Community Budget Forum - Regular Meeting

Morning, everyone. We'll call to order the Snohomish County Council for our finance, budget, and administration committee. Today is Tuesday, 09/23/2025 at 10AM. We're meeting in the Jackson Boardroom and also remotely. I'll read the script for public comment, and then we'll take roll. So we'll take public comment beginning in person and then remotely. In Zoom, click on the hand icon to raise your hand. If you're calling in by phone, press 9 to raise your hand and 6 to unmute, and each speaker will have three minutes to speak. And please start your comment with your name and state of residence. Next is roll call.

Committee Chair Dunn? Here. Vice Chair Nearing?

Here.

Committee Member Lowe?

Present.

Committee Member Mead?

Here.

Committee Member Peterson? Here. Chair, there are five members present.

Thank you. Next is public comment. If anyone wish to provide public comment, we'll start in the room, and you'll use the podium in the center of the room. So was there any public comment this morning?

Hi. Welcome.

Viewed the proposed work plan and I'm unclear as to what specific services will be created or enhanced. The plan is not sufficiently transparent for the proposed 250% increase in taxes. Although state law has changed to allow CDs to ask for up to $25 per parcel, this proposal is unprecedented. Even King CD, Washington State's most rates and charges dependent CD, levies only about 13 per parcel, which is below the prior maximum allowable rate of $15 They operate a five year ILA with King County. The current Snohomish City proposal is for ten years with no interim accountability via public vote and by 2032 the rate will be increased by nearly 250%.

The progressive increase far exceeds CPI or any other measure of inflation. The acreage fee disproportionately affects farmers who necessarily own more land to produce food for our tables. School and fire districts must take capital infrastructure requests to the general ballot. In the first year, nearly $1,500,000 is proposed to be allocated towards construction of a new office building. Like other special purpose districts, this element should go to the people for a vote.

Independent of a ballot measure, it's unclear why rates and charges are not set to decrease after this large one year expenditure. It's also unclear how this new office building will improve CD services. In summary, this proposal has not had sufficient opportunity for public input and is not ready for a vote. Please give Snohomish County residents more time to consider the proposal and more explanation of specific services provided with this new tax. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Other public comment?

Steve Van Valkenberg. I am here as a resident and taxpayer rate payer in Snomish County today. I live at 33015 Fin Settlement Road, Arlington, Washington, which is at the very north end of of this county. I am also semiretired and on a fixed income. I'm speaking in favor of our tax rate measure today.

I know by working with farmers directly and indirectly and also the effect that I see daily and working with and around people from the Snowmish Conservation District, the value both direct and intrinsic value to all of us that the conservation district does. And this rate, I believe, is necessary in order to continue to provide the services to the people of Snowmish County. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Good morning. My name is Katie Amrine Dang. I'm a Snohomish County resident on the Northern End Of Bothell. I am here in a personal interest speaking in favor of the Snohomish Conservation District rates and charges proposal. I have personally seen the benefit of the conservation work that the conservation district is providing, whether it's to someone living in an apartment, someone living on one acre like I do, or someone living on a much larger piece of land. The small and large practices that can be implemented that I've promoted with my neighbors, that I've encouraged folks to reach out to the conservation districts for, all of that is invaluable. And for us to be able to keep up with our necessary changing climate needs, we need additional conservation services in this county. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comment. Other speakers?

Hi. My name is Sarah Rosero. I am a resident of Snowmish County and the city of Marysville. I have worked with the district for I'm here independent of the district, but I've just seen its benefit in order to provide services to those in Snowmish County. I'm out within the communities, and I personally see their appreciation and need for support with the services we provide. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Good morning. I'm Mark Craven, a resident of Snohomish and a farmer in the valley, pretty much all my life. Speaking on behalf of the farmers, the district is, that's how I became involved is working on my dad and uncle's farm and saw the value of the district and what they did to help our farm. Working on farms now, the farmers appreciate what we do, what we have to offer. The rates and charges has been ape enabled us to be more diverse on what we do.

Because we collect it in the urban areas, we've been able to work with all the constituents pretty much across the whole county. And the workload and the demand from the cities as well as the the rural areas is increasing, and, we just can't provide the services. One thing that our rates and charges does, it gives us some flexibility and funding that we can leverage to get more money. And districts are able to leverage six to seven times the money, through grants and different, funding mechanisms on a state and a federal level. So this allows us that flexibility to use that money to get more money into the county and do great work.

For farmers, yeah, it's $10 right now per acre per parcel. The rates per acre is a 5¢, so it's not like it's a large 10¢. Excuse me. So it's not like it's a big burden on the farmers at 10¢ an acre. And we did that purposely so it would, be fair to them. So, anyway, I'm in favor of this motion, and it will allow us to do a lot of great work in the county and would appreciate your support.

Thank you for your comment.

Hi. Good morning. My name is Louise Margaret. I live in Arlington, Washington and I am in support of the rates and charges, increase to further the work that Snohomish Conservation District is able to provide countywide. I really appreciate the educational programs that we can offer to schools across the county, as well as the natural resource and technical assistance information that we are able to leverage, and be a source for our community.

Thank you for your comment.

Hello. I'm Ariana Winkler. I am a resident of unincorporated Snohomish County, and I'm in favor of the rates and charges as well. Even in a suburban community, we've also benefited from the conservation district services, and I know I we would continue to benefit from any increased services or benefits that we would get from this rates and charges increase.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Hello. My name is Ashley Hoffman. I am a resident here in Snohomish County within Tulalip. I am in in favor of this motion, and I think it would be very beneficial for the Snohomish Conservation District.

Thank you for your comment. Other speakers?

Good morning. My name is Jessica Bechtel. I'm a Snohomish County resident living in Lake Stevens. I'm in favor, of the race and charges increase. I've seen firsthand what the Snohomish Conservation District can do, and I know how hard that they fight for their grant funding and their federal and their state funding. Increased funding is going to expand what they can do for this community, which everything that they're doing is great, and I think everyone can benefit from it. And I think this increase is nominal for what they can do.

Thank you for your comment. Other speakers? Okay. Anybody else to speak today? Okay. Did we have any hands raised online? No hands are raised. Okay. Maybe if anybody online wanted to speak, raise your hand using star nine. Still none? Okay. No. Thank you. Okay. We will close public comments and move on to our action items. The first item is ordinance 20 five-fifty four.

Thank you, chair Dunn. Good morning, council members. For the record, Jim Martin, council staff. Post ordinance 25 dash zero five four would approve a new system of rates and charges for the Snohomish Conservation District pursuant to RCW eighty nine point zero eight point four zero five. The proposed rate system in this ordinance would raise the rate from $10 a parcel plus 10¢ an acre, which was set in $2,037 a parcel plus 10¢ an acre beginning 01/01/2026 through 12/31/2029 when the rate would change to $20 a parcel plus 10¢ an acre.

Rates would remain at that level until 01/01/2032 it rise to the current maximum allowed by RCW $25 a parcel plus 10¢ an acre. Should be noted that beginning in 2029, the Department of Revenue will begin adjusting the maximum per parcel amount based on the CPI, and we'll make that adjustment every three years thereafter. Requested action for this ordinance is to move to GLS on October 1 to set time and date for public hearing.

Thank you. Questions from council? I'll, well, I'll start by just, so the conservation district came to counsel with the presentation, and we received some background information and budget information. I sponsored this as chair to have this conversation. So the next step would be a public hearing and then a vote and potentially looking at November.

But wanted to sponsor it and have a staggered increase based on the discussion that we had a couple weeks ago at the in the meeting. So there was predictability for the council, for the district, and also for rate payers. So happy to consider any type of adjustments that that we can get a majority support for. So turn it over to councilor Mbello.

Thank you. So, Jim, in the past, we've, usually done this during the budget process. And so if we were to do this during the budget process, would we send this to October 1 to set time and date for public hearing and then do the public hearing during the budget process or do the public hearing in October and then vote on it during the budget process?

Well, the Conservation District budget does not go through council. It's not a council budget. It's not part of the council budget. So my understanding is is that that we go to October 1 to set time and date for a public hearing with the public hearing being set sometime in November, most likely after the council is done with their budget process.

I I and I understand that. But in the past, we've done it with the budget process, I believe.

Again, it's not done every year. I I don't honestly remember when in 2022 exactly when it was scheduled for. By mid so, apparently, 2022 was during the budget process. Okay. Thank you.

I'm I'm comfortable if it moves with the budget. I think there was some uncertainty around what our mid biennial budget process would be this year. So the thought was to just plan a public hearing in November. We'll have a public hearing on the budget, but I think there was just some uncertainty on and if that would be in November or December, but I was comfortable having a separate public hearing. But if we'd rather have it with a a budget vote, that's also fine with me. I don't know if there's a time limit for submitting this to the state.

Just by the end of the year.

Yeah. Council Member Neri.

Thank you. So first, the question, Jim. I know the initial proposal from the conservation district was to raise it from 10 to 20, which would have been, I believe, the equivalent of a 3% portion of the county property tax increase. This proposal is 10 to 25. It's staggered. But by the end of the proposal, you go up $15, which I think is the equivalent of, like, a 5% increase to the county's portion of property taxes. Is that

accurate? Okay.

Yeah. So I guess my thoughts on this, I I think it should be in alignment with our budget as opposed to voting sooner. So I I appreciate the conversation around that. And I appreciate the work that the conservation district does. I don't think there's any question that this money could be put to good use, you know, at the conservation district.

But I think the question that we need to ask ourselves as council members and as representatives of taxpayers is how do we balance the good that can be good use that this money could be put to with the record taxes that people are facing in our communities and the high cost of living. So I think there's a balance there that we need to be thinking about. In addition, I think we also should think about the needs that the county has. You know, we've had lots of in-depth conversations on on this council about public safety and the need for roads and other sorts of things. And so funding that's put toward outside entities is funding that could be used, you know, for for county needs that benefit the taxpayers as well.

And so I think it's it's important to consider what the priority would be of taxpayers when you think about public safety roads or additional funding for the conservation district. All good things, of course, but, again, we have a a limited amount of money. Taxpayers' wallets aren't just an infinite, you know, place where government agencies can go to for for increases. And so I think we should be careful about that as we consider this proposal. I thought it was interesting. The first speaker in public comment had suggested maybe looking at a ballot measure. I know we've done that in the past for things like the public safety sales tax and and other measures. And so I would be supportive of sending this to the ballot for for residents to have a say and then respecting the outcome of that if there's interest in that as a council. But at this time, I don't feel comfortable supporting the magnitude of this increase. Thank you.

Yep. Councilmember Peterson.

Thank you, chair. Jim, can you remind me the last time this rate was increased?

2022. 2022. And it went from I believe at that time, it went from was it $5?

8. It went from 8 to

From 8 to $10. To 10. Okay. Thanks.

So any other discussion on timing or the rate amount? So it's currently at 10, and the proposal would bring it up to 15 and then 20 and then 25, over the next ten years. Yep. Councilman

Yeah. I mean, I would just, say I I appreciate the staggering of the rate increase. I think that gives people the time to adjust, to absorb those rate increases, but also gives our conservation districts the ability to budget for future planning. I think that's kind of a a nice little sweet spot. I think you've hit chair to to kind of make this work for people that you know, to the first speaker's point that some, you know, certainly are struggling in our communities, but we also know that the economic impacts from the conservation district also have, I think, significant bonuses for, for Snohomish County's, economy.

So I I think it's important if I think this I think this finds that balance. So appreciate the work.

Any other information needed, to set time and date to move it to action to set time and date or background information needed for council members? Would it be helpful to have more information on leveraging, on how much dollars are leverage it leveraged based on the budget, on revenue? Like, how much of the conservation district dollars are leveraged for funds, either matching funds for grants? Is that information that you'd be able to provide?

I have that information. So currently, we receive approximately $2,300,000 a year in rates and charges. And we bring in, this year over $8,000,000 in grant funds. So we're substantially leveraging that amount. I do have some additional information I could share also.

I just wanted to share that I do have several letters of support here with me today, which I'll hand to you. And we have letters of support from League of Women Voters, from Washington Farmland Trust, from Latino Educational Training Institute, from local businesses, and several local residents as well. So I'll just read those to you today. Ma'am, could you state your name for the record, please? Sorry. Linda Lyshaw, Snohomish Conservation District. I live in Lake Stevens, Washington. I also want to say for the first speaker that spoke, we have provided him I don't

think we can do that.

If you could address counsel with any comments.

No. So I'm addressing you for the about the first speaker who spoke. We have provided him, and he has received several thousand dollars worth of cautious assistance on his property through our efforts. So I just wanna make that comment.

Are there any other questions from council? So the action is to move this to October 1 to set time and date on a public hearing. And there would be, at that time, a a decision on when the public hearing would be.

Right. Would be a minimum of two weeks later at minimum.

Okay. Is everyone comfortable setting time on October 1? Okay. So this will move to the action agenda for October 1 to set time and date for a public hearing. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Next is motion 20 five-three 99.

Post motion twenty five dash three nine nine cancels aged outstanding warrants in the total amount of $86,874.30. RCW thirty six dot two two dot one zero zero requires that county warrants not presented for payment within one year of issue be canceled and the funds submitted to Washington State Department of Revenue unclaimed property division. The warrants being canceled are primarily for mileage reimbursement, jury fees, and fair exhibitors. Requested action is to move to GLS on October 1 for consideration.

K. Any questions from counsel? In objection to consent, This will move to the consent agenda for October 1. Next is motion 25 dash four one seven.

Opposed motion 25 dash four one seven authorizes the county executive assigned amendment two with Columbia Policy Advisors LLC to provide professional state governmental affairs, lobbying, and related services. This amendment extends the contract period through 07/31/2026 and increases the not to exceed amount by $132,508 for a new total of $492,532. Requested action is to move to GLS on October 1 for consideration.

Questions from counsel? Is this the same amount we were paying GTH, or this is an additional 100,000?

Because it extends the contracts, it's additional funds added to that contract. So it's the same same contract that then got carried over into Columbia Policy Advisors. But because it's extending it a year, it's adding the year's compensation to the contract as well.

Okay. But it was the same amount that we were paying GTH, but this is a different company?

Yes. The the rate for 2020 for the this time period is slightly, I I think, because of of, you know, coal or whatever, slightly slightly higher than than than the increase was in in last year's, but it's a fairly similar amount. Yes.

Okay. Thank you. Questions from council? Okay. Any objection to consent? Okay. This hearing none, this will move to the consent agenda for the first. That concludes our action items. Next, we had a discussion item with our Arts Commission and their 2026 work plan. So we'll welcome welcome up our guests, and Jim can introduce the speakers.

Thank you. We have representatives from the arts commission here to present their 2026 work work plan. We have board chair Carrie Johnson, vice chair Kate McKenzie, and county liaison Richard Porter joining

us today.

Welcome.

The button. Hello. Hi. My name is Carrie Johnson. I'm the chair of the Snohomish County Arts Commission.

It's wonderful to be here in front of you guys today to discuss our 2026 work plan. Just to remind you of the commission's mission, it's to promote artistic diversity, expand access to arts education, support our local artists, encourage understanding and cultural expression, and we have the ability to foster empathy and respect and make our communities a better place to be. For 2026, we have, quite an ambitious work plan. The first line item on our budget is the public art acquisition, followed by some just general admin stuff for our website and domain, with the possible inclusion, this year of community events dollars and also TBD, public art maintenance and repair. The first thing on the agenda, the big, beautiful game, Snohomish County Commission Soccer Ball Hunt.

We plan to, in partnership with the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, place five new statues, soccer ball statues, in Snohomish County in honor of the big beautiful game coming up next year. What we plan on doing, based on our friends in Lake Stevens, they're pumpkin. Sorry. The words escape me. Pumpkin is placing five buoys, 58 inch diameter steel buoys throughout the county painted in celebration of both Snohomish County and also our friends in the soccer world.

Mhmm. The key components of this is to drive tourism to strategic parts of our county, invest directly in our creative economy by paying artists. We would like to work with council members and our commissioners and members of the public to select artists for this, project and also select locations, establish a steering committee, and celebrate each unveiling at the end with a public ceremony. This is just a brief timeline. As you can see, we've already, been at work creating some of these things.

And as soon as we get the okay, we are going to begin, an RFQ process for artist selection. Now this is the fun part, the budget. We have the expenditures, that we are planning this year, which is for the fifty h 58 inch steel diameter buoys. That will be a part of this year's budget. Next year, we have expenditures for installation and labor, site preparation, which could be, pouring concrete pads, any landscaping needs that need to be met in the locations where they will be placed, and also the artist fees.

We have thank you. So those all total out to next year's budget allocation of $40,000. The grand total for this project, should we add in all of the fun things that we want to do, is $62,000. The other part of our budget is our website and domain. It's a pretty small allocation of $297.

And this is the add on that we would like to request today. Due to tremendous support and overwhelming public support for this, We would like to add another Kayak Point Arts Fest. This year, we held it in in here in September. Was it last weekend? Oh my goodness. My brain is fried. It's it was so fun. We did an amazing job managing the budget, which Richard will go over in a bit. And our budget recommendation for next year is in the $50,000 range. Maintenance and repair.

This is to be determined because we are currently assessing the state of our, public artworks. We do know that, as you can see, the, UFO, named Landing Zone at Paine Field Park is in need of significant repairs. We are working with the parks department and also, outside, vendors to name the price, basically, for that. Next slide, please. And now I'll hand it to Richard to discuss our report for this year.

Thank you, counsel, for having us here today. Appreciate your time. So per county code in September, we do a preview of our proposed budget and work plan for 2026, but, also, we will do a recap of our arts program in 2025, which was the Kayak Point Arts Festival. And I think one thing I wanted to show you with the metrics that we pulled from this event is that we directly supported 65 different artists in our community. We we gave money to the creative economy by supporting musicians, food truck vendors.

We hired a creative agency, a photographer, a talent buyer, and a stage crew. And that's really our passion here is to put our money into the local creative economy. And we weren't sure exactly how it'd go this first year, but we're very pleased to count over a thousand attendees at Kayak Point, bringing folks to maybe an underappreciated public park. A lot of people I heard from anecdotally said they'd never been there before, and we're very pleased to be there. So I would consider that a success.

And I also wanted to show that we have tried to be good stewards this year of the 1% for the arts fund. So we were able to pull off that event with just over $30,000, 61% of our annual budget. And we're able of that amount, we're able to invest over 29,000 directly into the local creative economy, meaning that we only paid a little bit over $1,000 for hard costs, and that was that was literally bathrooms and signage. So zero staffing costs because it was a volunteer run, operation, in collaboration with the park rangers, and this was a free gift to Snohomish County residents. And this was also collaboration, between the exec's office, tourism, DCNR, and council.

So I think that that feels really good to be a team player in the county system. Okay. This last slide deck, is illustrative, I think, of what we're asking you all of you all for today. That line item budget, 217,200.0, is the amount of money that was in our 1% for the arts fund when I started on January year. Our with our biannual budget, we have a $50,000 spending cap allotted for each year.

So even if we were to spend $50,000 for two years, all of our budget, we would still go into 2027 with a $117,200. Also anticipated next year are some capital improvement projects. From these capital improvement projects, I'm sure you're aware we would get 1% of those building costs towards public art funds. So we're anticipating more money in the next few years. County code calls for us to have that money deposited in our account.

So we are asking above our spending limit this year of $50,000, a, to recreate the success of our Kayak Point Music Festival, and b, we wanna start planning five years in the future, ten years in the future. We wanna build up this public arts program, and that will require an emergency appropriation. But we really feel like we could use that money, and we have money in reserves with more coming. So that is our pitch to you today. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for the presentation. Questions? Councilman below?

Yeah. I have a couple questions. So there seems like there's a decision made to prior I like the soccer ball idea. I think it's great. It seems like there's a decision to prioritize the soccer ball thing over the, kayak point, thing. So was that a decision made by the board, or is that a decision made by someone else?

As a board, we chose to to we chose to, use the soccer ball, the big beautiful game art project as our 2026 spending plan before, we knew the success of Kayak Point. So that decision was made prior to the, event.

Was that, like, a unanimous vote or something or just a

Yeah. We we decided unanimously to move in that direction, about July or August. Yes.

And then my question about the Kayak Point is I I see a vehicle. Are they selling goods there? Like, the food truck vendors, are they selling goods, or is this something given out for free?

The food truck vendors we're selling.

Yes. So are we receiving any sort of fee from them that would help offset some of these costs?

They paid for concessionaires permits through the parks department, but we said that they could keep all of their sales this year.

Okay. Thank you. Mhmm.

Councilmember, Nearing?

Yeah. Thank you. First of all, it was an awesome event, so thank you all so much for your work. It was really cool to see so many people come out and great family friendly atmosphere and just a all around great event. So appreciate all the work that went into that because I know the three of you played a a huge role in that. A few questions. The first is kinda to council member of those point, one of the things that was going through my mind was sponsorships. I know that's something that we've been looking into at the Evergreen State Fair. Is there the ability to look at sponsorships for the event? Should it continue next year?

Yes. I believe we can accept money into the arts fund from outside. So, yes, we had considered it for this year, but considering it was just the three of us doing the vast majority of the work, we had to prioritize what we could for this year. We do plan on seeking additional volunteers and reaching out further for next next year's spend.

Okay. Great. And then that so that $217,000 number, don't know if we can go back to that. So that's, your fund balance, essentially. And I think the difference in my mind with the arts fund is you don't have this fund is not paying for staff or ongoing costs. I mean, it's it's entirely capital projects or events. Is that correct?

That's correct. We can use it for administrative costs, but we don't.

Right. Mhmm. But I guess my point is we have that spending cap, but we don't need a fund balance. Right? It's sort of a I mean, you're just you're just saving that money for next year. It's not like it's an emergency fund for something. It's it's just money that's not being used.

Correct.

Yes.

Correct.

Is that cap in the budget, or is it in code? Like, if we wanted to adjust that, would it be something we do during the the midyear budget update, or do we need a code change?

The cap is not a part of code. It was just something that was placed before the biennium budgeting budgeting process. Process.

Okay. Because you said an emergency. But if we just did did it in as a part of the biennial budget, would it need to be an emergency?

I think I can I can address that? Typically, for for a budget request, it would need to be done through an emergency budget ordinance. I believe that in this service council wanted to put in a change request during the mid biennium modification to increase it, that that would be up to council's discretion to to increase their 2026 allocation.

Okay. Okay. That answers my questions. Thank you.

Other questions from council? Council member Meade?

Thank you. So we're not talking about increasing your revenue. We're talking about allowing you to spend what is in the account right now at a level that you have not previously been allowed to spend it at. Yes. So what happens if you if we remove the whole cap, you spend it all this year. Next year, you just don't have money to do anything with. But

That

is correct.

You don't

automatically then get to go get more money, increase fees on buildings, or property tax, or whatever. This isn't a my point is this isn't a revenue question. This is we have this money, we have this plan, we'd like to spend a little bit more of what we already have.

Correct. We, as a commission, prior to 2020 in 2023, chose to only do the budgeting process with the money we had currently in the fund instead of doing what we had previously done, which was speculative budgeting. So this is why we are choosing this route.

Thank you. Can I

piggyback on that? So first of all, thank you. I've worked with you two for a long time, so thank you, Richard. I I think this is the first time we've actually really got to meet. So great presentation too. I think to answer a little bit of what you said, if we spend every dollar that's in there now, there would be no money available for artwork in the New Start Centers. There'd be no money available for artwork in the Arlington Operations Center. There'd be no money for Kayak Point. Is is that kind if we spend it all, we wouldn't have money for that. Is is that

so we know that the new start centers, Arlington operation center, and Kayak Point Days improvement project are in the works. How that money gets into our fund, that 1% for the arts, is something that's a question. It's called for ENCODE, but we haven't quite figured out that process. ENCODE actually says that, the department who is making the who is doing the project shall initiate the deposit into the arts fund. So that's something we're looking into. So we know that money is out there. How it gets into our account and when is a bit of a question.

Great. Thank you so much. And I just want I'm asking a lot of questions, but I really appreciate all the work you guys do. So don't take this as a you know, you guys are doing a great job. So thank you.

Other questions from council? I think the thought is when there's lean years and you don't have funds coming in from construction projects, that's why there's a need for a balance. But the big beautiful game only comes once a year. What what do you see as the best way to engage for the 1% for the arts? So, like, for example, the new start centers, they could use some of that 1% for art in the buildings or light fixtures, fixtures, things like that. What do you think is the best way to engage the arts commission when when, like, facilities and human services are making some of those decisions for that that budget?

Sure. I can answer that. So, currently, like, we can use the Arlington operations center. The member of public works came to us with a presentation for what they would have liked to see with the money that would be spent for the project either, along the route near the new operation center in Arlington or a mural on the side of the building. We're currently discussing options with them to spend it.

Murals are typically not as not as much money as what would the entire budget for the 1% would get. So we're looking at the potential for doing art along the entire Centennial Trail with that fund with a special piece near or in along the trail in Arlington. So there are if they can get in touch with us, if they have ideas, Eric is just a wonderful person and a good steward for art in Arlington.

Thank you. Quick question. Me nearing. Yeah.

Quick follow-up question on that. So you're not limited strictly to using the 1%, like, inside of those facilities. It sounds like you're gonna you're looking at Centennial Trail. How how much flexibility is there? I mean, if, like, the Arlington operations center, could you do, some sort of artwork in a completely different place around Arlington, or are you kind of restricted?

The fund doesn't really restrict how or where it's used, just in the parameters of the arts. So, we could take the Arlington operations money and the new start programs and put art across the county.

Got it. Okay.

So yeah. I just wanna make sure you have flexibility on it.

It sounds like we're There is.

Thanks. We put a mural on Everett. Just kidding. And do you have an inventory? Do you have an inventory of all the county art?

So we in I I inherited an incomplete inventory. There are several spreadsheets that we need to make into a single spreadsheet, but also the task of, like, going around the county and physically doing an inventory. Yeah. That is something that needs to be done.

That sounds like a big job.

Yes. I would also like to add to the about the Arlington operations center. I think when we consider these projects on a case by case basis, of course, we would wanna use some of the money for public works to improve their Arlington operation center. But I think the thought was with the Centennial Trail, again, is, like, bringing in different county different facets of the county so we can also work with parks. They have a segment of the Centennial Trail right across from that public work center. So that would benefit the public in it's a very industrial area. It would beautify that area and also serve the public as well, because not as many people use the would use the maintenance center as the Centennial Trail. That's the thought.

Thank you. Other questions from council? Okay. We appreciate the update. We're not taking action. It's a discussion item, but we'll come back to the question around budget cap within the budget process. So appreciate you guys coming here in person. Thank you. So that concludes our agenda, and council's in recess until our 11:00 health and community services committee.