City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone. You made it to Tuesday, March 24th, set our work session 6 pm. Media is now called to order. We're moving on to our roll call. I see Joan Kathy virtually and Peter Agatti just manifested onto the screen. Nice to see you, Peter. Everyone else is in attendance in hers. Item number Oh, are we gonna Our item number three is a proclamation that we're doing in a work session because of timing and the person who's supposed to receive it is not here yet. So, we start do the first item and then it becomes late or Bobby details. It's a detail. Can we even get into the building? It's a great question.

Just got Okay. Well, let's move on. We're going to move on to item number four. Okay. And then if uh Rabbi Yseph shows up. Awesome. Yeah.

Then we adjust. Is everyone good with that? Informal work session. Anyway, thank you so much. Item number four, 10year forecast. Troy, are you going to go into center? Are we reacting? Penguin.

Right. So, um, let's just jump right in. I know we've got a lot on the agenda tonight. So, um, typically before I start starting with a fiscal cliff, really? Yes. This is a fiscal clip from 200. Okay.

Some context. So before I look do a a projection and look forward, I like to look back. It's kind of that adage of to know where you're going, you need to know where you've been. Um so for this presentation, I looked back deep deep down in the finance files and found this from 2012. This was prepared for the 2013 2014 budget and they did it a little bit differently, but the concept is the same. Um the red line is ending fund balance. that you can see in 2012 it was at its high point and it was projected to drop below the minimum reserve level uh in just two years in 2014 before it really taken a nose dive and look really bad in 2017. Um so part of a couple items of context uh to point out the the green line which is the ending fund balance reserve target or the minimum fund balance level that we want uh was only one month worth of expenditures at that time or about 8%. Um now it's doubled changed that just a few years ago to make it uh about 16.8% almost 17%. Um so today we have a much higher reserve level than we um also for context obviously this was a long time ago and we're still here. We the city is not bankrupt. We did not fall off the cliff. Uh we continue to move the cliff out further and further and further and we'll get to the the most current fiscal cliff here in a little bit. Um one more slide from the same budget. of 2012. Um, and uh, this was in the same presentation and just a couple interesting things on this is uh, we had courts back then, the second one up from the bottom. Um, we don't have anymore. We started contracting with the county for that in 2013. U, and then when I glanced at that property tax line, I thought, oh,

there's that's increasing way too fast. That can't be right. And I did not look at all the data points, but I looked at the 2019 level and it was pretty spot on with almost Oh, do we want to pause and do this? Okay. Okay. Um and then I looked at sales tax and um it was uh about 50% too low

on the projection in 2019. But that and and so that's that is no judgment on the person who prepared this. uh it's uh these the farther you try to forecast out the more room there is for for error and it's a forecast based on information you have today in um so that so we have some special guests here do you mind if we pause acknowledge our guests go through that proclamation so they can enjoy the rest of their evening. I doubt they want to sit through our 10year forecast.

I mean, it is I mean, welcome. Who do you have with you? These are my two sons and lady. Hi. So, we have a proclamation that council member sports is going to read. So, sorry guys that I'm late. We never apologize for life. We understand it takes a while to travel to our hamlet.

I would like to be able to read the proclamation. Whereas the basis for the continuity of any society is education and the education of our youth is a priority in the city of town. And whereas in order to achieve its highest goal, education must not only impart knowledge but also teach students how to live forming and strengthening their moral character to make a better life for themselves as individuals and for society as a whole. And whereas a global spiritual leader and leading advocate for the advancement of education, Rev Rav Manion M. Shane of righteous memory stressed a moral ethical and ethical education empowers every individual to develop their full potential in making the world a better place. And whereas such an education can nurture unity of diverse peoples through encouraging increased acts of kindness with awareness that even a single positive act of an individual can transform our state and change the world. And whereas in 1978, President Jimmy Carter designated Shenerson's birthday as an as National Education Day, Education and Sharing Day is observed each year on the Reb's birthday in recognition of his outstanding and lasting contributions towards the improvement of education and acts of charity around the world. A day to pause and reflect on our responsibility to ensure our youth have the foundation necessary to lead lives rich in purpose and fulfillment through service and good works. And whereas 2026 will mark 124 years since the rebate's birth capping a year in which thousands of new institutions and initiatives were launched throughout the world in tribute to the celebration. Now therefore, Leetta Doha, mayor of the

city of Tumbwater, does hereby proclaim March 29th, 2026 education and sharing day and calls upon the people of city of Twater to work together to create a better, brighter, and more promising future for all. Thank you. Thank you so much. Are you open to a photo op? I would love that. Come on. It's gonna be great. So fun. Thank you. If somebody can get Joan,

thank you all. Take pictures. Sure. Can you sit in just a perfect?

Thank you.

Sure. I just want to first of all I want to thank the entire council for welcoming us here today and honoring education and sharing day in such a beautiful way. It's become a homewater tradition, but this year is extra special with Mayor D honoring first time head mayor. And u it's so special to be back with you once again to honor this special day. And in in a world that's facing global crisis on so many fronts, it's so special to feel that here in our hometown of Tongwater, we uh know that such an emphasis is put on proactive proactive initiatives like highlighting the need for education. And when the reby's passion of education was unique in uh stressing that education is not just filling our minds with knowledge but teaching us how to live and how to be conscious about our responsibilities to the world and to use that information that we are that we are uh ingrained in has used to be something that helps us be contributing members of society to make this world a better place. And it's so special to celebrate that idea together here with you. And I hope that this education day adds just another bit of energy to making our city and our world at large a kinder, more loving and more welcoming space for everyone. And uh I'm looking forward to celebrating lots of good things in the upcoming 10 years as we're planning ahead and of course education day going forward. Thank you so much. Now, you're welcome to stay at the home or anything.

Okay, we'll be back. Bye. Hi. Thank you again. getting big.

We will now, thank you for everyone's flexibility. We'll now transition back to the edge of your seat 10-year forecast where Troy was on slide four. 2012 was it still the 1% was that still the cap came around team started with the Tim Iman initiative it was struck down

please go back what what was the big jump there with the utility tax and what was 2009, you know. Yeah. Well, but then it seems like it dropped back down. I'm just wondering like what the big jump there was. They weren't here either. Okay. That was an extra cold winter. Honestly, no, it was an extra cold winter. And when the heating bills jump up like that because one of my old departments was funded primarily snowtorm with no power, right? We have to start our class. I know my dad died. Any more questions? Nope. Sorry to bring up bad memories.

Moving on. We also question.

Yep. No bad question. Okay. So uh so what informs a revenue forecast or or sorry I keep calling revenue just a forecast because it's revenues and expenditure uh so historical data as I mentioned uh we look at the current state of the economy what we think the future state of the economy is going to be the big headline uh numbers like employment inflation GDP things like that consumer confidence and also what risks are out there that we need to consider uh I also read up on what the economists are saying, what's the global outlook, uh what's the national and state data saying, and finally, what's our local tumwater data saying situation might be different than other other situations elsewhere.

Thank you for the large fonts on the prior slide. I tried. Yeah,

but not on the next. Thank you. There might be some slides where there's some numbers that are hard to see, but I tried to I tried to mitigate for um okay, so uh last time I did this update was middle of 2024 as we were preparing for that budget. Um and then looking back between 2006 and 2023, we were averaging over $1.5 million a year in revenue increases about an average of 6.34%. uh sales tax was 264,000 a year average increase uh 266% over those 17 years. And if we shorten that sales tax window to 2014 to 2013 14 to 2023 u that average was $416,000 a year 243% increase over that 9year period. So it was growing pretty fast, pretty robust growth. And that and Troy, is that because of population increase and more shopping in Costco and Home Depot?

All those things. Yeah. Okay. The percentages go up too. Excel tax percentages. They may have. I didn't look back at that. It's possible they did.

Uh so here's here's uh a bunch of the revenue data, the major categories we talk about frequently uh shown graphically. Um so uh the top line is miscellaneous and as a reminder that's that's kind of everything other than those other major categories. So that includes the state shared revenues like motor vehicle fuel tax, uh marijuana tax, liquor tax, things like um and it also includes grants which is why from 2020 onward you see such volatility in that number uh because we had academic funding and things like that. So, you get a big grant one year and it spikes way up and then you don't get it the next year. Uh, what else? Sales tax. You can see big big jump in there uh as well in 2020. Um, and that one uh expense trends. U this is might be a little bit hard to see, but this is uh the different general fund departments. So, you've got fire at the top in yellow. Uh police just below that. They usually track pretty close. Um and you'll see in 2020 24 to 25 that big spike in the fire expense and that's due to the new medical unit. So you can see that in our data already. Um the uh general government that's all again all the support departments like legal, finance, HR and then uh the light blue line in the middle that shows a lot of volatility there. That's public works, transportation and uh that's due to both grant funding and large projects doing get more money in one year spend it on the project and then the next year we're doing so. Uh this next one just shows it's the same data a little a little more up close a smaller window for 2016 because I wasn't sure how good that was going to show up on the screen. Uh this one interesting thing with this one though um and sorry it changes all the colors so that doesn't throw you off but um the

uh bottom right you'll see that little green line which is general fund sustainability. So that's kind of a new one that um we we've been doing sustainability work for a little while but it lived in utilities only and now general fund is picking up a share of that. So that okay so this is a picture small picture a very large spreadsheet um and and the next few slides are just so this kind of shows you the actual projection on the actual so um if you were on a computer and you scrolled this way to the left it goes back to 2006 you scroll way to the right it goes up to 2 and um and then each here as as we finish a year. Uh so you see 2025 kind of in the middle there. Um so that's we just finished and I I removed the budget piece and refill that with actual numbers. And so for 2026, those are budgeted numbers, but the reason some of those are red is because I'm proposing changing some of those based on the uh revenue shortfalls we had on the budget to actual basis last year. I'd like to reduce expectations for some of that. Fix the mistake that I made with sales tax property tax a little bit. And I'll get into uh specifics of Okay. So, if you were to scroll down on the spreadsheet, uh down below that area, you come to this and this is how I uh update projections. Um so, uh each year builds off the last. So for 2027 and they say okay I think property tax is going to increase by 3%. That's a formula that feeds into the area up above and gets the new go through all that and say okay how much do we think is sales tax going to increase or decrease and by how much and those are kind of the assumptions that go into it

and then that squishes it all together. So you can see that so so I have a question for you Troy. So with the way that the economy is going, gas prices need increasing, food cost increasing. Have you put that in here? Have you changed your projections for that? All right. Question that pop up in sales tax. Is that why?

That's yeah, part sales tax. um hard, you know, for some of the others like in miscellaneous where it has motor vehicle fuel tax and some of those other things. Um it's harder to say how that's going to work. I mean, on one hand, with higher gas prices, no, maybe not. Fuel tax a set amount or is it anyway? Well, either way, people may say gas is too expensive. I'm not driving. I'm going to ride my bike to work now or I'm getting an electric vehicle. So that could actually decrease that revenue, change their behaviors based on prices or ability. Um but it's hard to say. Okay. Those are some of those things that make it hard to predict, right?

But we do consider that. Yes.

Okay. So this is you've seen before this was 2025 budget to actual and the 1.6 million at the bottom right revenue difference. And this is what I would like to revise it to um unless there were any strong objections but uh basically reduce reduce property tax by 590,000 reduce sales tax by 95 actually proposing raising the BNO tax expectation a little bit because that was above budget same with utility tax we've seen that one our total total reduction of 1.1 million in revenue for 2026 fix. Um, this shows the budget savings we had in 2025 million dollars that we did not spend. Um, but I am not recommending reducing the expenditure budget in 2025, especially in 2026 as there's stuff that was in 2025 that may get done in 2026 and I don't want to shoot us.

True. Okay. Oh, Peter, you have your hand up. Thank you for your patience while Tracy let me know you have your So, can you back up for your uh reduction for the um so for property tax? Why is that much difference? I don't know 100% but I I believe it's because there's been a lot of people u protesting their protesting is not the right word. Um you can challenge challenge valuation of your property

and and a board of the county that reviews that and if they agree with your challenge then they'll lower your property tax. Gotcha. Thank you. Good question Peter. There's also some property tax that doesn't get paid in the given year and when people pay that later it can come back to the city down the road. But if people don't pay their property taxes, that also can build too as part of that. True.

Uh that just reminded me of another thing and I don't know if this is the reason, but uh they the county does have the the property tax program for uh elderly and lowincome folks or or disabled also low-inccome disabled folks where they're they cut their property tax bill in half. So as our population ages and baby boomers are maybe retiring and relying on social security that could happen.

So even though prices continue to climb like they are, you're thinking that our sales tax you think that there's actually going to be just less sales overall because prices are going up. So that means to but then that should also equal out to a higher I see number. Yeah. So this so for sales tax the uh remember the retreat uh how I uh included the public safety sales taxes. There we go. Yeah. Thank you. That's what Yeah, that's what that is. Thanks. So, I think it's still going to increase, but just by

Let's see. Um, cities and towns receive a specific percentage roughly 7% the base 49.6 cents tax%. Um, and then back on like can we see like a breakdown on the buyer because it steadily increases. Can we see a breakdown like on their budget as far as where we can we see these is it like on just on their budget? I'd like to see where the increases are. Yeah. It's it's primarily the medic.

Yeah. The majority is that page 78. But we didn't get covered for the train. Correct. So there was that big jump up for that year. But now what you That's why the fire increased at such a rap because we added page 78 your budget notebook every month. Oh, you bring it with you. Yeah, it's current. Yeah, it's an

good question. So that is represented that represent the line going up. Yeah. New medic unit was the 12 firefighter paramedics. But it's not reflected on page 178 or on page

there's not like a line specific line item uh not a graph but it does if you look at the uh 2324 estimate of actual it's 20 million for the bianium but then in the 2526 bianium it jumps up to 26 million. It doesn't explain it in probably doesn't um in the words no but if you look the top line is the wages jumps from 14 to 18 and that's but there's not explanation it's the medic one correct great feedback Eene that she would like more detail

and now going forward though medic one takes 80% of it and somewhat only taking 20%. So we basically in last year we paid for the whole thing give or take and now moving forward we're only covering 20% of that. Is that correct? Okay. So we see that drop next year. Go back down. We won't see the expense drop but we'll see we it'll level

it should it'll only go up by whatever cost of living. So the the medic one piece comes in as revenue and as expense we have to show all both but we can't even though we get reimbured 80% of the wages we can't we have to show both at net and then also I met with um chief guess it was last week now but there was also portions of it where um our fire department supplemented towards city of Olympia because they were short and those went towards City of Tumblaters um overtime pay which went back to the general fund because city of Olympia reimbured it but that money hasn't been transferred over to so I think he said that that was it was upwards of 200,000 right around that amount so

be great thanks or send it to me too.

But yeah, if I was looking at that, I we didn't get the chance to see this before. Now I January looking at that and seeing those things and it doesn't explain it in the bubbles above like where that came from. So, yes, big job. Great question. And I know we didn't buy No, but we didn't count on paying for the training for those firefighters and that was the big thing. And Yeah. Yeah. The fire truck is coming later this year. But that's what I like when we were doing the budgeting before when we got to see the sheets

again will be reflected as we move might actually be in here. Oh. Oh, see yeah it is actually in here I believe. I don't know what page it is but there's Britney and I went through it. Let's continue with the presentation. Get distracted by more Excel chief. Okay.

Okay. So with with those changes no changes to expenditures leaving that that budget alone for 2026 reducing the revenue expectation for 2026. If the revenue came in exactly at 4 46.6 6 million and department spent the entire $49.5 million budget. Uh we would we would dip in the fund balance to the tune of $2.8 million. Um my hope is that we'll we will I don't I don't think we'll save 6 million this year like we did in 2025, but my hope is that we'll save some money and not have to 2.8 million. So we'll see what happens there. And Troy for the bianium we have budgeted 5

six million right? Yeah balance. So this is this is performing almost $2 million better than what was what we approved what was approved correct. Okay that's the bottom line. Bottom line we should end up much better than than start. Does that make sense? number that right what we approved was going into the end balance more. Yes, this is still going to the end balance but less and only if we spend

and only at all of 2026 right 25 we spent $6 million. And we are digging out the hole. Digging out the hole. Okay. Okay. Oh yes.

We talked a tiny bit about this and I also think I mentioned this to you and it's the question of okay so what kind of guidance do department directors get and how does the conversation go? I'm not like bringing this on behalf of department directors. I'm just very curious because it sounds aspirational and I don't mean that with any disrespect. Like I'm wondering what the guidance process looks like because I know some it's my understanding that some departments have needs that are still going to be needs and um want to understand how we think we might actually land. Does that make sense?

The verbal verbal guidance we've given department directors is try to work within your 2026 budget. If there's something that you didn't spend and you need to move that forward, please use maximum discretion and do it for only things that are a high high need and priority. And so we didn't tell them do not move anything forward. I know there were some projects that were delayed last year, right? So there's a little bit of a window there, but I did encourage them to use um strong discretion because anything that we move forward from 2025 just increases that difference number and cuts further into the reserve. So, so that was the direction that they've been given.

And then you guys will be keeping track as months go to see where we continue to fall and you'll do I know you do updates to budget and finance but you'll do another quarterly update.

Okay. Yeah, we will definitely uh yes, hopefully update the budget and finance committee and sort of the updates to the council still going forward. And then as we when we uh as we start the budget process and we get the first draft of the budget out, um in addition to conversations you may have with the mayor and Paul, we'll also um have three or four budget workshops over pretty pretty robust for us.

Okay, so this is probably a little too So this is Look at you go.

Um, so this so this is going out the 10 to 10 years, but we're zooming in. Um, and don't panic when you see red. that is where the cliff is and I'll show you a picture of that in a minute. But um what that mean that's just a a formatted cell that I made where if if it drops below the required reserve balance which in 2030 is 9.2 million um minimum required balance is 9.7 and that year it drops to 9.2 million. So it's formatted to turn red. I see the red. Oh, what's going on? Um so that's just another close-up view. Um okay so next is the cliff but before we do that just a reminder that uh growth has has helped us for about 2000 2001 stay ahead of the cliff and keep moving the cuffs. Um we in the great recession in 2019 we had a very low inflation environment which really helped us costs. uh pandemic hit, we had some budget reductions that we talked about last time we met as well as stimulus funding and really strong sales tax. And then uh from 2020 2021 to current, we've been in a high inflation high wage road. So this is the updated cliff one we showed you last time which was from the 20 from 2024 had the cliff in 2028. It's now been pushed out to 2030. That's good news. That's that's based on the performance of 2025 and those budget savings that we had.

So that's really great. Now that is um looking ahead not planning on um adding a bunch more people. It's not adding debt. It's kind of status quo. So now we need to start thinking about adding some debt. As you know, we've got a lot of big projects. Um so for this assumption, this isn't identifying any specific projects because some of them we can't talk about yet. Um, this is be for the general fund. Uh, figure we maybe we package some projects together and it's about $40 million. Uh, 4.755% interest rate over 30 years. That would give us a $2.5 million annual debt service payment. So, as we think about that,

I have a question. Sorry. So, what is our annual debt payment now before adding that? It is zero. Okay. paid off the bush, right? We did that few years. Yeah. Yeah. Paid off the inter. Yeah. The last fire truck is paid off. Right. As far as the city

where's the interest rate coming from? 4.75. That's from our bond underwriter. That was from February. Peter, your hand is up.

Yes. Troy, can you go back to that uh graph, please? This one right here. So if I'm looking at this correctly, it's showing that um in 2024 2025, our expenditure is at face our revenue and yet our deficit is zero. How how is that

the Okay, so the the red line is the expenditures and you're correct in about uh 2025 uh or end of 2025 the the expenditures start to surpass the revenues and then the gray line is the ending fund balance and so that's when the expenditures are higher than the revenue that's where it starts to fall down and then the yellow line uh I can see that that is not a zero Um, but I could see where you might think that looking at this. It's I I will change the colors on this to make that easier to read in the future.

Um, the that's the minimum required fund balance. So, that's actually um in that where the the gray line and the yellow line meet that ending fund balance is about $9.7 million. Oh, okay. But from a layman point of view, that seems like a zero to me. I see what you're saying. Yes. And I will uh I will make the I will change the colors on this graph for future presentations so that it's easier to see that it's not zero. Thank you. Good clarification, Peter. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. So again, small numbers, so we'll zoom in a little bit. So this is this is the same projection, but figuring in that debt service payment. And so what that does is obviously we're spending more money on debt. And so it brings that cliff of 2030 up to 2029. Another big picture. Um, and here is the an updated clip with the debt service included. Again, showing that that cliff at that 2020. So, some things we need to consider when we're when we're talking about debt and uh building these projects and like that. So, are there revenue or are there opportunities for revenue? When we do a project, say we buy a building, is there an opportunity to lease part of that building out someone else and we make some money, we can use that money to help pay that debt service. Um, are the utilities going to be involved? If so, the utilities can pay their fair share and then that takes pressure off of the general. Um, another one might be the HCP. Uh, if we get the HCP done, that's going to cost us some money, but it's also going to open up development and allow more development to occur, which increases our taxes. So, it in some cases when we spend money, we might be able to help make some money. So, on that projection, too, with adding the debt, you didn't change any of the revenue projections either, right? because I mean in theory if we're adding debt we're hoping that it doesn't stimulate and add revenue. So that hasn't been calculated in

that's I'll I'll try to work on that. Paul's asking do do some analysis on like the HCP that might that's what I was going to ask is like is there any way to play with that? I mean the what if yeah help us like when we're looking at wondering like that little that whole again that whole exercise that thing that we went through um that Morgan guy um does that even is that a tool that is still something that this would apply to or is this something that you have to more that you're going to have to use your noggin on?

I'll probably have to say no. I think too it's comprehensive. If if the HCP gets approved and development opens up, that's increased building permits. That's increased sales tax on construction. That's increased property taxes peruity at higher levels because they start out at the value that they are today in 17 limited from 1% back in 2000. So there are it's it's not a matter of oh we there's this many houses this and and this number goes up. It's it has a ripple effect right across a few different items. But it's just like us making the decision right now like, oh, we're going to buy a community center, you know, like we're going to make this decision now for encumbering future councils or budgets. What we what are we doing?

That is true. But not making those decisions also is going to Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. But not making this wide eyes wide open. Also remembering we have different funds. So we have our Metropolitan Park District which was right approved by voters with the expectation I'll just use that as an example just like by not doing it the transit by not doing light rail it's cost you know taxpayers millions of dollars more when in the 60s they could have done it or the 70s and and they they bonked because it cost too much and now

now it cost way more. Yeah. And I And I don't want to be the council that bought, but I also want to do it.

Sure. Uh can you go back to the last graph? So will you just remind us what happens if we reach the cliff? Our bond rating might go worse or possibly if our reserves are too low. That would affect our bond rating. um you know if we if we've already issued debt and stuff um they're not looking at our bond rating again but we do we do have to continually submit financial statements to them as as we pay that that service off. So um it it could trigger something where

now they can't they can't go back and they can't go back and change that trade or things like that. future bond rating circum. So the first thing we've talked about is a sustainable budget. You mean we have to adjust service levels possibly or increase revenue. So those are those are your two options basically. We look for increasing revenue or adjusting expenses. Um and we'll be tracking this. We would we would never let it get to that point in 2029 because the sooner you make those adjustments, the less impactful they are.

Push example of revenue just for example, one thing that we're talking about that'll likely come back before the council in a few months. So, this is a really early preview and heads up, but historically the city collected fire impact. That's actually what funded building the main fire station. Uh as we look to debt service the remodel of T2, one of the things that we're discussing about is possibly reinstating fire impact fees which are bues on new construction similar to park impact fees and transportation impact fees. And so if we were to implement something like that, those funds could then be utilized to pay back the debt on T2, which then relieves that burden of the general fund. So that's an example of a new revenue opportunity that we can look at as we move forward. And then looking at utility funds for projects, looking at Metropolitan Park District to fund projects. It's not only the general funds for so those are all things that will transportation of the district.

Just different examples of different funds and way to structure. All right. And uh yes, talk briefly about uh expenditure and revenue levers. So as Paul said, are there ways we can reduce expenditures? That's okay. No apology. Uh we can evaluate service levels. Uh maybe rethink how we do some things. Are there contracts that we have out there that we can renegotiate, maybe get more favorable terms to the city? Um are there different ways of doing business where we can raise more revenue or decrease all things that we can look at on the expenditure side? Um in addition to fire impact which I did not include on this so thank you. Um some of the revenue options we have bill 2015 which was approved last year by the state legislature. Uh if we if we qualify that come out for us uh we could uh levy the.1% sales tax that will help pay for public safety. That would be just a council vote. Uh as I was wrapping up property taxes last year, I was talking to a guy at the county and learned that we have a little bit of bank our property tax that we tap into. really helpful. Yes.

What does that mean? Um so bank capacities that basically means in in previous years there were times we did not you we didn't levy all of the property tax that we could have and so that was reserved to for us to access it. How would we do that? What would be the impact? Who would be taxed and when and how would they be taxed? Um it's that's a hit pretty much everybody. Um obviously large people who pay more property tax like large businesses, companies uh pay a larger share. So more to them and less to the homeowners but it's it is the property tax on everyone in our jurisdiction or all the homeowners.

When it says Go ahead. Yeah. So bank capacity means there is a cap and we do not charge up to the cap. Is that what that means? Got it. That answer your question. Because every year when we pass, you give us the speech and then we always pass it and we have the opportunity to do that at that time, but we usually elect not to do that. But is it a yearly thing? Is it the time you give us the speech or do we can we do it at any time? Um, it's the time that that I give you the speech and that's like first of the year November. November.

It takes takes effect the first of the November. for them to consider it again. We'd have to talk about it or Okay, we have numbers ahead of time. Have numbers to back it up. Um, some other revenue options you have available are lift that does require public vote. I'm not recommending it. I heard that side. Um,

out outcome side. revenue option exercise that option. Uh another option we have is uh tax on nonwater utilities. Uh that would also require also not a recommendation telling you what's options are. So when we say John talking about the utilities, are we talking about the electric company and gas? Okay.

PS they currently also pay. So uh until 2024 we increased the utility tax on water sewer storm which had been like 30 years since we um it's a it's a similar thing for the private utilities also there's a 6% tax on them city utility tax on them it could be raised but it takes a vote to raise right waving where are we in comparison to other jurisdictions close to us. Well, I know but

all that matters Brand is and I want to say cheaper. I get it. I was just bringing that up that we are seems like significantly less than our neighbors. I don't know what they charge on the private we get further in these discussions. There are items up here that the council would like us to pursue. Then we would go back and do that deep dive on each of these areas. And so this is just to give you a high level menu of what is available. If you look at revenue and the other option is I thought that was a really good question though. I would love to know the answer to that. Yes.

Yeah. We um we can get those departments those tables exist. Yeah. Note noted. I think you're thinking of the utility rates that we charge for water sewer storms and we we are cheaper than the other cities on the utility rates that we charge. Um was that your question or you Okay. Well, that and in comparison to like what we would charge because there's a fee that we charge like Comcast and everybody else as well. Is that standard across the state or is it jurisdictional or thought they had to negotiate that? That was a big deal because remember

and having to negotiate that it's a right Comcast has a franchise fee and that's what was negotiated. Yeah, that was a that took a long time. Yeah. before I was here. Sorry. How many more slides do you have? I'm just doing a time check. Just a couple. Okay, take it. I have more questions about a franchise fee. We pay a fee to Comcast and the city. Okay, good. I was like, please tell me it's not and we don't get as much as

it's been going down slowly as telephone. technology people are doing streaming whatever.

Oh,

Kathy. My computer's jumpier than I am. Um, I I this um thought came to my mind when we were talking about the North End Fire Station and way back when we talked about the people in that area getting a break on their home insurance. Um, I know that sounds like an old thing, but um, I was wondering if some of the work that we're doing now on it and some of the changes we've made to our our service, fire service in general, um, has anything changed on the insurance for for people in the north end?

It should have. Yeah, Brandon's reading the same. Yes. Um the the if you the chief chief could answer it much better than me, but um we did our our rating our rating improved last year which is supposed to have the effect of lowering insurance for people better. So it won't have any impact on on anything we're doing there now. This is this is more cosmetic and less service wise I mean service. So I think

I think if we remodel T2 and move forward with that project then once that work is done and we have the third bay we're better set up for the future that will impact our rating and and could have a another positive impact in the future. But that wouldn't happen until that construction project is done and implemented.

Okay. I'm asking because I I remember that just from being on council and I also was uh sounded made me feel like old times uh someone that I know that uh lives in the north end that had that conversation with me back when I was running for office. Um uh ask that again. you know, they're they're happy about what's going on and with the north end station. Want to compliment the city on moving forward on that and then ask the question about um their insurance rating. So, I just wanted to get some answer conversation from the big wigs here about that.

Well, thank you for that. And I got you got what answer? I wanted to get it from the big wigs and all the big wigs are there so I got it. All right, pass it on. Thank you. Okay, a couple left here, I think.

Okay. Um, so for next steps, um, we've just got a tiny bit of 2026 data so far. When we get about halfway through the year, as part of the budget process, we'll take we'll have six months of actual data for Tumb Water, we'll estimate the second half of the year and then that comes our baseline as update the forecast again for the 2728 budget. And as we talked about earlier, many more conversations and presentations coming. And uh I got several questions in the last two weeks about sales tax which is came from a variety came from council members. It came from staff. It came from citizens and so uh residents rather. So I looked into that and here is what it is. If you go to one of our local small businesses, thank you for shopping local. Um, and you spend $10.33, you will pay $110. Of that $167 goes to the state, 8 cents goes to the county, 12 cents goes to inner city transit, and 12 cents comes to

a great idea. That's only 99 cents. That's right. It probably goes out like four decimals. We don't have pennies anymore. So,

there's a piece missing. Sometimes we get visitors from other countries, the McDonald Islands come and see. Unfortunately, we can't accept it, but So good. So more to come. Thank you, Tro. So that you're going to transition to I'm on a police policy 539.

Bonnie war camera policy. Uh blueberry mascot today. Yeah.

Okay. This evening, uh we're going to talk about the body warn camera project that is um finishing up. And so I'm going to start kind of from the beginning because not all of us were here when it started. So there's some historical perspective on where we were, where we started, um where we are now, and how we got here. Okay. So the the implementation steps for body um the program was um first we s we sought budget approval. Um that's complete. We had to seek and implement additional staffing. Um that is also done and complete. We conducted a needs assessment to find out exactly what do we need um what would meet the community needs and the city needs. That was done and complete. We did our due diligence to make sure that what we were going to use for our video solution actually work and um was best in in the industry standard. And so that is complete. Then we had to uh do contract negotiations with the vendor which took a little while and that's complete. And then we had to implement a bodywn uh camera policy. Uh since this is a brand new program in the city, we had to define um how the video cameras were to be utilized when they're supposed to be utilized. Um the expectation of officers um how video was going to be handled, how video was going to be stored, video was going to be redacted and provided to public when it was requested. So that was a that was a pretty big lift. Um and we reached out to our area partners Lacy and Olympia and our body warn camera policies is very very similar to theirs. Part of the reasons for that is so when officers are helping each other out there's commonality in expectations so that when other officers are coming to our jurisdiction their body warn camera policies aren't vastly different than ours and ours vastly different than

theirs. So we all pretty much mirror um the same thing. Then we went into the uh procurement. Question. Sure. You mirror the same thing, but who was first with the body camera? Was it Olympia or Lacy? I believe it was Lacy. Okay. No, I'm sorry. I believe it was Olympia. It was Olympia, Lacy, then the sheriff's office. I don't know. When did TJ Maxx when did the Evergreen State call? Evergreen evergreen. The Ever Yep. I I don't know. I know that we football or the referees. They got Y everywhere. Yep. Yep.

Yeah. When I was in Dublin, um all the all the bouncers outside of the pubs had body wararm cameras. Sorry. They didn't have to use them for me. I just walked by. They all had body warn cameras. Um, so we've had incar video cameras for a very long time. We were the first agency to implement. We were the first we're the first to implement video incar video. Um, yeah. And then then we kind of stood still. Did things change in that?

They did not. Um so once the camera uh once the policy was created um through conversation and negotiation with the police union um we moved into pure cure procurement which is you know getting them here and they're they're all the incar cameras and all the body warn cameras are all now here and installation is now complete on all the bodywn um cameras. I think we have about six vehicles left for incar cameras. Um, so we are at the end of the program. So kind of how the timeline went on this in 2025. We we promoted administrative sergeant to help um implement the program and manage the equipment as we uh going forward because we have 49 bodywn cameras and um a decent amount of incar cameras. So that's going to require someone's attention to make sure they're working uh properly, they're functioning, they break, getting them repaired, um troubleshooting, all that. Uh in September, we promoted a record supervisor um that is going to run the records division just to manage the sheer amount of data that's about or video that's about to come our way. Um so the Body Worm uh camera project officially started on September 4th. That's when um I was tasked and our team developed to really get this project moving forward. Um we had talked about it for a really long time. Um tried to secure funding for a long time. Finally got got that. and it was time to hit the ground running and get this thing um pushed forward quite frankly because the initial timeline that was provided was just too long and the community expected to have body worn cameras sooner rather than rather than later. So it became our main focus. Uh in September we completed

the needs assessment in October. um bottom camera team recommended a do diligence check with Olympia Lacy and the sheriff's office to see how Axon Video Solutions was working for them. And the reason why we did that is we wanted to make sure again that all the big agencies are using Axon as their uh vendor. It's on it was on the state approved uh contract list and also again all agencies using the same video technology. everyone knows how they work, what the expectation are are, when they're on, when they're on, um, versus now if different agencies have different cameras, you may not know what to look for, when is it recording, when is it not recording, what is it capability? If I have an Axon camera and I show up at another agency's jurisdiction, what happens when they turn their cameras on? Does it activate our cameras? So with the four big agencies being on the same um video solution, we now have commonality in policy and commonality in equipment and commonality in training. Um a final demo was presented to the command staff in October and that's when we began the cost and contract discussions um with Axon. November um the tenative policy was created. We bargain impacts with the police guild for the changing uh and working conditions. Um they were they were very agreeable and reasonable in our discussions. Um so that was about as easy a process as um Michelle can attest to that we've uh gone through and there was it was not contentious in any way, shape or form. We were all clearly on the same page and we all wanted the same thing and we all worked very closely together to make sure that the policy worked for everyone, the community, the officers, the city and the agency. Um in December, final costs were determined with Axon. Um we came to a final

agreement with the police union um was completed and then we and council approved the the contract with Axon. Um and that was important because getting that signed in December saved the city significant amount of money. Um because the cost will go up about 10% a year if I remember I think if I remember correctly. And that's when we placed the equipment order. The equipment arrived ahead of schedule. Um we weren't expecting it till end of February, beginning of March, and we actually got it at the end of January. Um so that was that was good. And then we began working on the timeline with Axon to set the uh installation training and the deployment of the devices. They're a pretty big company, so getting on their schedule was super important because they're flying their teams out from all around the country uh country to do our training and installation. Um they weren't available in March, but they or in February, but they were in March. Um and so installation on the Incar cameras and training began on March 18th and the draft policy briefing um occurred with public health and safety on March 10th um where they recommended that the policy be to this council work session.

Chief, I have a question. Yes. So, has the um is the equipment now in the location where parks and wreck were at? Uh, no. So, we haven't you haven't moved in down there yet? That is where detectives are.

So, the body warn camera um equipment is assigned to an officer. So they keep it, take it with them, and they use charging docking stations in the station to download video when they're in the station. And it does it cellular when they're out in the field. And they have charging cords in their car. We recommend that when they come into the station that they take it off, put it in a charging port so that they're not inadvertently recording things inside of the of the station. So private conversation, breaks, you know, stuff like that.

Okay. Thank you. Um, I'm happy to uh report that as of this morning, the body warn camera roll out is complete with the last of the officers being trained and receiving their body warn cams. Um, and our tenative timeline when I brought this to the mayor and the city administrator was I said, "Well, we're really shooting for like the end of June." I was hoping for more. And so, I'm sorry. What What's today's date, Chief? What's today's date? March 24th. So the initial when this all started the initial timeline was like two years 27th the end of 2027.

Um and we were able to accomplish this in seven months. So and that was done primarily with how everyone worked together and worked really hard. This has been our primary focus in September. So, um, so just to go over it again, um, the Axon equipment that we have, we have, I believe, 49 body warning cams. We we will receive brand new cameras every 30 months as part of our Axon contract, which is five years. The incar cameras, we will get replacement cameras every five years as long as we renew the contract with Axon. So, if we don't renew the contract with Axon, it's fine. The cameras belong to us. We purchased them. We just don't get new ones. And then we lose maybe some of their capability too if we're not paying for their licensing. So pretty much the cameras we'd have to find another video solution. Um real time translation. Um we identified that need and actually as of probably an hour and a half ago, we use that technology in the field with a um a Spanish speaker who didn't understand or speak any English. And one of our officers was able there was a collision was able to have a conversation, figure out what was wrong. Um, let him know what they needed and he was really worried about if his car was drivable or not. An officer was able to check out his car, let know everything was okay, and it was almost like they were having, you know, a pretty uh, seamless conversation as much as you can have, you know, between a device and people. So, it worked awesome. So, um, they were the officers were so excited that they were like, "Hey, you got to come here and see this." Yeah.

And a future council. I think that's a game changer for our community. How do you provide how we serve? Yeah. And it's important to note that it's not just Spanish is that it's 50 plus different languages um out there. And then the body cams themselves, I believe, identify the languages automatically. So you don't have to go select it. It just knows which language it needs to translate. Um, and then and down as we get this out, um, maybe come back to council to either show like a video demonstration of that working or have officers in real time, I speak Spanish and a couple others doing a demonstration of what that looks like. We want to see that.

Is that good that we waited? Do you the other off the other jurisdictions have the functionality or is it because we have a newer system perhaps or No. So what hap so that this is newer functionality to the axon system. So as as functionality comes online it becomes available to all the axon users. So you would it's a subscription service. So yeah some agencies have have paid for it some have not. Um, when we uh did it, we saw the value in having that get rid of the cell phone or having the phone pass the phone back and forth, especially because of how timeconuming it is. Yeah. And being able to figure out right away,

what is your emergency? What do you need? How can we get you the help you need? Um what is not anything that you would use for like uh doing a long u interview with someone that's not what it's intended for. But for conversational figuring out communicating who you are, what you need, how can I help you is was phenomenal.

Yeah. Uh we we have the redaction assistance to make our redactions faster for the public disclosure request just because of the amount of data and inadvertent with video as you're recording video. anything that shouldn't be seen, for example, like our in-car computers that have all the sensitive data. When an officer sits in their car and they're recording that, all of that has to be blacked out. So, someone has to go do that. So, we needed to find a way to make it faster, right? So, they can do this at a much faster rate. Um, and Axon community request. Um, this is now this has already helped in the last few days. Um, basically if we go somewhere and we need information from the public, whether it be, hey, you captured something on your Ring camera, you captured something on your security camera, now you would have to email or call an officer, they'd have to get come get it, you'd have to put it on a thumb drive, they got to bring it back, then you got to download on a computer. Now we're able to with a case number send a link to that person and say when you get this click this link upload it here and it automatically goes into the um Axon evidence system so officers can get that information like faster. Um, also when an officer's off and someone brings a thumb drive video is I brought video and we're trying to figure out well who's what officer collected this. Now we know because that link specifically attaches the information to a case photos, documents, video, all that stuff.

It's a great program as I've used it before in my own private business. Uploading it is very easy. It just Yeah, it's great. Can I ask a question? Yeah. question about the redaction assistant. When you first started talking about it, I was like, "Oh, this is a software feature." And then I was like, "Oh, this is a human being on our staff." Is it a human being or is it a software feature? It's it's a human on our staff that is telling the software what to look for and redact. Ah, okay.

So, for example, if I want to redact a computer screen, I take the the little box and put it over the computer screen. It identifies the computer screen and then as it's going through the video, it keeps the box on that object so that someone's not having to keep redoing it via the whole time. Same thing with face faces and stuff as well. Um, but it even though

it's doing that, someone still has to go through and verify that it didn't make a mistake or didn't forget, especially with juveniles, that it didn't not capture that. we need to make sure that the redaction is still done correctly. The difference is is that they're not doing that in real time anymore. So if we collect an hour video, it would take now someone an hour to they have watched an hour worth of video.

Well, by doing that now they the software will do that and now instead of the staff member doing that, they're now just like a a quality check to make sure it didn't miss anything. So that's that's where you get the um time savings on that. They're still trying to figure it out. They tried to explain all the features to me and all that was like way over way over my way over my head. But the records folks are doing they they've got it and they were super happy about this product versus the product that we're using now. Um uh and then um Axon uh performance that's just for us internally to identify how are the products working, how often are they being activated, are they making making sure that they're being used, that they're not there's no problems with them. So, that's kind of a back-end diagnostic type thing that makes it easier on our end to make sure body cams are being used and we can identify problems sooner rather than later versus finding out. Right now, it's like an officer's mic didn't work, but we didn't find out for two days, you know, and how much video was missed during that two days. So, that's what we're trying to avoid. Um, so this is what they look like. Um, in the upper left, they're on the carriers of the officers. Um they're not not too big. You can see officer Batimer on the bottom. Right underneath his right hand is where it sits on the vest and the camera um resolution is great. And those that's what a docking station looks like. So when they come into the station, they would put their camera in a docking station and then um there was download any video that's on the camera and then it would charge it as well.

Yeah. I can't see the camera on his body. So, is that under his right there? All right. Got it. Thank you.

Sorry about that. Yeah, it's a black hammer on black uniforms. That's why we did the the closeup there on the left to kind of see how it attaches and all that. Um, and with that, I put this in here just to really show that this really this project in seven months became possible only because of the amount of support it received from the police union, the mayor, um, the police department and city council. If all four of those entities would not have been working so closely together, this would have been it it would have been drugg out for who knows, you know, how long. Just just working with the union could, you know, that could that could significantly slow down the process. So, the draft policy was um submitted um with your packets, I believe. So, with that, I would take any questions you might have. Listing on the scanner and WSP has their their channel. You guys have one channel. The sheriff's department has another channel. And there's no like I just want to make sure I ask

any questions from council. Follow up. So, um, it's it's probably part of the redaction part because like when they when an officer goes into a house and like they're and they film everything, they're allowed to film like you have little kids and everything and like they're allowed to go into a house and film, right? It just seems so if children then they redact that later if they're not supposed to have like little kids faces. That's what happens. All that and all photographs. So, anything that would identify a juvenile or all have to be redacted.

Um, and then I was curious about the retention because it says the Washington State records retention schedule and I was curious um what that means and how long because it didn't say because there was one is about like said it's 60 days but it it was like inadvertent but what is do you know what the retention schedule? I I do I don't know what the retention schedule days are because it's different for different items.

Okay. So inadvertent recordings would be I walked into the station and I I accidentally turned on my bodywn camera. It didn't record anything. It wasn't an interaction with the public. It wasn't case related. And so those have a shorter retention schedule than like a misdemeanor case or a felony level case. So it or it just depends on what the case or the situation is about. Um, and I can we I have staff that know what the redaction schedule is. So what happens in Axon is we set up the ret retention schedule for the type of case. So it will already know the officers tag the case. So if I go to uh let's say I go to a collision, the officer will tag it as a collision and then the retention schedule has been uploaded in Axon. So the axon um storage of the video will know hey collisions are this is not the right date but it would know hey hey we keep collisions for one year. So it will know that hey on this day a year from now that video will be automatically deleted from the um system

and it will do that for all the different and there are some that are just permanent that will become like permanent video records and it knows that too.

Then the other piece was the public disclosure part. is just so if somebody requests public disclosure, wants video, do we have any like chain of custody, what happens to, you know, can they what do they do with it? You know, do they when you hand something over, you know, who has the right to get it and can they do what they want with it? Um, if you have like an accident scene or something like that, can anybody request it? And then do you have any if they put it on Facebook? I mean, are there any rules to this? Um it's like that the guy that made that remark about you know the bounty on that poor woman went you know and then that went viral and so I mean that's the worst case for an officer to be portrayed that way and it was unfortunate and unfortunate all the way around but when that kind of stuff goes out I mean what where are the rules what are the rules

yeah unfortunately the public disclosure rules are pretty open so anything that we collect is open to the public. Only thing we do is redact anything that the law has an exemption for us to redact. Make sure it can't go out, right? There are no exemptions prohibiting someone from how they use the video. They can do anything. They pretty much can do anything they want with it. So, it's like you lose a loved one in an accident and you as a family member don't want it out there. But if somebody requests that video then you're what we would do is now we would do our redaction part to you know cover or uh as much as we can. Yeah.

It just depends on the situation and what the public disclosure or what the law says that we can or can't do. I don't mean to be grim but it just seems like there's people out there that it's the same world. But and the public disclosure rules still apply to what's in our dash cams right now. So, okay. Yeah. The only the only difference is that we'll be collecting more. There are pros and cons to every that we take and I think the benefits of this greatly help. Yes. Yeah. And I I'm assuming that this happens would not happen very often. So that those requests don't happen. I'm just

I'd like to know if you book the two women in this uh video. Did you book these two women? I I did try to make away with the camera. Get away with it.

I'm sure you too weren't. That's a very good presentation for um you know we've been talking about these bodywn cameras along and you know just to hear you talk about all the different things they can do or how how it works in police work and everything and to see them up close. Uh, thank you for it's it's very good, very helpful. And uh I hope it I hope it adds to our good policing.

It it's an equity ad too. With the translation only specific portion of it, is there any way to transfer any of those over to the fire department too? So that if the fire department is having I don't have body. No, I know but just the translation piece. Is there any kind of a technology where correct another piece is there specific for fire department so that they can use that translation? Correct. That I'm not asking their phones. Yeah. Yes. See if there's an option for the fire department also be able to be in those.

Yeah. I mean the good news is is that if it was like a collision like what happened today, police would be with fire. Yeah. So I'm not aware of any standalone technology. I think this was an add-on to there is what I what I would say to that is if the fire if the fire department ran across a situation where they were having difficulty in communicating they could always reach out to us and we'd be more than happy to go there ahead and help

um like we do with our with our bilingual officers now we offer that not just to fire but to any other agency in the area. We would offer that same support and assistance to the fire department as well. One more follow-up question about the translation. Is that going to be part of the backend data about usage that could be available like 5% of the you know cases that we deal with we use the translation feature like just about I'm curious if we'll be able to know anything great agenda item for public health and safety. I will ask and find out. Make a note. the metrics,

the start tracking. Great question, Megan. We're going to move on because we're going to be done by 8 and we still have a presentation and a tour. So, thank you so much. You have follow-up questions. You know how to reach the chief and you know how to reach the chair of public health and safety. Thank you so much, Paul.

Tracy, thank you. All right. So, I am just going to set some context. We are about to do a tour of city hall uh for council member Kathy and council member Agabi. We could also arrange to do this at a separate time since you're both remote. Uh but I wanted just to take some time and talk about city hall. Uh we have some space challenges here. We we we've outgrown this space. We have for quite some time. Um but it's also been a great facility for us. It's iconic. It's historic. The community is familiar with it. Um, it served us well for decades. Um, I just want to talk about, you know, City Hall is more than just a building. It's the place where we do engagement. We have public participation, access to essential services. This is where folks come to pay their bills, purchase building permits. Uh, a lot of business comes in and out of this building every day. Um it's a symbol of community belonging. Um it's it's where we are held to be transparent and accountable for the community and it's a hub for local decision- making. Um city hall it's not just it's not just about government. It's shared space um that help people feel connected, involved and a part of something bigger in their community. City Hall has not always been in this facility. Um the the uh picture on the left is when this was started to be constructed in 1987. Uh which eventually replaced what's now called the Oldtown Center or known as the Oldtown Center which was initially built in 1939. So that was the first city hall and and we are currently in the second city hall. A lot has changed between then and now when this building opened. This was built in 1987.

Uh it replaced the old city hall. It's the former site of the Sunset Drive-In movie theater. At the time, we had 63 full-time employees across the entire city. So, that's not one department. That's the whole city with 63 employees. And we served a population of 8,500 people. Now, we're home to nine, the city hall building is home to nine of the city's 12 departments, about 25,000 square feet. We're serving a community of more than 27,000 and we have 255 full-time employees across the city of which 113 employees work out of city hall. That's about 47%. So if you were to just think it was about the same amount in 1986, that' be 27 employees working out of city hall when this building first opened compared to the 113 working out of here now.

Yes. I would like to see the percentage of the increase um from 63 to uh 255 and the amount of people now from 8,500 to the population now our finance director is going to work on yeah and doing a standoff with their calculators and Michelle number 400% okay population is about 300% one thing I 75% counsel is we are approved for 275 FTE. So we currently have 20 vacancies

would like to see that on the slide this way you know percentages. Yes clearly see the increase. Got it.

Yep. Very good. I will we will get you that information. Perhaps we'll include it in a weekly update coming to you. Um, I I just kind of wanted to highlight that the spatial constraints that we're feeling today, they didn't start today. It's not like just because I'm giving this presentation tonight, all of a sudden now there's a problem. This has been a growing issue for a number of years as the city has continued to grow. Um, as you know, the parks and recreation department was pushed out of city hall to create more room for the police department. uh they're now at a at the facility down on the bot at the bottom red dot down there. We have our water resources staff and sustainability staff are working out of the community college up on the upper dot up there as well. Um and so we have we're starting to have staff put all over the place. We have transportation engineering is currently looking at a public works facility. Uh, one of the decisions that that was evaluated and looked at is what if the admin staff for transportation engineering and the water resources and sustainability staff went to the new public works facility, that would create a whole second story and cost about $8 million more on that project. So, we're we're trying to find creative solutions to these and and these creative solutions have been happening for a number of times.

I'm just Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, go ahead. Uh I don't know if you're going to show the numbers, but I would like to see what the cost of the rental space is. Um for a total, right? So for a total cost, okay, parks and wreck is located in this facility. First moving to serendipity, which is about 1.5. Yes. Water resource, they're located here. We're paying this amount of rent for them. The total cost is whatever it is. Yeah, I would like to see that. We will get a full financial analysis. This is intended to set the stage for the tour.

I'm with you. Questions coming because that will help us know what information we have. But mostly we just wanted to to set the stage. I I want to talk about the challenges and before we get into this, I'll drill down to just challenges that we have here in this space as council. uh cold. It's cold right over there.

Usually we cram department directors against the back and then we cram the public immediately right in front of them and then there's not a lot of space. Uh we have the public testimony spot which is sits over the very small city attorney and city administrator spot. We had a cram council meeting not long ago where there were literally people leaning over Taran and we had to get people to kind of escort out or or not escort out but but push back a little bit so that there was liter just a space there. Um we've had two executive sessions in my time here. Uh one of them in the sunset room uh which has walls that people can hear through when we're having confidential conversations. We were also in this room here which didn't have enough spots for everyone to sit and we also had people out here.

Uh I I bring up those examples because those are one of many examples that happen all day every day and we do our best to make it work. But the what I would say is just making it work is getting harder and harder as we grow increasingly. Um, we have situations which you'll see as we walk through where we have three staff to an office. Uh, particularly as I'll use HR as the example. Uh, you have three staff in there. Usually, if you're going to HR, what you're going to talk about is a sensitive topic oftent times and it's not something you want to talk about with other people in the room. Unfortunately, there's also not a lot of places because the two rooms that we have don't have have walls that folks can hear through as well. And so, we really struggle um in terms of having a lack of uh a conference room and spaces for people to go. Also, um I've worked in buildings where there will be a designated space where people that work in a cubicle can go have a private conversation. We really don't have any of of those items. Um there's not room for growth here. We've expanded everywhere we can. And in fact, we're trying to create spaces outside of here. Uh parking can be really challenging, particularly if you get here after 8:30. Uh if you're one of the early ones and you come in right at 8:00 or before that, it's pretty easy to get a spot, but after that, good luck. Um it's a challenge. Uh there are safety and security concerns about access to different spaces in city hall, particularly for our folks that sit out front

and downstairs. Uh that's right. People can go right down those stairs. Um we have limited space for public meetings. It's hard to hold a communitywide meeting here. Um we don't really have this is the best space. Um conference rooms. Uh we don't have any employee wellness space. We don't have lactation rooms, which are the new standard. We don't have any workout facilities. We don't have a space for folks to take shower if they wanted to commute to work by bike uh or walk. Um there's limited natural light, particularly for Brandon's crew, as you'll see down in the basement, there's there's no windows. Also, in in much of the police department as well, uh I've been meeting with employees one-on-one since I've been here. I've met with about 21 folks and um I would say probably 85% of them have talked about just how crammed it is whether it be in the lunchroom or in office spaces or not having adequate meeting spaces. It's it's one of the number one things is we just don't have enough room to do our job in a quality way. I might I might just be a little too critical, but if you would define what is no room for because I'm I'm thinking about, you know, a residence now. Thank you. What is no room for growth? You said something.

Yeah. No, I appreciate that question. No room for growth. So, we're expected to have point right about how many 20 vacancies, right? I understand that. just break it down, you know, further. Not enough. Angela, can you make those not because this is I want us to walk around. Can you make a note of these suggestions and email it to Paul? I will. Thank you. And and just real quick, we're we're we have new apartments coming online. We're serving a larger population. We're expecting to serve 9,000 more people. That's going to require additional staffing in order to be able to do that. There is currently nowhere to put them. Okay. So, good points, Angela. Thank you.

Yes.

Yeah, I will wrap it up. So, um the most important thing that we're trying to do is make sure that we're setting ourselves up for success in the future and that we're providing a quality service to the community. Um this is about employee retention, attracting and retaining some of the top quality people. It's about having efficient city operations. Um it's about build maintaining trust and transparency with community and preparing for growth. This will not get cheaper to address in the future. I think we talked earlier about how things 10 years or 20 years it's only going to get more expensive. So kicking the can down the road on this issue um will only cost us more in the long run and will cost the taxpayers more in the long run. So it's it's something that we wanted to bring in.

It cost money in employee retention. Yeah, Peter, you have your hand up. Yeah. So, Paul, I understand what you're saying. So, uh what you're saying didn't just start yesterday, the day before yesterday. So, what is the solution? What are you proposing?

I'm proposing that tonight we take a tour of city hall and we get an idea and and know that this is something that we're going to be working towards over the next few months. Um, we have uh we have there's some money in the budget to do some work on city hall and we've brought an architect under contract to do some initial space planning and talk about the needs of city hall. And we thought it would be good tonight to start that process with a tour of city hall to really set the foundation of where things are at now so that we can talk about the different opportunities we want to pursue in the future to address our our short-term, immediate, and long-term needs. Okay, I understand that. I asked my question because I had the uh I I I I was saying to myself, this has to involve some construction of buying of building a new city hall and spending money. So when I asked Troy that question regarding our expenditure uh as our revenue and that and that line that kind of threw me off that I said was zero and he said we only have 9 million. So we now we now have a bunch of stuff in the pipeline that I that I that I recall we are looking to build a community center. uh we have uh tanaba, we have the medic one and as you're aware of what is going in the Middle East if by the end of the day when all of that stuff hit the fan each and every one of us is going to have to tighten our belt. So we should be be aware that the economic uh outlook does not look good for us. So, I'm not saying don't don't do this. I'm not saying don't do nothing. I'm just saying we all need to be aware where we're starting from with

this economic presentation here. So, thank you so much. That's perfect timing. Thank you. So, so Michelle is going to start the tour. We're going to start with the upstairs. Uh, then we'll head over to the police department. Chief, you or would you

I'm gonna go through and make sure the office and then we'll wrap up downstairs. Thank you both. Thank you Peter. Thank you J. See you. Thank you. And then someone will stay behind. So we have a mouth.