Harbor for nine years. I live at 1085 Southeast Regatta Drive, apartment B201. I'm also a member of Oak Harbor Pride's organizing committee and working hard on that right now, and our Pride celebration is this coming Saturday at 5 p.m. down at Flintstone Park. I'm asking that the city please raise the pride flag at City Hall and Flintstone Park and down at Beeksma during the month of June. I know I'm a little bit late on that, but I could still ask. For reference, Coupeville, Anacortes, Langley, and Skagit Valley College, Whidbey Campus all raised the pride flag during June. The fact that Oak Harbor does not yet fly the pride flag during June is bad for optics, particularly since we are the largest population out of our neighboring communities and therefore likely have the largest population of LGBTQ folks and their allies. It may seem like a trivial matter, but raising the pride flag during June sends a message that our beautiful city is inclusive and a safe place for everyone to live, work, and play. It's good for residents, it's good for tourism, and it's good for business. The alternative is being an outlier, which sends a signal that Oak Harbor is not inclusive and not a safe place for LGBTQ folks and their allies. Therefore, we are asking our hometown to please raise the pride flag during June so we can celebrate Pride Month with confidence and grace alongside our neighbors. It's time for Oak Harbor to step up and be seen as a safe, inclusive place for everyone. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Mayor, the next person who signed up to speak to items not on the regular agenda is Reverend Dr. Philip A. Bernhardt House regarding the pride flag.

Good evening, Mayor Wright and council members. My name is the Reverend Dr. Philip A. Bernhardt House. I live at 101 Southeast Ely Street here in Oak Harbor. I was born here in Oak Harbor at the Naval Air Station Hospital back when people could still be born there. And I have lived the majority of my life here. I taught at both Skagit Valley College here in Oak Harbor and at Columbia College at NAS Whidbey. So the majority of my teaching career has been here as well. It was unthinkable to me back in the 80s and 90s when I was in middle school, junior high, high school here in Oak Harbor that pride was even a thing. it was unthinkable that it would be an issue and even when I was doing my masters dealing with LGBTQ acceptance within religious communities in 1998 and to 2000 this seemed like an impossible thing when I found out that Oak Harbor High School had a what do they call it, the club for LGBTQ plus students and allies, that's exponential progress that I never imagined. And when I was teaching at Skagit and was the advisor to the Rainbow Alliance, there were steps that continued during that time and things continued to improve here. for people like me who is several letters in that LGBTQ plus acronym and for my students and for my friends this is an important thing to have this pride flag raised and I would not amend what my friend Jen said but just kind of put a caveat on it. I don't think we should do it because everyone else is doing it. I think we should do it because it's the right thing to do. If it gives encouragement to one kid In this community that their community sees them and recognizes their ability to exist That's a powerful message So that is the the extent of my comments and I thank you very much for your time and your attention to this issue Thank you.

Thank you for your thoughtful comments

Mayor, the next person who signed up to speak to an item that's not listed on the regular agenda or the consent agenda is Maria Gallegos. I'm hoping I'm saying your last name correctly, Maria.

It's close. It's Maria Gallegos.

She is also speaking in regard to the pride flag.

Yes, thank you. Hi, my name is Maria Gallegos. I go by MJ. I live at 65 Northwest Crosby Avenue here in Oak Harbor. I am also Whidbey Islands Skagit Valley campus student government president here in Oak Harbor as well. And I am a queer Mexican-American living in America today. I think it's important to acknowledge how much harm that queer people are facing because of the federal government today. I know it's easy to talk a lot about the past and what everybody has gone in the past, and that's important, but it's still a current issue today. I've had to advocate for students that have had their car scratched and stickers torn off because they were queer and hate-crimed. And I want to make it clear that waving a flag is not just about celebrating us being queer or gay. though it should it's about advocating for our lived experience I think in opposition people can say that they have their personal beliefs against us and I will validate that that you can have those beliefs and have your personal opinions but that shouldn't erase our lived experience and our need to be safe in our own country as well So I'd like to say that not putting up a flag is not remaining neutral on this issue. Putting up the flag is to be neutral. It's not something that should be considered extreme. Putting up the flag doesn't cause anyone any real harm, but not putting it up will. So if the question is, why do you care about a flag? Why something this small? I would say think about it the other way. And why is it so hard to fight for a small little flag to represent us? Something as small as a flag feels so important to us because we're struggling for our fight to live and to love. And this is where it starts. So please put up the flags.

Thank you for your personal and thoughtful comments.

Mayor, that concludes those who signed up to speak to items that are not listed on the regular agenda or the consent agenda.

Great. Is there anybody that didn't have an opportunity to sign up and that would like to step forward at this time and make comment? Yes, please step forward. State your name, address, and limit your comments to three minutes, please.

Good afternoon, my name is Cheyenne Kircher. I live at 1624 Northeast First Avenue.

Mr. Kircher, I'm sorry, but before you begin, we did receive your public comment, and it is in comments that will be displayed this evening.

Oh, that's wonderful.

So is this comment the same as the comment that you sent to us earlier?

It's the abridged version.

So we will be showing your entire comment.

So we- Okay, I will settle for that, thank you.

You're very welcome, thank you.

Thank you, sir. Yes, please step forward, state your name, address, and limit your comment to three minutes, please.

All right, my name is Terrance Franklin. I live at 700 Southeast Castle Park Court, Oak Harbor. I am speaking on the pride flag. I was not initially going to speak, and I signed up, and I lined my name out, but I was moved by everyone else's speeches, so I'm going to say this. Culture, culture is a shared set of beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts. The LGBTQ plus community, we have those things, be it a shared history of behaviors, language, stories of isolation and persecution, and feelings of just overwhelming other. The pride flag represents a place of safe harbor. When I arrived here in 2005, I felt all those things. But that flag, equality symbols, they gave me hope. I moved away from here. I came back to the city because I saw the city as a place of progress. I've lived here now, again, in 2005. I left in a couple of years. But since 2023, we came back. And that flag means more than I can actually say. It tells people that my home, when I fly it, is a place where they can meet so many needs, Maslow's hierarchy needs. I'm going to lead with that, right? We say physical safety needs. Safety, loving and belonging, esteem, respect, self-actualization. When people see that flag in my house, they know they can knock on my door. They can come. I will offer them a meal. I will offer them a place to rest. They can come to me and know that they will always be welcome and loved. I have spent many years trying to build community here, and I finally have it. And flying that flag will be my self-actualization, knowing that all the work I put in will actually matter. Going to the clubs, going to the drag shows, going to the events that you wonderful people put together, and bringing my friends along so that they have a way to show visibility, that letting our five-year-olds, our 20-year-olds, our 50-year-olds, our 80-year-olds know that they, we can see them. They can be seen. They are loved, they are included. So please, Please, please, please raise the flag. Kindness costs nothing. So what does the city have to lose? But it will earn so many citizens, so many people that feel loved. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there anybody else that would like to step forward and make comments at this time that didn't have an opportunity to sign up? Yes, sir. Step forward, state your name, address, and limit your comment to three minutes, please.

Thank You Mary mayor and committee I'm Joshua right now I live also at southeast or 700 southeast Castle Park Court in regards to the flag so why does this flag need to fly it needs to fly because it's a beacon for a young person wrestling with their identity or an older adult who remembers when they had to hide who they were This flag says one clear life-saving thing and that is that you are not alone. You are loved and you belong here. Flying this flag is an act of unity, not division. It makes a public commitment that this community, whether it is our city or school or our workplace, is a safe harbor. It is a tangible reminder that we value diversity and it sends an unquivocal message that discrimination has no home among us. Yet we know the symbols alone are not enough. History has shown us that the rights we hold dear can easily be challenged if we become idle. Flying this flight is our rally cry. It is our daily reminder that the flight for true equality is ongoing and that we will stand together to protect the rights, dignity, and bodily autonomy of every single person. I ask for you to raise this flag just for this month in solidarity to those that we have lost in the past to HIV and AIDS, those that we have lost just for other health reasons or instances. Growing up in a very strict family, I did not have that, did not have community, did not feel that I was seen. Coming across other LGBTQIA people and being able to find that community really helped me be able to find myself and find my footing and find my voice. I ask for you to raise that flag so that you can symbolize that to someone else who's young that does not have the chance to have someone in their corner to show that they are seen and that they are loved. Thank you.

Thank you very much for sharing your personal story and your thoughts. Is there anyone else that would like to step forward and make public comment at this time? All right, hearing, seeing none, are you gonna display the comments now?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. We will display those comments that were received that are not public hearing comments at this time. Thank you, Mayor. That concludes the comments.

All right. So before I close public comment, I just want to personally thank each and every one of you that took the time to stand up today and share your personal stories and your support for flying the pride flag. It's not easy to stand up and public speak, first of all, for anyone. And it's certainly not easy to be vulnerable in front of people that you don't know. I do it every single day and it's very uncomfortable for me, but I appreciate all of you and I really respect the heck out of all of you for being here today and showing your support. So thank you very much. You all deserve a round of applause for that. All right, with that I will close public comment and move on to the consent agenda. Are there any objections or other changes to the consent agenda as presented? Yes, Mayor Pro Tem.

We have an appointment to the Police Community Advisory Board. I was just wondering if Mr. Bright happened to be with us tonight, and if he was, if he would be willing to introduce himself. I don't know if he's here.

Mayor Pro Tem, he is not able to attend.

OK. All right. Thank you. Yeah, I wanted to put a face to the name. So OK, thank you.

Yeah, no. Anything else? Otherwise, I would entertain a motion to approve. Mayor Patel.

I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second.

All right, we have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented, seconded by Councilmember Peterson. Any further discussion before I call for a vote? Hearing, seeing none, all in favor, raise your right hand. All right, that passes unanimously. All right, I'm gonna quickly move through Mayor's comments. The Right Blend, at our most recent Right Blend, our Public Works Department provided updates about upcoming projects. I wanna specifically thank Sabrina Combs, Maggie Aguilar, Steve Schuller, Sandra Place, Alex Warner, Chris Price, and Council Members Arms and Peterson for taking the time to attend, answer questions, and engage directly with the community. the conversation covered a wide range of topics important to our community including bike lane safety ball fields transportation improvements sidewalk connectivity and capital projects the community shared another great idea of having city staff provide educational workshops for small businesses and community members about procurement and other services thank you again to everyone who attended the right blend will go on hiatus this summer as most staff will be out and about in the community Partnerships are key. They are key to building a connected community and I want to recognize the efforts of our council members and staff who continue showing up and engaging throughout the community. Chief Slowik and Harbormaster Elise Henry recently attended career day at Olympic View Elementary School helping inspire students and giving them an opportunity to learn more about law enforcement. councilmembers Merrow and Peterson attended the chambers monthly luncheon while councilmember Stuckey represented the city at the Rotary Club meeting one thing I have emphasized during my time as mayor is the importance of being present in the community these relationships matter whether it's with our schools service organizations businesses or community groups strong partnerships help us better understand the needs of our residents Council Member Barbara Arms, City Administrator Sabrina Combs, and Harbor Master Elise Henry met with Kevin, who is a representative from Rick Larson's district office, and we discussed the challenges facing the marina as well as the federal permitting process and the upcoming projects that we have pending, as well as pending grant dollars and future plans for the marina in Catalina Park. We even shared with staff that he watched the recent Marina Advisory Commission meeting. So we're very excited. He did indicate that Rick Larson, Representative Larson is working hard to push our permits through as efficiently and as quickly as he can. And he's doing and leveraging as much as he can to make that happen for us. Where I've been this past week, Island County Council of Governments received a detailed presentation about Washington State Ferry Service and their 75th anniversary celebrations. Our ferry service is facing several challenges in trying to increase the service levels to communities that rely on ferry services for commuting and tourism. Island Regional Transportation Organization reviewed road projects funding and progress. Yesterday we had the Station 82 ribbon cutting. This ribbon cutting was a celebration. Thank you to everyone who took part in making this happen for our community. Most of all, I want to thank the voters who supported the levy in 2022, which made this project possible. thank you to fire chief anderson for his leadership and dedication throughout this project along with the many staff members partners and community supporters who help bring this vision to reality and i would just like to remind folks that again we delivered this project under budget Station 82 open house and pancake breakfast at Fire Station 81 this weekend and Pride Walk. Don't forget, you are invited to join us this Saturday, June 6th from 9 a.m. to noon for the Station 82 grand opening community celebration and pancake breakfast. The event will begin at our old station, Station 81, with a free pancake breakfast and free shuttle service to the new station. If you're asking why we're doing this, it's because we don't have parking at the new station for all the cars. so we have to shuttle you over, sorry. Due to limited parking at Station 82, we are offering the shuttle to transport individuals attending the event. Shuttles are provided by our Parks and Rec team as well as the Better Homes and Gardens McKinsey Realty team. I also want to thank the Chamber of Commerce for their support of this event. We hope families, neighbors, and community members will come out, enjoy breakfast, and help us celebrate this exciting addition to Oak Harbor. And don't miss the second annual Pride Walk this Saturday at 5 p.m. at Flintstone Park. There will be guest speakers, open mic, and resource tables. I do plan on speaking at this event as well. Get involved, there are still several openings for our advisory boards. Please visit the city's website to apply and stay connected. Come to a meeting, send us a question via email, give us a call, or follow us on social media. With that, I will open it up to council for their questions, comments at this time. Yes, Council Member Arms.

Just to go over what you did about the marina. Yes, it was really interesting. Rick Larson's liaison came. He was very engaged, took lots of notes, and talked about permitting the waterfront. He was there for a good hour. Rick Larson specifically wanted them to be more engaged with Oak Harbor. So that was a plus for us. So hopefully we can get this permitting moved and shuffled on a little faster than what it has been. But it was a great meeting.

Thank you. Council Member Stuckey.

Yeah, two things. I always like to respond a little bit when people come. First of all, there's a couple of opportunities. This is great stuff. There's a lot of time spent in this. And I'm looking at the language. It sounds almost like an engineer background. So thank you. In regards to everyone else who showed up, thank you so much for coming. We're always begging for people to come make public comment, and you folks came in mass. And I'm not gonna say I understand what it's like. I mean, I'm a middle-class white male. I haven't really had a fight for much in those regards. So I can empathize, and sharing those stories certainly helps me at least start to come to an understanding. But I do wanna acknowledge procedurally, We can't just raise the flag. We have to do an ordinance or resolution. And we did a year ago almost to the day. We had two meetings. First meeting came and went. We discussed having commemorative flags flying and hit the newspaper. I expected a lot of people for or against. We received one public comment. during that time about find the flag. And at that time, the decision was made not to allow any commemorative flag. So I just don't want anyone to think they're being ignored, but it's not a matter of just tomorrow. There's a process, which we discussed last year. It doesn't mean it can't be re-talked about, but that's where we are. So I just want to make sure you're heard, but there are processes to these sort of things. So thank you.

Anybody else? Yes, Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Mayor. Sorry, middle age is like hitting hard and I'm still getting used to the reading glasses. Just some events this weekend. Friday, June 5th, the Oak Harbor High School is doing a Friday Night Lights event and it's basically a cruise for seniors to decorate their vehicles and you know, get all geared up in their purple and gold, and it's gonna, I believe, stage at Bayshore, go down Pioneer, Midway, and then across Whidbey, and then end at the high school. And the actual drive itself, the cruise itself, is reserved for graduating seniors, but, you know, I'm sure that they would be thrilled if they saw any of us in our Wildcat gear on the sidewalk cheering them on, so... and a shout out to Dr. House who I went to Oak Harbor High School with and yeah times have have certainly changed and on that note so there's the Friday Night Lights event that starts at 7 p.m. at Bayshore so also if you need to be anywhere between 7 and 7 30 or so it might be a little chaotic down here and and then Saturday morning we've got pancakes at the Fire station. I understand council, we're helping to serve those pancakes. We're not responsible for making them, are we? I'm not. I'm terrible at pancakes. OK. All right. I can, yeah. But I'm happy to help. OK. And then, of course, the Pride walk on Saturday evening at, what was that, Jennifer, 5 PM, Flintstone? And Councilmember Stuckey is correct. Even if we decided tonight that we wanted to fly the flag, it would require an ordinance change, which would require staff to put something in our packet, which would require notice and then have to be squeezed into the next meeting. So it would literally be weeks, which is One of the more frustrating things about government is just the wheels move very slowly. But I do think that the ordinance itself is perhaps worth a look, and that's worthy of discussion for next year. And something that we can do, I was a little surprised and a lot disappointed not to see a Pride month proclamation on tonight's lineup. We've done one before. And so, I mean, it's for the month and we have another meeting, so it could still happen or we could get one drafted and lined up for next year, but I would like to see that. And for the events happening down at Flintstone or, you know, I don't, I don't know, I don't want to speak out of turn or be wrong, but I'm, there's, the ordinance governs whether or not what kind of flag city hall can raise, but I'm not sure you necessarily need our permission to paint a sidewalk or a crosswalk.

Okay.

Um, that would be, that would be really fun. So, uh, thank you. And I'll thank you to everyone who came out and bared their souls to us tonight. That is, it's a very brave, thing to do. And I really appreciate it. And I also want to thank Mr. John's for always his creativity and his out of the box thinking and keeping us on our toes and keep the great ideas to come in. I appreciate it so much.

Thanks for your time. Anybody else? nope nope okay you guys are awfully quiet tonight that's unusual all right we're going to move on to public hearings and meetings ordinance number 2043 amending oak harbor municipal code 10.12.010 related to parking and traffic control definitions adopting oak harbor municipal code 10.12.170 related to parking restrictions for vessel trailer recreational vehicles, or oversized loads. Adopting Oak Harbor Municipal Code 10.12.175 related to a residential loading exception. Adopting Oak Harbor Municipal Code 10.12.176 related to residential parking permits. Here to introduce that is our Chief of Police, Tony Slowik.

All right. Good evening, Mayor Wright and City Council. Before starting on the ordinance, I just want to make a quick correction. Friday Night Lights does start on Friday night. This Friday night at seven o'clock. It is starting at the marina and ends at the marina. Yeah, we changed it a couple of years ago. So starting and ending at the marina and it only goes southeast Pioneer Way to southeast Bayshore back to southeast Pioneer Way. So it's a nice loop. It's a great time to recognize our seniors. So we're here to talk today about our Vessel Trailer Recreational and Oversized Vehicle Parking Ordinance number 2043. We've had four different discussions on this going all the way back to 2022, the latest being on May 26th at the City Council Workshop The ordinance amends our current municipal code of 10.12.010 relating to parking and traffic control definitions. It adopts a new section of 10.12.170, a new section of 10.12.175, and a new section of 10.12.176. Creates clear definition for oversized vehicles. creates and standardizes our definition of recreational vehicles, creates a clear definition of utility vehicles, and standardizes our definition for vessels throughout the municipal code. The parking restrictions are that on public right-of-way, it'll be unlawful to leave standing any oversized vehicle, RV, utility trailer, or vessel on any street, alley, or public way for more than 12 hours. That's throughout the whole city. There's no signage requirements for this ordinance and if there was to be an impound or removal, it would require the police department to do a 24-hour tow notice which is our standard process throughout our municipal code. There is a residential loading and preparation exception to this ordinance, creates a five day parking exception at a person's residence. So that is the property that's right up against their property line would be the city right-of-way. It's specifically used for the exception applies only for loading, unloading, cleaning, and mechanical preparation. Safety requirements are that there must not be a traffic hazard or obstruction to motorist views at intersections. No cords, cables, or obstructions are permitted to go across sidewalks. That's for an ADA compliance. And then there's a reset period if it's removed after 72 hours or if it's removed for 72 hours. Additionally, after our last workshop, it also creates a permitting system that allows for a resident to permit up to 14 days that trailer, RV, vessel, or oversized vehicle. And that could be renewed two additional times. So really it's six weeks throughout the one calendar year. There is no fee requirement for the permitting, and the permitting can be canceled for public safety reasons. So the proposed action in enforcement is adopting the sections of 1012 for parking and traffic control. Again, the notice requirements is that most violations related to the vessel and oversized vehicle loads require 24 hours before an impound could occur. Immediate actions that the city reserves the right to remove vehicles immediately and without notice if they're designated no parking or creating a specific traffic hazard, which is what our current municipal code says. And then this is the suggested motion. I'm happy to take any questions.

Questions, comments for Chief? Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. We are first going to open the public hearing, and then we are going to call for a display of the comments that have been received.

Thank you, Mayor. Tim will fill those up.

I forgot that we were doing a public hearing. Just trying to move it along.

It's kind of hard to see.

There's none of that.

Mayor, that concludes the comments that were received in advance. Chief, can you check to see if anyone signed in on the public hearing sheet?

No, there's not.

Thank you. All right, is there anyone that is here with us this evening that would like to step forward and make comment on this issue? Yes, please step forward, state your name, address, and limit your comment to three minutes.

My name is Denise Marion. I live at 730 Southwest 19th Court in Oak Harbor, which is just opposite the trailhead of the Scenic Heights Trail, off of Scenic Heights. The discharge of raw sewage into the city streets is specifically named as a reason for amending this ordinance 10-12-170. And my understanding for the public health, it was a primary reason for taking action on the RV parking. The discharge of sewage into the public waste into the storm drains or on our streets isn't addressed in this. And I'm wondering why not? And perhaps this sort of waste disposal is already covered by some other laws or ordinances. But I'm wondering, well, how is that going to be enforced, especially when we're talking about waste that's put in public parks by illegal encampments? because that has definitely affected the E. coli and the discharge pipes.

Would you like me to respond, Mayor? Okay, so thank you, ma'am, for coming up. So the illicit discharge is in a different code within the city's municipal code. We currently have a gap in that code that we're working with our, community development our public works to address and so that new code will be brought forward that will expand to include that dumping of raw sewage in parks or any type of land into our stormwater system or just on the street sides I'm happy to talk after this

when we get that it would be good if this ordinance referenced that new the new one whatever well wouldn't this ordinance I mean when you're talking about enforcement there could be wording referring it to that okay is there anybody else that would like to step forward and make comment at this time

Yes, absolutely. Please step forward, state your name, address, and limit your comments to three minutes, please.

Yes, sir. Gary Schlenker, 1861 Northeast 10th Avenue, Oak Harbor, Washington. And I did have a comment up here, something I'd like to ask. I've been here 40-some years, parked my RV in front of my house, never had any problems on a dead-end street. There's only five houses that are occupied. I'm not blocking traffic. What if now it looks like I'm probably going to have to sell the RV? Is there an option where I can leave it parked there for a period of time so I can sell it? Or do I have to haul it to some place where they will sell it for me or storage or whatever? As much as I hate to get rid of it, I guess it's kind of gotten to that point. It's not cost effective for me to put it in storage and pay when, because my wife is sick, we're probably not going to be able to use it again. So I was just wondering if there's some leaving it, you know, what is it, like five days and then having to move it and then bring it back for five days to try and sell it doesn't seem very helpful. Also, I asked, did the city look at the option of maybe giving a permit? Oh, you did, okay. Yeah. All right. Okay. Because I thought it would raise some revenue and people that are lawfully parked and keep it licensed and stuff like that would be okay. But okay. Thank you.

Okay. Um, thanks sir. So to address that, there is, there is a permit system that is added to this ordinance. It's two weeks. So there's five days. If you go over the five days, you could do two week permit and that could be renewed two additional times for a total of six weeks. So, so if you were going to sell your RV or, or that, that could give that amount of time. Yes, sir.

Council member Peterson. Chief, correct me if I'm wrong. I thought that the basis of this ordinance was mostly based on safety. And if Mr. Schwing, this gentleman, yeah. Thank you. If his RV is parked in a place where there is not a problem with anyone not being able to see to ingress and egress safely and that sort of thing, I guess I missed the part where those folks were also going to be impacted. Could you help me with that?

Certainly. Thank you. Great question, Council Member. So the ordinance is for the entire city and applies to every part of the city. So we can't make an ordinance for one residential area over here and then accommodate it for another residential based off of the way the design of the roadway is so the way that the ordinance is currently written it's for the entire city it's 12 hours of parking on any city street so if you the exception is if you're in front of your residence you can park it for up to five days and then it gets moved If you need it longer than that, you can apply for a two-week permit. More likely than not, it's going to be through the police department. And then that could be renewed up to two additional times for a total of six weeks in a calendar year.

I'm sorry. At some point, we were talking about ingress and egress safety only. All right. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Council Member Stuckey.

Two questions and then some thoughts. One, do we often get complaints about oversized vessels and things like that? I mean, I'm not looking for exact numbers to put you on the spot, but do we get calls? Does PD get calls about vessels?

We do. We do. Currently, we have... a handful of boats on trailers, utility trailers or RVs. They don't move. They're there for a long term. I mean, talking about years when we contact the owners to serve them with paperwork to get them moved, they will renew the registration on the oversized vehicle or utility vehicle or vessel, which per our city ordinance, that's the only thing required to allow it to be parked there. So often That complaint is generated because somebody has a visual sight distance issue with an intersection or it's parking with alongside a driveway where we discussed last month about the distance between five feet from the driveways. So a lot of times that's what the concern is.

And how does this wrestle with homestead laws? I mean, you think back to Hoffman Road. Yeah. So tell me, explain a little bit about that.

Yeah, City Right-of-Way is controlled by the municipality. It's not a homestead piece. As long as we have sound ordinance, which this is, that is in compliant with state law, then we have the right to enforce those ordinances. Per legislation, we discussed this last week as well, per the RCW, the WAC, and the legislatures, the city right-of-way or the shoulder of the road is designed for temporary parking, bicycle paths, those type of things.

Yeah, because a big, at least as I understand, the initial thrust of this, if we're just being blunt, was the RVs that are on Bayshore was certainly something that started this conversation. And it seemed like it morphed a little bit into RVs looking at all over in front of houses and things like that. I mean, certainly we would not want another Hoffman Road situation. That was county. That was county. But still, we don't want a bunch of RVs. And so... I think everyone kind of agreed when it came to commercial zones that those shouldn't turn into de facto RV parks. Although I do hear people saying they want the city to have an RV park, but that is a separate topic. It does get a little tricky when we're talking about RVs, boats, and vessels in front of one's house. We tend to think of the street in front of a house as that's ours. I mean, my wife parks our car in front of our house. And the moment someone parks in front of our house, they're in our parking spot. I mean, that's ours. But then what if there's a pothole on that street or someone gets injured on that street? Well, now it's not mine anymore. Now it's not mine. So I do sympathize with those, like the gentleman who spoke, who might feel like it's a little personal or not fair. I parked my RV in front of my house for 20 years. Never been an issue. Why now? So I just want to let those people know that we hear that. I do like to take public feedback into account. I know not everyone's a social media person, but I counted the comments on that that were firmly yes or no, not just a rant. Nine. to go ahead and proceed with the ordinance. Five against. Same thing with the, if you count the comments that write in, nine people that said this is a good thing. Four said it's not a good thing. And those that think it's not a good thing, I feel like some of that was addressed. You acknowledged in the last meeting that, I mean, there were some concerns about businesses. I own a little construction business. It's just me. I have my trailer in front of my house. I move it every day for work. You're fine. You're moving it. You're fine. Same thing with what if my family comes in from out of town to visit? Well, now we have the 14 day period. So for those that may say, well, council doesn't listen. Well, right now, the majority are saying, let's go ahead with this ordinance. And I feel like we did listen with the changes that was made and suggested by you. It's not going to be perfect. No matter what, you do something like this, people get a little territorial. And I, at first, admittedly, was kind of objecting to it to begin with as well. But I think that this is the best under the circumstances. And I appreciate you taking the time, the diligence, and to all those people who took the time to write in to help morph the conversation. So thank you.

Hold on one second. So first of all, we never closed public comment. Was there anybody else that wanted to step forward and make public comment before we let council members continue on with their speaking? Were there any other public comments at this time? Yes, sir, you can step forward and make your public comment.

Sorry, just wanted to ask a question.

I think it's Regatta that runs across my street there, and I believe it was this year, it might have been late last year, they came and they striped off to the side where I guess there's parking there. So people that are parked in that area can stay there inside that striped area, that's legal, where our street, the little short dead end street, didn't get striped. You know, I'm talking about the stripe that runs They've got the sidewalk, then there's vehicles parked, and now there's a white stripe going down both sides, and then the traffic lane, the two lanes of traffic. So parked inside on that is okay, legal?

if there's enough room for a car.

Well, yeah, they've got cars and boats and planes and trains and everybody parked inside that.

Yeah, but it would be limited to just vehicles. Passenger vehicles is what it would be limited to.

Oh, even though there's RVs parked on there also, I noticed. Yeah, so they would fall under the same thing.

They would, yeah.

Even though that's a designated parking area?

I don't know exactly which area, so how about after this I can look at the map and we can...

I assume that because that strike and then... And then the sidewalk is way out there, like lane-wise.

It's almost like four lanes now.

All right. So we're going to let you have that conversation later. Are there any other comments that somebody would like to step forward and make at this time? Yes, ma'am.

Would you like me to reintroduce myself?

Please, for the record, yes.

my name is Maria Gallegos I live at 65 Northwest Crosby Avenue in Oak Harbor and I'm hearing a lot of conversations on different points of view but I don't think I've heard homelessness addressed and people who live in their cars I know that Homeless people, it's easy to demonize and to forget and to not consider. But I was homeless before coming to Oak Harbor. I was very lucky to get assistance in finding a place to live here in this city and be able to go to school and build a life here since then. but I do not know how I would have made it here had somebody removed my vehicle because I had nowhere to legally park it doesn't matter where we park I've parked in camping areas and parking that was for trails out in nature I wasn't welcomed anywhere as a homeless person And as for the responses we get about yes or no, homeless people do not have the resources to be able to engage in politics that are affecting their life every day. And so we need to take that into account when we are looking at the responses of people who are privileged enough to be able to engage in politics. I think their lives matter, even if it's inconvenient to other people. Thank you.

Thank you for sharing. All right, anybody else that would like to step forward and make comment at this time? Gotta wait, gotta wait. Gotta wait, not yet. All right, I am going to close the public hearing then and call upon council now for their comments. And Council Member Marrow, you may go.

You know my brain is going furiously when I start writing a lot, so. Thank you Chief Slowik and your staff for diligently forming an ordinance proposal that makes good sense, it's balanced, it's reasonable, and especially it's fair. For there are many people who have RVs and trailers and all the rest that they put them in storage and they get them and yet this proposal adds flexibility, this proposed ordinance, to be able to use some of the street right-of-way for specific purposes. Now just as a matter of the record, I want to make sure that we understand that The streets belong to the city and the different citizens of the city. So if we permit the parking of people, of vehicles or trailers of some people, where we're not allowing it for other people, then there's an issue of basic fairness there, no matter what the income level, no matter what the status in life. So I won't get into the whole business about the social contract, but we have an understanding in free government that we interact with one another with an understanding that we all pull together to survive together. But that means fairness as well. And I also support strongly the matter of ordered liberty. So we just don't go berserk because we have the freedom to go berserk. We work together to build our community, and if we don't work together, we just have chaos. So this ordinance is a reasonable... effort and i think not the final word about anything because actually everything we do in the city is not the final word over generations so we want to begin the stepwise process of trying to get people to take responsibility for their own possessions and not lay the burden on the taxpayer okay that's just a basic principle and it may then does frequently or could mean a change in how you live or how one lives Okay. The matter of permitting, we visited on that subject and it was viewed as being, if we went to a full permitting system, it would be very expensive and complicated. But this initial step is just that. We can build upon that because, Chief Sloeg, does it address matters of people sleeping in vehicles?

No.

Okay. So, I mean, that's a separate matter. And so we take it in incremental steps and that's exactly how government rolls. But we got to address it. Okay. I'm, I'm speaking on this. Okay. So, uh, thank you again for the due diligence. And I mean, I could say more, but I'm not going to, I did want to make mention too, about the matter of HOAs, right? They can set their own standards there too. Do I, does that sound about right chief? Or is there something that you could add to that? That reflects sounds fine. Okay. Just to make sure that I got the messaging, right. Okay. Thank you, chief. And thank you, mayor.

Thank you. Anybody else for the good of the order? Council Member Marshall.

Thank you, Mayor. Chief, we talked about allowing for people to stay in, if you have guests, to stay in the RVs and such, but the ordinance still doesn't include that language. Is that something that we have to have in there in order to make sure that that's clear, that that's allowable use?

The city currently doesn't have a no overnight camping ordinance.

Okay.

So that would not be in this, in this parking piece of it. That would be a different code. So it's something else. It's something to address at a later time.

Okay. And then I guess my only other concern with the ordinance as it's written is the, um, that it goes into effect after five days and that does that allow adequate time for people to make arrangements, to find the storage that they need to make the accommodations or are we just ramming it through and

Oh, we will work with property owners. So if one of the items that was described there, trailer, vessel, oversized vehicle, RV, needed to be impounded because it wasn't being moved, we would go through all of this process to work with the property owner to gain compliance. If that requires more time because there's not storage or whatever that is, We would set out that window of time to do that. Like I explained last week, those impounds come out of the police department budget. The tow vehicles to impound those come from Mount Vernon. So that's set up days ahead. So we don't take that lightly to just impound anything. And the intent is to work.

the property owner gaining points so i i would hope that these property owners are not using up their their two-week permitted exemptions or any kind of that stuff while they're trying to get into compliance yeah okay um and and like councilmember stucky i was hesitant with this one at first because you know i'm a big believer in personal property rights but i think that you've done a good job of addressing the concerns that have been brought forth by the public And you stated it perfectly at our last workshop and that the streets are not personal property, right? They're the property of the city. And therefore, it's a responsibility for the city council to make sure that it is accessible and safe for all. And so I think that you've done a great job in drafting this ordinance. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Marshall. Anybody else for the good of the order? Council Member Peterson?

Sorry.

Thank you, Mayor. I agree with Council Member Marshall and Stuckey. I had a lot of heartburn about personal property rights. And to be fair, you and I had a conversation yesterday because I wanted to have more information. And one of the things that I keep coming back to so that folks know is... There are kids everywhere. They walk, they're on bikes, they're on those crazy too fast electric bikes now. And I remember being a kid in Burlington going up and down where the streets were like this and you didn't care because there wasn't that much traffic. And I think that making sure that people are not parked where people can children cannot be seen where um it is unsafe for the kids and the adults and those folks with with that can't quickly jump back if they see a car it's very important to the longevity of the safety of our city and i really appreciate the work that we all did to get here i know that people are going to feel put upon and i am sorry about that i am but if we save one kid from getting hit or one person in a wheelchair from getting smashed because they can't react I think we've done our job and I think that everybody ultimately can and will see that and so if I may I move to adopt Ordinance 2043, amending Oak Harbor Municipal Code 10-12-010, related to parking and traffic control destinations. Adopting Oak Harbor Municipal Code 10-12-170, related to parking restrictions for vessels, trailers, recreational and oversized loads. Adopting OHMC 10-12-010, related to a residential loading exception and adopting OHMC 10.12.176 related to residential parking permits.

Strongly second.

Okay, we have a motion as presented by Council Member Peterson, seconded by Council Member Romero. Is there any further discussion before I call for a vote? Did you have anything? No? Yes, Council Member Romero.

I did 15 years, a short career in law enforcement. And one of the concepts that we operated on was called law enforcement discretion. And for any of you here who've ever been stopped by a law enforcement officer and have the opportunity to either give you a citation for speeding or get a warning or a verbal warning, well, that's an exercise in discretion. And I would say, from my personal experience with this police department, that they use great wisdom to develop relationships with the people and show wisdom and discretion in enforcing the law, especially when there's changes coming up. So I just wanted to state that as a matter of record that I'm I'm not advising cruel and unusual enforcement, okay? That's all I got. Thank you.

All right. We have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? Hearing, seeing none. All in favor, raise your right hand. Passes unanimously. Thank you very much. We got one thing done tonight. all right moving on to ordinance number two zero four one budget amendment number four to the 2025 2026 biennial budget here to introduce this topic is our deputy city administrator and finance director David Goldman thank you very much mayor Chaz Webster our finance manager will be leading the charge on this particular item

All right. Good evening, mayor and council members. So I'm Chaz Webster, finance manager, and I'll go ahead and I figure I could do an abridged version of the presentation if you're okay with that. We're good? OK. OK. Got the thumbs up? OK, perfect. All right. All right, so budget amendment number four for the 25-26 biennial budget. This is regarding ordinance 2041. So our budget amendment, this is going to take into account the city council actions, previous city council actions, annual grants that have occurred year to date, and new requests. So a budget amendment requires a public hearing and approval of an ordinance. A budget adjustment is the movement of an existing budget appropriation within a fund with no increase in the overall funds budget appropriation. Okay. The abridged part, your 2026 budget amendments here listed previously, um, approved by city council. So I'll just run through the slides here. which this information is also in your packet new requests budget amendments all right and then the next this next group are the budget adjustments previous City Council approved items And these are the budget adjustment new items, actually one item. All right. And the recommended motion is on the screen for you.

Wow, that was fast. All right. I'm going to open the public hearing. We're going to do this the right way this time. I'm going to confirm that we've received no public comments on this issue.

That's correct, Mayor. No public comments on this were received.

And are any of you fine people here with us this evening who would like to step forward and make public comments on this issue at this time, now is the time to do so. I will not let them speak until you've had your chance. All right. Hearing seeing none, I'm going to close public comment and call upon council for their comments or questions at this time. Close public hearing, sorry. Call upon council. Questions, comments? Yes, Council Member Romero.

Just a quick question about the new item. Can you go back to the slide for the new item?

Yes.

Would you speak to that? I mean, what was the cause of this or the need for this?

Let me grab my info.

We don't need the big binder necessarily, but just some words of explanation.

Yes, yes, yes. okay so in January of 2026 there was an increase per the CPI and Island County had of course notified us of this and so we needed to also make an adjustment to the budget so that we could be prepared to pay the increase thank you just as a as a follow-up I wanted to make mention that

Budget amendments, in some perspective, have a negative connotation. But having dealt with public budgets and a different life in Texas, I would state that it's admirable to stay on top of your budget and have these amendments so that it all is tight and trued up. So my salute to you for doing that, you and your department.

Thank you.

Anybody else for the good of the order? Mayor Pro Tem.

I move to adopt ordinance number 2041 as presented.

We have a motion as presented. Seconded by Councilmember Marshall. Is there any further discussion before I call for a vote? Hearing none, seeing none, all in favor raise your right hand.

Motion passes unanimously. All right. Here's the humdinger. Thank you.

Last item, resolution 2605, Master Fee Schedule, Parks and Recreation. Do you need to take a break? We're going to take a five minute break until 735. That is easy. All right, we're gonna reconvene here at 735.

Our five minute break is up.

Take it to the hall, gentlemen, thank you. Resolution 2605, Master Fee Schedule, Parks and Recreation. Here to introduce this topic is our Deputy City Administrator and Finance Director, David Goldman.

What the hell, really? I would say not it, but that feels wrong.

Let's go.

You're up. All right.

Let me get my thing up. All right. So David Goldman, finance director and deputy city administrator. This item is for the update of the master fee schedule for specifically the parks and recreation schedule. There's one in advance, huh? Oh, there we go. All right. So there were four core objectives driving the recalibration of the Parks and Recreation fee schedule. And just so you know, these are many of the same slides we presented at the workshop, but since we have different people in the audience, probably go through them in an abridged manner. So we were trying to adjust the baseline for inflation and implementing some cost recovery for external services. We were looking to have additional community participation in some of the fees that we currently administer. We're trying to simplify the administration of the fees as well, and we're trying to also expand offerings. So as far as for the park staff billable rates, we're looking at a 5% inflation factor for that. We're also implementing a new direct cost recovery for city provided portable restrooms. This is a new fee, something we don't currently offer in the fee schedule. we're trying to standardize the league experience back about three years ago we had a per participant rate we went ahead and changed that to various hourly rates and we decided based on feedback from our from the leagues basically our customers and also talking with city staff on how to simplify things we're returning back to the per participant model and that will be unified at $11 per participant with two exceptions. Tiny Tots Soccer will be $2 per participant and Select Soccer will be $15 per participant. We're looking to activate the concession stands over at Fort Nugent. So that's one of the reasons why we're looking at dropping that rate down from $500 to $200 a month so we can utilize it more throughout the year. We're just truing up the rate schedule to reflect the 20% senior discount. And we're looking at unifying all of our courts, our tennis court, our hard courts. So our tennis courts, our basketball courts, and also putting in a new pickleball rate. And we're looking to have those be at $10 per hour. And the pickleball rates will be for the future when the pickleball courts are available. So we're simplifying some names. We're renaming two of our fields from football fields to just multipurpose fields that can be used for multiple sports. They currently can be used for multiple sports, just the name was confusing people. No change in the rates, though there is a thing on the fee schedule which is a little confusing, but I think I clarified it with an update. We're looking at a universal sports tournament rate of $25 an hour and also to promote compliance with our agreements that we have with the various organizations that use our facilities. We're looking at a $50 per day non-compliance fee for every day that a field's used and they're not in compliance. Next, we're trying to activate some community offerings. One of them is the rollout of our commissary kitchen. The rental rate will be $25 per hour. If the refrigeration is desired to be used, that'll be $20 over a 24-hour consecutive period. And there'll be a fully refundable deposit of $75 to go ahead and use the commissary kitchen. So other fees remain unchanged. Our community shelters, all the non-commissary kitchens, pavilions, gazebos, those hold steady. The special event hourly field reservation rate holds steady. The public room rentals hold steady, except for what I mentioned before about the senior discount, which is just reflecting what was in our policy to begin with. And our membership for the 50-plus group, that's held at $40 per year. So some clarification based on the feedback that we received at the workshop. There was some confusion on the naming structure. I was trying to put things in alphabetical order, but it kind of reversed things a little bit. But bottom line is the field rates aren't really changing, just the names. So I have, like, in the backup, I just have these arrows to help clarify things. And also, I mentioned before, we're moving from hourly to per participant. And you'll see that some areas, it just says NA because those no longer will exist after adoption of this. And I put, to clarify, I said we're deleting, and I have arrows pointing to the new fees. In addition, I showed this at the workshop. It wasn't included in the package last time. It was included in the package this time, but basically it shows once you take out direct grant covered activities, our net expenditures for Parks and Recreation for 25 was about $2.9 million. um direct revenues those are revenues we charge for just fees for service type of things um you know direct revenues the city the city gets from working with the customers that amounted to about 376 thousand dollars a year or a 12.9 percent direct revenue to net expenditure ratio and there's a worksheet on the right that shows how those numbers were derived so based on feedback that we received at the workshop um council member stucky was nice enough to discover a data source of national was the national recreation park association is a good data source that can be used to compare cities approximately our size to other cities throughout the country and it might even go into canada and And so I went ahead and looked at the information that was available, and we found a few data points that are, I think, pretty useful to compare that 12.9% figure that I talked about in the previous slide. So they have this annual report. They also have specific data you can pull as well. You can't get it per city or per agency, but you can get like an agglomeration. But from their 2026 report, we would fall into this $20,000 to $50,000 cohort, $50,000 population cohort. And it says here that revenue as a percentage of operating expenditures or cost recovery is about 29.6%. But looking further into the book, I found another chart which talks about sources of operating expenditures. Now I know you can't read this, so I zoomed in on the next slide. And for our cohort between 20,000 and 50,000, you'll see that earn revenue, which is those direct revenues that we charge, you know, the fees for service and all that, that's 20% of the operating expenditures. But there are other cities and other special districts and whatever else is in the National Recreation and Park Association's data, they charge taxes. So some places throughout the country, they have special taxes and levies that are specifically catered to operational expenses for parks. And when the previous slide said like 29.6% or 30% coverage, I believe it must have included some of these other sources that we don't charge. When you look more at just the earned revenue, the kind of revenue that we do charge, The better comparison would be looking at this 20% to our 12.9%. In addition, this 1% down here is sponsorships in kind donations, which is included in the 12.9%. So in reality, if you add 20 and 21, you get this national average of 21%, and we're at 12.9%. So we're moving in the direction to get closer and closer to this national average. And with that, the motion to adopt resolution is up on the screen and we are available to field any questions.

All right. I will first confirm that we received no public comments on this issue.

Mayor, we did not receive comments in advance on this issue. However, we have three people who signed up to speak to this tonight.

All right.

The first person is David Zimmerman.

Good evening, Mayor Wright, members of City Council. My name's David Zimmerman. My address, do you still need that? 749 Laconna Street, Coupeville. I am the president of Northwood B Little League. We are a volunteer 501 nonprofit serving 400 local children here in our community. On any given week, we are running games practices across multiple fields, parks, schools, with volunteer coaches, volunteer board members, and parents doing everything we can to keep kids active, connected, involved in something positive. I'm here tonight because the proposed contract being pushed onto our league is not transparent, not equitable, and not reasonable for youth nonprofit. Earlier this year, I requested a meeting with a city administrator and mayor because we want to get ahead of issues like this. And at the time, we had a great meeting, and we were told they would look forward to working with us through things like the fee schedule together. That has not happened. What we are now facing is not just a fee increase, which we were loosely okay with. The issue is the way that has moved forward without followup collaboration, we were told would happen. And without a fair look at how the fees and contract item or terms actually impact our league. We're now looking at a flat $11 fee per player for baseball, which like I said, we're loosely okay with, a portable toilet charge through the city that is far above what we can rent them for directly. That contract language that appears to place 100% liability and financial responsibility on the Children's League for vandalism, damage, or even arson that could happen overnight in public property. The portable toilet issue is a perfect example. Before last year, the city automatically placed two to three portable toilets at each field location during our season. There was no fight, no confusion and no extra burden pushed onto the league. It was simply treated as part of supporting youth sports at public parks. Now we're being asked to pay more and receive less. We can rent portable toilets directly from a company for $140. The city wants to charge up to $207 for the same basic need. There's a $67 increase per unit, nearly 50% markup for restrooms that are only needed because the city does not provide permanent restroom facilities at those fields. So from our league's perspective, the city used to provide basic sanitation as part of supporting our parks and our community. Now their responsibility is being shifted onto Little League. And even then we are being charged well above what would cost for us to handle it directly. That is not reasonable. And when we talk about equity, the player fee structure, makes the problem even clearer. Baseball is being charged a flat rate of $11 per kid across the board. That means T-ball players using a dirt lot with no grass, no bleachers, no scoreboard is being charged the same as a majors player with a developed field, grass, bleachers, and scoreboard. Meanwhile, soccer, Tots little or taught league is charged $2 per kid. I'm not here to pit you one youth sports against another. Those kids deserve support too. But if the city is going to create a fee structure fee schedule for youth programs, it needs to be fair, consistent, and based on the actual level, the city support and facilities being provided. Other youth sports in the community have access to permanent restroom facilities at their fields. Their players and families are not being asked to pay extra at base for basic sanitation. They're,

Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman. I'm sorry, that is your three minutes. Mayor, the next person on our list to sign up to speak to this is Barry Madsen.

Well, you started me. I didn't even start talking.

That's not fair. My name is Barry Mattson. I live at 55 East Crescent Harbor Road in Oak Harbor, Washington. I've been a member of this community since 1988, born at Whidbey General Hospital. My dad's a retired command master chief, proud graduate of Oak Harbor High School. I won't say the year. I currently serve as treasurer of North Whidbey Little League. I'm a coach in the league, an umpire in the league, a father of five children in this community. and while we have worked on occasion on some of these fee discussions I was the one that actually proposed going back to a per participant fee I think it makes it easier for leagues I think it makes it more transparent when the city may have a need to increase that fee directly. We can determine exactly how much we may need to pass that on on registration fees. However, I was not a supporter of finding additional revenue streams that would be provided by the league. or other leagues in this instance. I think when we look at charts and data charts like that, putting on my accountant hat that I am, you can lower, you can increase percentages by two things, increasing revenue or decreasing expenditures. And so if you want to say we want to get to a point of 21% direct revenue, you can do that by decreasing your expenditure rate nobody's talked about that of course because that means we have to cut things right at the end of the day i don't think we as a city should be looking to gather direct revenues from restroom usage if you look at the restrooms that are provided they're provided for reasons of safety The nearest restroom at Windjammer Park from the ball fields is over 300 feet away from field C. It's over 600 feet away from field A, which is the one nearest Orlando's. And I am in no world allowing another parent to take another parents child to the bathroom at the Portland Lou out of sight during a practice or a game at VP where our softball girls play there's currently one restroom provided by the city there's no lock on that restroom it's not adequate enough for the number of people that attend the games and practices down there and it is often left trash I won't quite say the word vandalized it's not burned down but it's definitely not sanitary and then there's one portable restroom at Coochie Park where our t-ballers play it's kind of in the same category as the VP one I think there are creative ways I've heard some I listened in intently on the workshop meeting I heard some creative ways that we could sidestep this issue of the port-a-potty discussion and get to a place where the league is providing what we can from a resource perspective we are a nonprofit you know, where our budget is limited. And I just ask for your consideration in that when you when you look at the master fee schedule.

Mayor, the last person that signed up in advance to speak to this issue is Kim Ford.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, City Council. My name is Kim Ford. I live on Southwest Tallinn Loop. I'm here today again I came before you about three and a half years ago to speak about the softball fields at Volunteer Park I'm back here again tonight again as a parent of daughters in our community who participate in youth sports about the status of the fee schedule as it is is a little bit unfair to our girls as volunteer park is one of the only sports fields that doesn't have a permanent restroom so when we have these young ladies out on these fields at volunteer park and they don't have a sanitary place to utilize the bathroom there's questions that are brought forth to the adults the volunteers in our community who have to answer to our daughters and our young ladies why they don't have a restroom when we have restrooms down at Windjammer we have restrooms down at Fort Nugent so when they see you know the other kids playing soccer playing soft or playing football playing baseball who have permanent restrooms the question arises why don't we why can't we have permanent restrooms and mind you I'm a lifelong member of or citizen of Oak Harbor born and raised Oak Harbor high school graduate I grew up playing on those fields without restrooms and I continue to hear from the city that it's something that we're looking into but 30 years later we're still looking into it I haven't seen action talking about our ordinance with the campers and vehicles and trailers I've seen quick action in terms of city government taken on the concerns brought forth to you regarding that ordinance or those items but I haven't seen anything come forth about getting a restroom down it wouldn't or at volunteer park and I would really like to encourage you guys to look into what can be done about that and revisiting this master fee schedule why are we putting on the backs of our young athletes in the community the cost of utilizing that restroom versus looking at how the city can continue to support them in that. Thank you.

Mayor, that concludes those that signed up in advance to speak on this issue.

Great. Thank you to each of you that came tonight to make your comments and share those with us. Is there anybody that is here tonight that did not have an opportunity to sign up to make comment that would like to step forward and make comment at this time? All right. Hearing none, I would turn it over to council for your comments or questions. Mayor Pro Tem.

I might as well start this off. Thank you again for the feedback. I have a question. Are we requiring leagues to rent portable restrooms from us? I mean, if they can get one cheaper somewhere else, they can do that, right? Why don't they just do that?

Yeah, there's no requirement that they rent the portable restrooms from the city.

So only if existing facilities are inadequate, and they all are, and they want additional facilities, then they can either rent them from someone else or us. It's an option.

That's my understanding. Okay.

That stated, it... I've taken issue for years with the, with the lack of restroom facilities and the location, you know, and back when we redesigned wind jamming 10 years ago, I mean, I said it every single meeting, like why isn't there a restroom near the toddler play park? That doesn't make any sense to me. Um, and it just, I don't know if it was an expense thing or a priority thing, but, uh, like, like mrs ford it feels like it's been 30 years that this should should be prioritized and uh at the at the risk of making a terrible pun there's kind of a lack of urgency on the city's part to follow up on that so i i think that's something that we can certainly do better on it's really a universal problem but we do We do need to, so we will need to prioritize in terms of what we can do and where we can add facilities. I have some ideas about how we might be able to fund something like that. So I'm gonna do some more research on that. So thank you for bringing that to our attention. I agree. something that was brought up was the t-ball versus Little League and how the pricing for that should be more in line with the like tiny tots version of soccer is that something that we have looked at and addressed because if we're charging less for the really little kids that aren't using a whole bunch of resources like scoreboards and stuff, that for one sport it makes sense to do it for the others. Craig?

Yeah, Tiny Tots Soccer is really non-comparable to any other organization. They are essentially a group that comes out, they use Windjammer Park. They just kind of find an open space. They usually have three to 10 kids in one class at one time and it's more clinic based. They just come out, they learn their soccer in the morning, then they leave. It's an hour clinic, that's it. Gotcha. It's not exactly the same thing. That's the only reason that was taken into consideration to drop it way low. It's really about based on that consideration that they're not really using the fields very much and not really causing any damage. There's no replacement of anything.

It's not like an organized game. It's just toddlers running around after a ball for a little while. Okay. Okay. That, thank you. That makes sense. I'm, you know, these, uh, these things slip through the cracks sometimes. And so that's why it's, it's important to get multiple eyes on something like an ordinance and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, we forgot this thing. And so want to make sure that that was thought of. And you know, cause sometimes we don't think of everything. I'm happy to see us go back to the per player versus the per hour. That was another thing I took issue with back when we passed the fee schedule update. And I am, I'm wondering how, David, you might not know this off the top of your head, and that's totally, I should have looked this up, but it just occurred to me, how does the current, or the proposed $11 per player compare to what the per player was before we redid the fee schedule?

Three years ago, the player was $9 per player.

Okay, so $2 more per, okay, thank you. Sure?

Microphone was off.

Thank you. Yeah, I didn't know how drastic of an increase that was. Yeah, I mean, the price for everything is going up, but nobody is particularly happy about it. We have and are consistently looking for ways to cut expenditures, that's the first thing that we do when we are looking at aligning budgets and two-ups. Because certainly the last thing that we should be doing is placing an unnecessary or too high of a burden on the participants, because that is a barrier. And frankly, things like restrooms is something that the city should be providing. I mean, that is a facility. that should be part of the sports facility, in my opinion, that we should be providing that as a service that we should do. So that's something that we can work on. No fee schedule is going to please everybody when we do it. So I'll defer to my peers. I think the staff's probably done the best they can with what they have in this case. But I'm curious to hear what the others think. Thank you.

Yes, Council Member Marshall.

All righty. I'm going to tackle some of the simpler ones first. So we talked about activating the concession stand. For years, these agreements have been it was nine dollars a player eight dollars a player whatever the case may be right and um football and i'm going to see primarily football because that's what i know right i spent 14 years as the league president i'm no longer president any longer so i don't have any vested interest in this so i have no dog in this fight but um the the football league had exclusive access to that uh concession stand at fort nugent for years As such, they outfitted that entire concession stand. All the refrigerators that are in there, the microwave, the coffee pot, all of those things that are in there are property of the Football League. And so if we're going to activate this concession stand, we're going to allow other organizations to use that. What is the plan for either reimbursing the Football League for their expenses into that, or are you going to allow other organizations to use those refrigerators and such? What is the plan for that?

Yeah, so I don't think we've really gotten that far into the plan on activating. It's really just setting up the baseline to be able to do that. A lot of this is just in the preliminary stages, and getting into that phase would definitely be a conversation that needs to be had with the league. I know any funds that they have spent on that is definitely going to be their property and their equipment. It's not going to be commandeered by the city. That's definitely not going to be a part of the plan, so...

So with the plan, for anybody that's going to use that space, they have to bring in refrigerators and all these things each time that they rent that?

I mean, again, it just depends on what we have. I mean, there's a possibility if we're going to have a concession stand that we look into grants to actually provide a full concession stand. It really just depends on how this progresses moving forward. so i i guess you you could probably understand some of my concern craig is that we jump into something with half a plan right because what if somebody next week wants to rent it for 200 and we have no plan yeah yeah i definitely don't think we're putting this automatically up available for use in any league that whatever is being used they're going to have priority on their time i know like football has it certain times of the year they're going to have that it's going to be whether it's written into the contract or worked out, they're gonna make sure that nobody's gonna be able to come in and take away what is regularly used by them. That's the last that we're trying to do.

Okay, so I too am a fan of the per player model. I think that for budgeting purposes, that makes it much easier for organizations to be able to set their rates based upon that. But to have a blanket policy that says each sport is getting charged the same thing, which in reality is not because we've already identified select soccer is paying more and Tiny Tots is paying less. But each field requires different things, right? So that your cost is not the same across the board per sport. So I'll use football for an example, again, just because that's what I know, right? By the time they start their season in August, that Fort Nugent game field is wrecked. And it's been wrecked by a summer worth of soccer or public play or whatever the case may be, right? They're dragging goalposts on there. And so there's traditionally a lot of divots. There's a lot of problems. And so the football team doesn't even practice on that. They practice on the field behind. football were not there the city would still mow that the city would still maintain that right and so your costs are they're gonna be the same whether football plays or doesn't play is that correct sure okay there are no additional costs being borne by the city for football being there the football team put up the the scoreboard they they ran the ditch they did all that kind of stuff and And so the only real costs that are being borne by the city then is for the concession stand, right? Because they are using the city's concession stand which includes water and power basically, okay? So how do we justify, how do we get to this pricing model where it's $11 per sport when we're really not bearing any additional costs? So there's not really a cost recovery if you're really looking at a cost recovery because the costs are the same whether the football plays or not.

Yes and no. The costs are going to change based on usage. And a big part of the change that wasn't successful, and again, we heard the community and made the change back, was moving to the hourly rate was an attempt to try to get that kind of taken into account. Get the amount of usage that a league would use and work that out. Sometimes putting something into practice doesn't necessarily work for everybody and that's what we found out. So we're kind of back to the drawing board and what we're trying to do is fix essentially a problem that we created. Let's get this in here and then there's going to be another conversation for the fee schedule moving forward. And I know a lot of this stuff will be taken into account, a lot more changes taken into account. I just don't think this is where we want to address too many of those changes directly. We wanted to fix our problems that we kind of created with the last arrangement and the last change that we made to the master fee schedule. I don't think this closes up any of these conversations on moving forward and saying, like, this is set, this is what we're going to do. But we do need to start the conversation. A lot of the things that has happened in the past has been just based on, well, this is what things have been done, and just we can't operate like that. The only way to start taking things into account, start taking into account usage, start getting the kind of metrics we have to make the right decisions is to get something into play and to attack something. And truthfully, the hourly rate didn't work. It didn't work at all. Every league had an issue with it. It was a huge challenge. And again, the last thing we want to do is create challenges for our participants. We heard it. We made changes. I guarantee you everything that's being said now we're hearing, can't guarantee that a change is gonna happen immediately, but I guarantee you we are taking this into account.

And there is one thing that might help us too. Well, I guess it goes back to those last slides that I kind of ran at the presentation and also Council Member Stuckey brought those up too. The direct cost recovery type of items, right? So one of the things that we did when we moved to a program-based budget is try to figure out all the things that the city does what is the amount of direct revenue that each one of these areas brings in you know and you know we did when we first moved to this parks and recreation department we did talk about you know adding additional expenses but also looking at you know bringing in the revenues to help cover those additional expenses And one of the things that because it was starting, we didn't really have like a target to go to. But now that we have some data from the National Recreation and Parks Association and that we have some kind of baseline to where we're at now, the 12.9%, it might be helpful to us at least to understand What level of cost recovery the City Council would like us to target? You know, we are going to be entering into our budget process shortly. We are going to try to figure out, you know, what types of expenses will go into the budget, but also the types of revenues that we'll be bringing in to cover those expenses. I think either during that process or maybe some information can be given to us now as far as direction goes, like what kind of cost recovery would you like us to look at? What direct kind of cost recovery would you like us to be targeting so we know what kind of revenues to be trying to bring in to cover all of our expenses? We do everything we can to bring in grants. I mean, we've done a great job all throughout the city to bring in capital grants, and also we're trying our best to bring in operating grants, too. But that only goes so far. So if we just had a better understanding of that, I think that would help out, you know, the administration and staff better plan for this, you know.

Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with that. And I think maybe what we did was we kind of put the cart before the horse in this and saying we want to do cost recovery, but never really identifying at what level of cost recovery that we want to do. We certainly don't want to get to 20% on the backs of nonprofit youth organizations, right? And that is bearing the cost for all parks, right? That figure that you gave, David, that was for all parks, correct? Not just... the parks that are being utilized by the sports leagues.

That was for the entire Parks and Recreation Department, not the marina, just the ones that are in the general fund.

Right. So there's more of a holistic look in trying to get that 20% cost recovery, not necessarily just on the backs of the youth leagues. Any additional cost that we put on these youth leagues puts barriers to participation. It makes it more expensive for kids to be able to participate, and that's ultimately... opposite of what we're trying to do as a city, right? We are trying to provide more opportunities for kids to be able to participate. It's economic development. Youth sports is economic development. They're bringing in teams from other communities. And if we're not providing opportunities for these other teams to be able to use facilities, to have a positive experience, it's not a good representation of our entire community. And I think that the idea of putting porta potties, this disproportionately punishes, in my opinion, Little League. They're the ones that primarily need that because soccer plays at Fort Nugent, football plays at Fort Nugent, there's facilities there. There's not the facilities that are adequate at Volunteer and at Coochie Park, right? And so, or even at Windjammer, we've heard how far away that is for those bathrooms. And so to have that facility there, I think, i i like the idea of cost recovery i do you know as a city we need to make sure that we're doing these things but it has to be a this feels kind of knee-jerky right where we're just like okay this is this we've identified a place where we can recover some money let's go with that but we've really not thought this out all the way in terms of the concession stand fee what what level of cost recovery we want to do you know last meeting I'd asked about you know at what level are we at cost recovery for our parks and rec programming and we don't have that answer and so I think we need to be taking maybe a step back we've identified that the per player model works better so maybe we approve that and we get that part going but then the rest of this we kind of take more of a step back and like all right let's let's really look at what's it cost to run baseball what's the cost for for the football what's the cost for soccer and then we set our fees are accordingly to that and then also what our model for cost recovery is and what we want as a council to be a city in terms of how we support our community, how we support youth athletics, what kind of economic development that comes from that. Uh, and then, and then have, you know, kind of a larger conversation around that. Um, and lastly, uh, when it comes to just, uh, the commercial kitchen, um, We had a conversation earlier, Sabrina, that requires having somebody there, and so we're charging $25 an hour. I had this question before when we did the master fee schedule, and I still have it now. We can rent the entire... senior center or center, whatever we're calling it for $45 an hour or $67 an hour after hours. And that includes a site manager. So we're only charging $22 for that site manager. And the explanation that I was given before was that that's a volunteer. Is that a hundred percent of volunteer or do we actually have to pay staff?

The site managers are paid. They are, it's, it's a confusing setup. We use our site managers are our volunteers that have a, uh, a service agreement with us that they do get paid the hourly rate. So the hourly rate that we charge is something that goes directly towards the site manager.

So is that something that we're doing cost recovery on? You know, are we just covering our costs? Are we making money on that or are we just covering costs at that point?

On that one, we're just that specific fee, we're just covering the cost on it.

Okay. Um, Yeah, and then lastly, I still have some questions about the refrigerator. Do you need somebody that has specialized training to put something in the refrigerator?

I mean, nobody needs specialized training to have that. But to run a commentary kitchen, there has to be...

Correct, and I'm just strictly speaking about use of the refrigerator. Open the door, put it in, close the door. 20 bucks, cool, I get that. It costs electricity, but to have to charge $25 to let that person in, and then $25 to go and recover your thing back. If it's $70, it's $70. Let's charge $70.

So Councilmember, I think one of the challenges, there's requirements that we have to meet for that. So what we're doing is attempting to meet those requirements. And this is a pilot program. This is something new that we are trying out in order to provide a service to the public that has been requested. it is one of those things where we're trying out setting a fee to see what works and then also looking at the requirements for our staff and seeing what works around that so we are happy to follow up with island county but our understanding so far it's similar to what we talked about earlier like with the food handlers permit i have requirements for food storage and other things that i have to meet in order to run those types of operations and so we're just making sure we're complying with the county we do have staff that will be going to class for this again in a couple of weeks and so we will have them specify and check into that as part of that process but so far our understanding for this has been those are the requirements is that it has to be monitored and checked through these staff that are doing it and when they're doing that that's that's what they have to do is make sure that it's meeting these levels so that's what we were charging for was this access point whether it's entering or exiting setting up, prepping, whatever it is that they're doing because we do have to have the staff that's approved to do that.

And if that's the case, that's absolutely fine. Then let's just price it as such, right? Instead of saying it's $20 plus you have to do this and you have to do that, let's just say it's $70.

Well, and I think the thought process was is some people come in once. There's very different scenarios that we're finding. Again, it's a pilot program, so we're learning how this is working. So what's happening sometimes is sometimes people are coming in and they're saying, I just need to do the one time. I'm doing my prep. I'm using this. I'm done. Others are saying, I need to come in, come out, and do this. So part of this process is going to be learning how this system works as we adjust to it. And then that's why when we do the master fee edits, we come back and show you guys, hey, we found out more in starting this program. This is what it looks like. And so that is what staff has been doing with this is evaluating it based on what they're finding so far. And then they will continue to look at it and adjust as necessary as it comes up.

okay and and i just thought of one last question i apologize i apologize did we check into with what diamond would pump it out if we were to buy our own porta potties no no i never looked into that i will call them tomorrow and i'll have an answer for you guys everybody up here um by tomorrow all right thank you

And one thing I want to say with the pricing on the commissary kitchen is there really isn't anything like it on the island. That's been kind of the push for us starting a commissary kitchen is we don't really have a price point to start with. So we just kind of came up with pricing based along what what we do is come up with pricing that works, what we feel would work trying to do at the low, lowest possible cost for the community for providing service. And then again, see how it works. And then we can make future adjustments.

And that's great. And I love the commercial kitchen and I think you come up with a really fair price point. You know, it's, I would argue that it's even on the low, on the low side, right. For the training that has to go into that. My question is strictly around the refrigerator and access to the refrigerator. You know, what does that really entail? What's, what are the requirements for just sticking something in the refrigerator? So that was, that's all I'm trying to get at.

And again, it's not just sticking something in the,

refrigerator.

It's gaining access to the facility, making sure that when you come and have your appropriate code, you're not doing anything inappropriate, things that you're not supposed to be doing. That's why we require the $75 kitchen deposit and that truthfully, when you look at all the costs, that is the big part of what raises it. And I would love to just say we can remove that, but that is just something that I think would be a very bad move on the city's part to remove.

And even the deposit, Craig, I don't have a problem with, right? But what we're asking is $25 for the kitchen access, but we're only charging $22 for somebody to use the entire facility after hours, right? So if you don't need specialized training to let somebody in to use that area, why are we charging them $25 and somebody else only $22?

Well, and part of the issue is you don't need specialized training to be in the space. The space itself is we have staff that can sit there and rent the facility and monitor people being in the space. It's different if you're utilizing the kitchen, which does require the special licensing that we talked about from Island County.

And the $22 fee is an add-on fee. So that fee would be built on top of whatever you're renting. So if you're renting after hours, you would pay your normal renter fees plus the 22. So it's not just 22 versus- No, I totally, I follow that.

Yeah, I'm tracking on all of this. Yeah, I really am. I made the example last time. We have businesses or vendors that need just to be able to say they can refrigerate their items. They're not using the kitchen. They're not preparing anything. They're not putting anything on a countertop. They're literally opening a door, putting something in, closing the door. That's it. Do we need specialized training for that? And the answer is we don't know, is what I'm hearing. We don't know that yet.

Yeah, exactly. We need to make sure because that question kind of goes in line a little bit more of what level of enforcement we need to do as a commissary kitchen. If somebody is saying they're just using refrigeration overnight... what are they doing? How are they preparing that food? Are they doing that?

Taking it back to their trailer or their, yeah, that's all it is.

Everything depends on the enforcement based on Island County. We don't necessarily do the enforcement. So if somebody comes to us and says, we want this, we don't necessarily say, no, actually you need this. So we just try to provide a menu price so somebody can come up, tell us what they need, and we can accommodate as many people as possible.

Appreciate it. Thank you.

And again, I just want to stress this was an opportunity for us to meet a need in the community. But that was the goal here was to try to meet a small business need that had come up that had been discussed from council members in the community. So that was the overall goal here was to try to address that need that has come up multiple times and make that available to the community. So again, we are trying to start with a price point that gets us started. We will monitor and come back with more information as we receive it. This is something we have never done before. So we are starting out with something new.

Okay, Council Member Stuckey.

I'm gonna throw some softballs in comparison, and yes, the term was intentional. I just wanna make, not trying to throw anyone to best, I wanna just make sure, I remember last meeting I asked if we'd talk these over with the leagues. I heard yes, I'm hearing no.

Yes, I talked not necessarily about the agreement, but I did talk about the different rates, going from the current situation with the rates to the $11 per hour and all the other things that were in the agreement. I also emailed each one of the leagues the preliminary agreement just for them to take a look and provide their feedback. I did get the feedback from the little league that the bathroom was not the best situation and they would come to council and bring it up and talk to the council about that. The other leagues didn't seem to have any issues. They were happy with going back to the participant rates. Even with the one differential with the soccer, they didn't seem to object to that.

And I don't sense a lot of pushback on the per participant or even, I mean, I don't want to belittle it, but we're talking about $9 to $11. I don't want to say that's nothing, but let's perspective here. A couple of questions. I know that this was brought to, I believe the parks and rec commission, whenever there's something brought to a commission, I always like to hear if they had any thoughts. Do we happen to remember when this fee schedule was brought to them? He's sitting right next to you.

was there any thoughts from the parks and rec commission i hear what you're saying personally i don't know if that's i didn't watch the meeting i mean i don't know if councilmember marshall has anything else to add but we just per their request showed them the information and there wasn't a lot of discussion about it and that was a request that they had made to just see the information presented to them so we made sure to show them that and i do want to say We did make some revisions to the agreements based on feedback we've been receiving. I won't say that we changed everything because we do have this money that we need to make in the sense of revenue to cover that cost. But we did remove the liability piece for the portable restrooms. We also took out a request that had come from staff relating to future dirt costs. So there were some items that we did hear the feedback on and we removed from those draft agreements.

And when would these, let's assume we approved everything today, when does it take place? Like Little League's already in session. I mean, is this looking at next year?

Little League already has their agreement in place. If they choose to sign on to these new agreements, they could, or they can wait until 2027. And we did say that in one of the communications that I believe David sent.

So help me, I guess, help me understand, because it sounds like everyone here that took time to speak is from Little League. can you help me assign, not the $9 to $11 per player, can you help me assign a dollar amount of what we're actually talking about, which is the cost increase to Little League, but it sounds like from restrooms. I'm trying to figure out where the problem is here.

Well, I could tell you the overall activity fees that we brought in. We brought in, so out of that budget that I talked about earlier.

Or palatable. And if we're willing to do a split, we're not burying the full cost of that. I think that's a little more equitable.

So we want to add the league, we want to increase the per player cost to include what these associated fees are. Take out the portable restrooms from the contract and identify which parks we're adding it at for these different sports use.