City Council - Regular Meeting

There's a motion Second. A motion and a second to pull business item f, make it the or excuse me, consent item f, then make it business item g. And all in favor, please say

aye. Aye.

Opposed? Hearing none, that has been moved from business or consent to business. Any other proposed amendments? No. Councilmember Warden?

Yeah. Do I need to recuse myself for consent agenda e?

It's just a road closure.

I'm I'm down. I'm I don't think so.

Anybody think Councilmember Warden needs to recuse himself from the road closure?

Is his name on the application? L. It is?

Okay. So let's pull that. Was I think there'd be a

But can we get a ruling from our attorney first?

Recusals are entirely a personal decision on your own, but my understanding is the council member is the applicant in that posture. Arguably, you're the applicant

I would. Just wanna make

sure I'm not gonna be inappropriate. I would recommend then

Can I make that motion? To So that he doesn't have to make that motion?

Yeah. That'd be great.

So I motion to remove consent agenda item e and make that h on business. Okay.

Second. Thank you. Second, I'm writing here. So I've got a motion and a second to take consent item E and make it business item H. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, so we've got a mess now. No, don't. It's easy. It's easy. All right, we got executive session, two new business items. Any other proposed amendments? Council member Rosapevi.

Mayor, I move to approve the agenda as amended.

Second. And and multiple seconds to approve the agenda as amended. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Hearing none, the agenda has been set for tonight. Alright. We have a public hearing. This is our first order of business. Mister Bond, this is you.

Yes. And I believe, the clerk is gonna share a map on the screen.

So the purpose of this public hearing is to receive community input on whether the city of Port Orchard should pursue an opportunity zone designation for census track 923 as part of the upcoming federal nomination cycle. The Federal Opportunity Zone Program was created in 2017 to encourage long term private investment in designated census tracts through federal tax incentives. Under the program, investors may defer taxes on eligible capital gains that are reinvested into qualified opportunity funds, which in turn must invest in real estate or operating businesses located within designated opportunity zone tracks. Investments held for at

least ten years may qualify for additional federal tax benefits. These incentives are intended to attract private capital, support job creation, and stimulate economic development in communities that meet federal eligibility criteria. Washington State's first round of opportunity zone nominations resulted in two census tracts being designated within Port Orchard. Since that time, several reforms aimed at modernizing and strengthening the program have occurred, and recent federal updates have focused on improving transparency, refining eligibility standards, and ensuring that Opportunity Zone investments produce measurable community benefits. Examples of these reforms include strengthened reporting requirements for qualified opportunity funds, updated income eligibility thresholds to better target economically distressed areas, and new provisions intended to support rural communities.

The U. S. Department of the Treasury has authorized a new designation cycle in 2026. Due to revised federal eligibility criteria, only two census tracts in Port Orchard qualify for consideration, including Census Tract 923. The state of Washington will evaluate potential nominations through a competitive process administered by the State Department of Commerce.

Demonstrated community support is a key scoring factor in the state's evaluation. The intent of this public hearing is to gather feedback from residents, businesses, and stakeholders on whether the city should prepare and submit a nomination for Census Tract 923. Testimony received will help inform the city council's decision on whether to move forward with an application. Additional information about opportunity zones is available through the State Department of Commerce. The staff recommends that we hold a public hearing and that the city council deliberate and provide guidance to city staff on whether to seek a designation for Census Tract 923.

And the Census Tract 923 is the green parcel outlined on the map on the screen. And this the the narrow tip at the north end of this tract is between Blackjack Creek and Bethel. And at Mile Hill, it widens out. It includes the South Kitsap Mall and goes all the way down to Sedgwick at its southern boundary. And I do wanna note that the South Of Sedgwick and extending into both the urban growth area of the county and into the rural parts of the county is another eligible census tract.

And per our work study discussions a month ago, the council favored seeking the designation of the green census tract, but that was before we realized that we received additional points in consideration for the designation by doing community outreach. So it's important that we listen to the community and hear from them on whether we should seek to designate Tract 923. Thank you.

I'm going to open the public hearing related to opportunity zones. Anyone wish to testify, please step to the microphone and identify yourself.

Let me take sure there's a list here. Yeah. It's just me. I'm Steve Segoe. I'm a South Kitsap resident and a business owner here in Port Orchard, Washington.

I come to you as somebody who has a little experience both designating and operating opportunity zones and opportunity funds. A little more than eight years ago, after, as Nick mentioned, there was a bipartisan measure of legislation that was signed by the current sitting president, which seems like a fairy tale when there was a bipartisan legislation that he signed, but with everybody at the table. But it was truly a constructive outcome, which provided a connection, as Nick described, between money on the shelf that is capital that was in the form of stocks or real estate that could be deployed for reinvestment in appropriate locations. We'll mention that in a moment. But, for reasons of capital gains obligations and other considerations by estate planners and tax planners, a lot of that money billions and billions of dollars was available to be invested, but not by the willing owners of that property because or those estates and those capital gains because they didn't want to pay the large taxes that would become part of their obligation should they sell.

So, intent was to connect the dots between communities, census tracts, that were considered in question in terms of their condition. There was a lot of metrics that went into it in terms of median income and other issues. And, what happened nationally was that the federal government designated a whole number of qualified census tracts. And here in Kitsap County, this map reflects today's version, eight years later. But, there was another one, as you'll see, if you look at the green map, the one that's the downtown track was one of

our

original census track opportunity zones, and across in Bremerton as well. So, I was tasked with helping coordinate and try to value and then make recommendations for which census tracts would be most appropriate for inclusion in that first round. We didn't call it one point zero because this is two point zero, but we didn't know there would be But, there was an expectation that this would happen with a lot of success. We had confidence that we were going to get two census tracts as opportunity zones in Kitsap County. And, we went through and looked at all the options, and there's a couple of them up there you can't quite even see, but Banger, Jackson Park, they're just anomalies based upon military housing.

Downtown Bremerton was one of them. And, we had some pretty serious discussion with Bremerton about what made sense, and there was finally consensus around the Downtown Bremerton census track being recommended as an opportunity zone. There was another guaranteed track, and we knew that Port Orchard made sense to Downtown Track as well. And then there was a competitive process for the third or fourth or whatever. And in in collaboration and support with the city, we worked pretty hard to make this case for a qualified opportunity zone here in Port Orchard downtown, and we succeeded.

We had a lot of support from our congressional delegation, from many others. And so, point is that's that's where this started, and the original plan was a little different than as as Nick described than it is today with current iteration of opportunity zones. There was a change in the qualifying numbers, so that took this track that exists now out of the picture. And, I want to share kind of where we are and where we should go, I believe, based upon what I know and what I see now with the latest opportunity here. Consider it a tale of two cities because I worked in Bremerton and Port Orchard on this.

And, in Bremerton, we created an opportunity fund that raised more than $50,000,000. And there's a place called Marina Square there today because of that. So it worked. There was a lot of opportunity. We I went back to Chicago, met with a tax attorney. I had no fiduciary engagement or role in any of this except as a supporter of this process. The outcome worked, and that tract is no longer I say, you improve the tract so much it's no longer qualified to be considered a blighted census tract. In Downtown Port Orchard, we had two tracts. The one that's green was one of those. The other that was designated was the one that's downtown.

And, I actually created my own opportunity fund with my partners for that project downtown on Bay Street. It's never come to fruition. Couple couple things have happened. One was COVID. One was a lot of the delay around the the downtown improvements and the ability to open the door to try to do some things like build a parking garage, etcetera.

And so, it's been sitting there latent to do something, but now it's not an option for us to include that as part of an opportunity zone. We have a couple years left on the clock for that first tract, but there's no point in doing it because there's not enough tax benefit that could be accrued from those last two years. So, that's the story of how we got here. Learned that I'm talking with the City of Bremerton. I think there's a really great case for what I call the hospital zone.

Knowing with my colleagues at Bremerton Housing Authority and others who want to do public partnerships to redevelop that area for housing and medical care and amenities and retail, etcetera, It makes a lot of sense. We haven't committed to that yet. We have until May 28, Nick, to submit the final proposal. But, here in Port Orchard, I strongly recommend that we do include and pursue the subject census tract. And there's a couple of reasons. One is that even though nothing came of it in this last go round, I think now more than ever with what I see happening on Bethel, the roundabouts that are planned, all the way out to Sedgwick, the opportunity

all the way down to

hopefully someday some roundabouts on Sedgwick near Highway 16. But, that corridor in Mile Hill and some properties along the way are just kind of begging to be redeveloped. And this is what the mission of opportunity zones is, is to take that capital off the shelf, give a benefit to that investor. And there's no guarantee they'll make money. They hope to.

But use that capital to truly do things that otherwise might not be possible without that kind of capital investment. And redevelopment, the idea of opportunity zones is redeveloping urban areas that's a principle, it's not the requirement, but urban areas that have been, I guess, wanting from years of of, you know, ignoring the the challenges until something comes along like what's happening now and what's happening on the corridor. So, I I I know I speak. I I've not I've invited a bunch of others here tonight who have a stake in this and who have been a part of this process. The sun well, it's not sunny, but the light's still out there, so maybe they're still golfing or who knows where they are.

But I think I speak on behalf of a lot of folks who understand the value of trying to include that census tract, if we can, into the opportunity Zone umbrella. And I will provide written support for that if necessary, and I will also be willing to answer any of your questions about that if you have any.

Did investors enter the Opportunity Zone in Port Orchard, as as you you see that we don't did they have any benefits even though we don't see any benefits that happened for Port Orchard? Like you said, there there was a

I started a fund, but we didn't we didn't populate it. Yeah. Just with my own money, I just nothing happened because just kinda waiting for the bus to drive up to the curb with a correct change in my pocket and it never came. So

Do you think it's possible that other investors still benefited from the designation of opportunity zone even though Zero. About Port Orchard?

Zero.

Okay.

Not a single soul.

Go ahead, councilman. Yeah. Was gonna ask Nick this question, but, Steve, you might be able to. Think we should probably No do that.

Wait. Complete the public hearing and then ask questions to staff would be more appropriate.

So I I can answer any questions for you or it's just part of hearing?

I think listen. We're gonna continue the public hearing and see if anybody else Okay. Wants to testify and then Should

we be interested?

From Alright.

Okay. Thank you

for your time. Thank you.

Thank you.

Alright. Anyone else wishing to testify on opportunity zones? And if you're online, use the raise your hand feature and the clerk would bring you in to testify. I don't see any hands being raised. Last call to testify on Opportunity Zones. And I will close the public hearing. Okay, Council Member Wharton, go ahead and ask your question.

Yes.

The last time that we were shown the map during the work study, the city overlaid into the county. How does it work when on a voting process if one or the other decided not to do it, not to participate, how would that work?

Well, we're in contact with county commissioner's office about getting letters of support from the county commissioners. And so we are the nominating body and as part of our nomination, we are supposed to seek public input on the proposal. But I think it's really just a box that you check. It's did you do public outreach? I don't think they're yeah, I mean the county could choose to do public outreach if they wanted prior to writing a letter of support. But I think at least in the previous round the county commissioners wrote letters of support just on the basis of our nomination.

Sounds good. Thank you. Questions for staff? Councilor Mer? Go ahead. Councilor Fatton, go ahead.

Oh, he has hand raised first.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Director Bond, so outside of staff time, what what kind of cost is it to the city of Port Orchard to pursue this?

No cost.

No cost. Okay. And so as I understand this, I've got a pretty good understanding of the program and how it worked in Maria Square, but I just wanna make sure that everybody understands. So no cost to us, but this is just another tool in the tool belt for anybody who would possibly want to develop within the boundaries of this green shaded border. Correct?

Yeah. That's correct. And I am aware I know that there's an apartment project, the Ramsey, which is a mixed use project up by the Starbucks, and I believe that is an opportunity fund investment. And so I think there are some of these projects out there. I also know that a lot of apartment complexes changed hands during the period when Opportunity Zones were in effect. And so it's possible that some of those benefited from this by refurbishing apartments or putting money into those types of projects as well. But I don't know that there's a great repository of information at the federal level on where these funds went and how they were used. It sounds like that's something that's been fixed in the two point zero law.

Perfect. Thank you.

Madam Mayor Finn.

So is this census track right up to date with all this going on? Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. And so the population is right there in that green area, the 6894. Is that what that is?

I'm sorry I don't see the six what's the 6000 Well that you're referring

this thing right here is that in green area.

From the 2020 census that was the estimated population of that tract.

Okay. Thanks. Thank you. I

would like to read something right quickly and maybe you can help explain this to me. According to this explanation, it says that investors can still benefit from the opportunity zone designations even if no developments come from it. The tax benefits provided by Opportunity Zones are based on the investment in Qualified Opportunity Funds and the subsequent deferral of capital gains taxes. If an investor invests in a QQF, I mean QOF, which is a Qualified Opportunity Fund, and holds the investment for at least five years, the basis of the QOF investment increases to 10% of the deferred gains. So I guess my point of it is is from this explanation, it says that as long as you have a fund, you can not build anything and still benefit from it.

So as we think about designating something for an opportunity zone, are we also considering how to have real investment in Port Orchard?

So I'm not a tax accountant and I'm not sure that I can fully answer the question that has been asked. But my understanding is that you can put the money into the Opportunity Zone fund, fund, but it's only the increase in that basis that provides tax advantages. I believe you're benefiting just by putting the money in the fund and not seeing an increase in investment within that area. I think possibly you're deferring those capital gains, but you're not reducing the liability. But again I'm not an accountant.

And these are federal taxes. They aren't local taxes that we're deferring or forgiving. This is a

Yeah. But if people aren't really building then we're not getting that taxes. Like if they're still having if it's still incentivizing them to just sit on it because they're getting capital gains tax deferred, then I'm saying like, are we also just creating a zone where people can invest and sit on it and at the end of it still have a benefit to them? Or are we creating a zone where people are going to get real investment into our city?

I think we're hoping to get investment into our city through this opportunity zone is the goal.

Okay. Except we didn't. It doesn't seem like much of it happened with the last one? Okay. So do you think maybe it will go more to like are we looking at it and saying, okay, well, is this really going to go to the city being that the last one didn't seem to spur what we hoped to but maybe now in this new zone is more amenable to actual development? Is that

something Well, we're looking we had two zones before. We had the downtown zone which is no longer eligible in this same zone that we're proposing at this time. And I believe there are projects, there's at least one that is in plan review right now that I'm aware of. So it's possible we do get some economic benefit from the prior one point zero and we're providing a tool as Councilmember Morrissey stated for investment and creating opportunity and we don't necessarily control whether that moves forward or not, but we're putting money into a roadway there, significant investment into Bethel Phase one and future phases. So hopefully there is that investment that comes forward.

And I would add that the we're working with Home Depot right now and they're looking at building a store in Port Orchard. And they've asked us repeatedly to create tax incentives for them. And there aren't any tools in the toolbox at the state level that allow us to give them some sort of tax break to build a store in Port Orchard. But I have pointed out to them that this opportunity zone law has been renewed and so they're looking into whether they can take advantage of this as part of making the decision whether to build the Home Depot store or not. And there's a couple of other projects.

The Hidden Hills Apartments has been permitted for a few years and the owner has been trying to sell that and find somebody to buy it. And so I think that an opportunity zone designation may make the difference between whether that project actually is realized or whether those permits would expire. There's a handful of other projects. Blueberry phase two comes to mind in that census tract that could also benefit from this.

Casper Warden? Yeah, correct me where I'm wrong, please. But the state determines who receives the opportunity zones. So they do the review of all applicants and they see if we're the most viable candidate. I mean it's not we're not just sitting here creating something that is going to benefit local people. The state's going to determine or the federal?

It's it's a state process.

State process gonna determine Which tracks are selected. Which tracks are selected. Correct. We're just throwing our name in the hat and they're gonna and they're gonna determine if we're the most the best applicant.

Yeah. The application that we have to fill out, it includes scoring criteria. Right. And we have to put forward a sample of three projects and talk about how many housing units are gonna be created from those projects, how many jobs are being created. And there's a whole number of metrics. Is there infrastructure available? And are there planned infrastructure investments? So in this case, we've got the Bethel Phase I project that we can point to and say the city is investing 10 or $12,000,000 into a road project serving this opportunity zone. And that all factors into the scoring that ultimately gets sent to the governor. And then the governor is the one who has to put the nomination to treasury for federal approval.

Yeah.

Further questions? There's no action on this tonight. Only a public hearing. And then at future council meeting, there'll be formal action taken on selecting this potentially on this zone. So council member Dina?

Is it possible that the state will weight affordable housing projects or any housing projects heavier than other kinds of development?

There are additional points for projects that are considered affordable. And so they don't give a real clear definition of what affordable means. And so we have written a draft narrative that talks about Port Orchard median rents being relatively low compared to the county and so they actually meet the definition of affordable even without subsidy. So that's at least the argument we're going to make.

Thank you.

Alright. With that, I don't see any further questions. We're gonna move on to our agenda. And, we're to, citizen comment period now. And is there anyone wishing to address the council this evening? Anyone online use the raise your hand feature and we'll clerk will bring you into the meeting. Okay. I'm gonna close the citizen comment first because citizen comment period. We have amended consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve? Council Member Horsey.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. I move to approve the amended consent agenda.

Second. Motion by Council Member Morsey, a second by Council Member Diener to approve the amended consent agenda. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Hearing none, the consent agenda has been approved. We have a presentation tonight. We have some guests from Kitsap County here to give us an update on their Lund Corridor project. So welcome.

Thank you very much. Good evening, counsel. This is my first time coming before you, so I'm very excited. My name is Anthony Burgess. I am a professional engineer with Kitsap County.

I work as the capital program manager for Public Works Roads Division. So under my purview, we construct all of our county road projects. Tonight, I'm trying to find the screen to look at. I have an update for you on the Lund Avenue projects. We have four projects specifically that are moving forward, currently planned for the next three years.

So I'll get into some specifics. I hope to move through the presentation relatively quickly to open the door for comments and questions you may have. Let's see if I click the right button here. The project area, a little difficult to see on the screen, but this is the Lund Avenue area adjacent to the Safeway and the Regional Park. On the screen are four colors.

The projects that are moving forward in our construction phase this summer are the roadway segment of Harris To Chase, which includes a roundabout and also a new roundabout at the intersection of Chase and the park. We are currently working towards a full construction package with obligation no later than June. So we're looking to construct the Lund Hoover Roundabout in 2027, leaving the final segment of Chase To Jackson for construction in 2028. This was all envisioned as one grand project, but due to funding, buckets and timelines and permits, federal permit requirements, and cost, it was divided into four projects. The Harris To Chase and Chase Roundabout projects are both primarily funded through state TIB funds, and the other two are funded through, federal funds.

Just to clarify then, the first phase, which is this summer, is the red and blue? Correct. And then the followed by the yellow next summer. And then the following summer, the green would follow.

And surprisingly enough, the color coordination really helps because all the projects are called Lund. It becomes very confusing. Harris to Chase and Chase are moving forward this year. Hoover is planned for next year. Chase to Jackson, the year following.

The London Chase roundabout will include construction of a roundabout, paved shared use path, new six to 10 foot side box, a new refreshed park entrance, and associated stormwater improvements. The total funding package, which is a combination of state funds, REIT funds, and local funds, was 4,300,000. We've been receiving very successful bids this year for project work, and we came in quite a bit under our engineers' estimate at $2,082,000 with Sound Pacific Construction. The Harris To Chase project is also constructing a roundabout and improving the corridor with six to 10 foot sidewalks, five foot bike lanes on both sides, and associated stormwater improvements. This project will include a very large underground stormwater facility, so there will be a large excavation during the summer this year.

We also had a mix of state TIB, REIT and local funds to create a roughly $4,000,000 funding package. Again, we've been receiving very good bids this summer and our lowest bid was just shy of $3,000,000 with active construction being the lowest bidder. Difficult to see on the screen. We are currently working to schedule our pre construction meetings, which is the initial first step with our lowest bidders. This is where we sit around the table with our contractor, lay out the requirements, and get started.

We're expecting for the Harris to Chase segment to begin first as early as the end of this month, and the Chase roundabout following with about a two month delay. The Harris to Chase project is a longer duration, a hundred and twenty working days. If you're unfamiliar with that, five working days is a work week. Chase roundabout is much shorter. It's eighty working days.

This is to spread out the start of projects because we're going to have two contractors working the same area. We're gonna give one the chance to get settled, get into a rhythm, and then we'll introduce the next next contractor. We have worked diligently on outreach for these projects. We sent postcards to a very large mailing area. We will begin door to door engagement with impacted businesses along the corridor.

We've been using a GovDelivery email system, and we've had in person discussions with both the engineering staff here at City of Port Orchard as well as the school district for bus routing. Our outreach team is something we're very prideful of here in Kitsap County Public Works and they do a phenomenal job. So thank you, Eirik. We also have a project webpage and story map. Difficult to put on a slide, but if you would have liked the live copy of the link we use, we have a story that talks about funding.

You can look at project plans and get into more detail on all four projects planned for this corridor. And that is my very quick discussion or my very quick presentation. So I'm here to answer any questions you have. Sure.

Thank you for coming tonight. I'm very appreciative of that as I'm sure we all are. Anthony, you had one slide that showed five foot bike lanes on either side. And my question is, will you see a continuous strip of bike lanes down on five foot on either side? Or is that going to be broken up?

The section in front of the park has existing pathways that will be improved into a shared use path.

Okay.

So, that's where you go from a bike lane and then it creates a dedicated pedestrian multimodal pathway so that it will switch along the corridor.

Okay.

But So that'll there be will be a a dedicated bicycling facility of some form or fashion along the corridor. Okay.

Questions? Council Member Morrissey, go ahead.

Yes, mister Virgis. Thank you. I I would echo my colleague's sentiments about coming and and sharing this with us. I just I have one ask of you. We have a new outreach communications folks. I would just ask that it's going to impact drivers for both the county and the city that maybe we work collaboratively and get the message out in a unified voice. It just serves all of our constituents jointly.

Is something we've started already, and it's one of our priorities. We had some utility relocation which was not handled quite as well as we typically do, and so we're working through that now. It's difficult to get contractors that we don't control to provide coordinated work. Sometimes it goes really well, sometimes it doesn't. Now that that work is complete, we'll have our contractors in the work zone and we'll have full control over that outreach and communication.

Perfect. Yeah, I just wanna make sure we get a unified voice out from the city that's echoing what you guys are putting out as well. Thank you.

Councilman Rosepepe, go ahead. A couple comments and a question. First of all, thanks for being here. It's great to a little bit of integration between the county and the city. The pedestrian crossing at Chase that's there now at the, at the park, I'm just wondering that's a pretty major pedestrian crossing. And then with the roundabout going in there, I was wondering how that's gonna be impacted and the plans for that.

So the benefit of a roundabout is you do create pedestrian refuge Mhmm. In the middle of the crossing. We wanna get pedestrians from one side of the road to the other in one continuous action. In events where that is impossible, there is a refuge area to break up that length.

Are they gonna continue to have the pedestrian crossing lights there? Yes. Okay. I guess that was my main question. Second of all, unfortunately, we've seen the state leave one of our roundabouts on the highway, what I would consider very plain. I didn't know if there was any gonna be any artwork or any type of structure to have the roundabouts look a little bit more scenic?

We will have landscaping. We don't typically invest in artwork as a county because it's difficult to maintain all of the infrastructure. If you're looking to annex the area, you're welcome to put your own hard work in. However,

there is gonna be some landscaping on the on the

Exact landscaping of inside the roundabout, I'd have to look at in more detail. It's a balance to create aesthetic and transportation need. What also drives the ability to put more landscaping is when you construct larger facilities. That creates a more expensive project because then we have to acquire additional rights of way. Each of these projects required heavy personal coordination with property owners to have fair and equitable negotiations for purchase of those rights.

Thank you. Mr. Ward?

Yeah, thank you for coming today. I appreciate it. I will say when it comes to landscaping and the county roundabouts, I'd hope to see less landscaping in them. They're not really maintained the best. But I will say Jackson Avenue, Graves Way, just some examples of the county builds roundabouts really quick.

And Graves Way was record time. Jackson, no impact on travelers. Built really quick. Built well. So I have confidence that these won't take much longer than what's expected based off of seeing the history of the county's roundabouts. So thank you.

Well thank you. We do hope to have all projects paved by the October and be out of the area for a little bit before we get started on twenty seventh.

Council member Deaven. Thank you.

So council member Warden came up with this awesome idea of, like, anchors. Just throwing that out there. And, also, I just had a quick question because you said it very quickly, and my brain did not catch it. It was an underground stormwater container facility? Like, what was your language on that one?

So every project where we are adding pavement, there are storm water requirements that are triggered. This is taking surface runoff from the roadway that is untreated and putting it through a treatment system. Due to the length and size and scale of the project and all of that total impervious area, all of that total surface area, we're constructing an underground vault, which is a large concrete tank that typically has baffles and media inside to treat the water so that we remove the, permit required pollutants that should be removed from the water system.

Our Tremont project near the South Kitsap Boulevard on the south side of the road has a vault about the size of a basketball court underground there. You just wouldn't know it. But when when we were digging it and building it, it was a big hole there. So, yeah. So, Alright, other questions? Alright, thank you for being here tonight.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank Alright,

we are going to I hope what is a ten minute executive session. Could you cite the statutes for Absolutely.

We'll go into executive session pursuant to RCOB forty two thirty one ten subpart one subpart r I to discuss legal risks of a proposed action for ten minutes, meaning we will return at 07:21.

Sorry. That was a beautiful You keep in my truck.

Oh, it's in the car.

I meant to bring it in.

I wanted to actually Just beat up today. Alright. We're back in session. Can we restart the recording if it's been stopped? Are you ready, Brandy?

Okay. We're back in open session, and we're on to our business items, the first of which is adoption of an ordinance amending the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty twenty six biennial budget. Mister Crocker, this is you.

Thank you, mayor. Council, the City Of Port Orchard biennial budget for 2526 adopted by ordinance 1824 and amended by ordinances zero zero five twenty five, ten twenty five, and seventeen twenty five, is written to capture revenue expenses over the fiscal period. During the biennial period, changes to the budget in both revenues and expenditures need to be recognized by a budget amendment. By this ordinance, the city council would amend the 2526 biennial budget as adopted by ordinance eighteen twenty four and amended by ordinances five twenty five, ten twenty five, and seventeen twenty five. This ordinance will increase total revenue and expense authority by $5,830,256 as identified in the ordinance table.

The following budget amendment was reviewed by the finance committee as well as the city council at work site on 04/21/2026. I did wanna point out that I did send around an amend a small amendment to the budget excuse me, a small adjustment to the budget amendment. And I just wanna kinda make sure I read that into the record for so clarity. If it's only in regards to exhibit a on the salary table, and proposed changes are to remove one FTE for deputy director of community development, add one FTE for a billing official, and add one FTE for a billing examiner two position. It does not change the financial adjustments I'm making in the amendments.

Part of the discussion which I've had with council member Demond is that the cost associated with adding the billing examiner to position could potentially be offset by not contracting out for those services with our consulting firms. I can see a financial adjustment in this amendment. With that, the finance director recommends approval, adoption of an ordinance, amending the 2526 budget as presented.

Mister Morsey. Yeah. Mister mayor, I move to adopt an ordinance amending the twenty twenty five twenty twenty six biennial budget as adopted by ordinance number 18 dash 24 and amended by ordinance number five dash 25, ordinance number 10 dash 25, and amended by ordinance number seventeen twenty five.

Second. Motion by council member Morrissey, a second by council member Trinari. Any questions for mister Crocker? I think we talked about this at length at the work study last week. Alright. So you'll be voting on the ordinance amending the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six budget. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Hearing none, the ordinance passes. We're at item b now, adoption of an ordinance amending Port Orchard Municipal Code 13.1 o, rate reduction for low income. Mister Crocker, this is you.

Thank you, mayor. In 2023, the city council established water, sewer, and storm water rate reductions for low income residents. Because access to safe, reliable and affordable utility services is essential to public health, sanitation and overall community well-being. The city recognizes the importance of periodically evaluating and updating eligibility thresholds for low income utility rate reductions. Sure that the assistance is equitably targeted, reflects current economic conditions, and promotes the responsible and effective use of public resources.

The mayor and city council reviewed the low income utility discount program available to assisted citizens. During the review, the council discussed adjusting the eligibility parameters of the program to allow for more participation and increasing the discount to provide greater relief to those in the program. Staff presented alternatives adjustments, and the council provided direction. The projection was as follows. To increase the discount from a 25% reduction from the fixed base rates to a 35% reduction to the fixed base rates.

Additionally, to increase the maximum annual household income threshold factor from 125% of the federal poverty level to 150%. The finance department will monitor the changes to the program and report back to council. The finance department recommends approval of the adjustments to the low income utility discount program as presented in the ordinance.

Mr. Warden. I move to adopt ordinance number x x two six amending thirteen point one point one zero point zero two zero and thirteen

point one

zero point zero three zero as presented.

Second.

Motion by Councilmember Warden and a second by Councilmember Fenton. This was also discussed. We had length that our work study. Are there any additional questions from mister Crocker on this one?

Well, just thank you director Crocker for all of this. This is really good work.

Right. With that, you'll be voting on an ordinance amending Port Orchard Municipal Code 13.1, the rate reduction for low income. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Hearing none, the ordinance passes. We're to mister Crocker's third item, which is the adoption of a resolution repealing seventeen thirty five and establishing an up an updated water leak policy. Mister Crocker, this is you.

Thank you, mayor. So the city established a water leak policy in 1987 by resolution fourteen sixty nine. In 1996, the city repealed resolution fourteen sixty nine and replaced it with resolution seventeen thirty five. The city has evaluated the current leak credit policy and finds it has not kept up with the changes in costs over time. The city desires to repeal resolution seventeen thirty five and replace it with an updated water leak credit policy, which reflects current operations and needs. Finance department recommends approval of the resolution as presented.

Council member Finn.

I move to approve revelation I mean, resolution repealing seventeen thirty five and establishing a new utility water leak credit.

Second. Motion by council member Fenton and a second by council member Morrissey. Questions from mister Crocker on this? This is also at the work study. I'm seeing no questions. You'll be voting on a resolution repealing seventeen thirty five and establishing a new water leak policy. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the resolution passes. Alright. We're on to item d which is adoption of a resolution establishing a downtown building repacing grant policy. Miss Archer, is you.

Thank you so much. Counsel, this is the culmination of a body of work that you've engaged in for the past few months pertaining to the adoption of a new program referred to as the Downtown Building Refacing Grant Program or policy. This policy was discussed at length at your work study and since that time I made four modifications to the documents pursuant to the consensus of the council from your work study. Those modifications from the version you saw in your packet last meeting are to place the match for large projects at 50%, it was previously 75, to remove any in kind labor match associated with grant recipients, and to add or to exclude properties where there is ground floor residential as opposed to excluding residential entirely. And then there was one reference that I did not edit.

There was a reference to Port Townsend's paint schema and that is original to Auburn's program. If the council wants to utilize a different paint schema, we don't currently have one I understand from Director Bond. The Port Townsend reference was not a typo, it is in fact referenced to Port Townsend's color scheme. So those are the four modifications from last week and am here, Nick is here for any questions the council may have as you deliberate on your policy.

Member Morrissey. Yes, mister mayor. I move to adopt a resolution establishing the downtown building refacing grant policy. Second.

Motion by council member Morrissey and a second by council member Rosapepe, I think it was. Alright. Any questions or comments on this? Council member Dedmon.

Oh, that's

okay. I I just had a quick question. Thank you. Did we decide one way or another on the in kind? I guess I thought that was the last bit of

hair we were gonna have because we kinda went back and forth last week, and I don't feel like we got a consensus. I thought what I heard was labor would not count donated materials provided there's documentation for its value would be accepted is what what I thought I heard at the end.

And I thought I just heard miss Archer say we've removed all in kind

labor. Labor.

Just labor. Okay. So I just wanted to make sure you said that. That is not what I what I saw in here. I wouldn't call it out either, but I just wanted to make sure that I was hearing what you were saying correctly. I may have left that. If it's just labor, we did decide that. I just I thought I heard you say all in kind. Thank you.

Council Member Dedden.

So at the work study, obviously you all know that I spoke about my hesitancy that we were including residential for this, grant, as we you know, I I believe that we should focus on economic activity. I also spoke to miss Archer about this, asking if there was a way in which we could have those monies first available, the grant money, first available for buildings that have real current economic activity, but I was informed that we would not be able to do that. So I think that, you know, in terms of really trying to focus this money helping the actual small businesses, If there if we can go back to the language that Tukwila had around exclusion of residential, that buildings that were primarily residential, that would be awesome.

Think what has been prepared excludes ground floor residential and I think the residential in the buildings we have is secondary. I don't know of any ground floor residential in our downtown.

So no. No. That's so just to make clear what I'm stating is at the work study, we had talked about that there was no first floor residential. So the way that the, when we were talking about the at the work study, it was rewritten. That that language from Tukwila was excluded, which is states primarily residential that is excluded, and that was substituted with language that says residential on the 1st Floor, but then we discussed that we have no buildings with residential on the 1st Floor.

So replacing that language didn't make sense. And I think that because it didn't it didn't apply. So, basically, being that we really want to, I mean, spur economic activity, and really, you know, I was saying that if it's going back to Tukwila's I'm sure that's why Tukwila included that language. And going back to that original language, including that language would make more sense because right now there's an absolute there's no language as to that. Okay.

I I think you're misunderstanding though. Like, so we have buildings that are ground floor retail and they have residential above them. If we use Tukwila's language that building would not be eligible even though it has ground floor retail.

Their language was primarily it says primarily residential. So they I think they were, including that the

idea of it. There are three story buildings down there that have two stories of residential and one story of retail.

Right. Okay.

So council member Warden. Well, it's pretty simple. I wish I would have known that question. We don't allow, anything but retail by our ordinance downtown.

Oh, sorry. So Tukwila's language

No.

I I I understand. Because they probably do.

No. Why it states the language of primarily because

they're

Yeah.

We don't allow anything but retail. Example for the barbershop that's down there. He got a different occupancy permit for that service. But there's also a barbershop there previous. But yeah we don't allow that so just to answer that question.

Well the mayor just said that there are buildings that have residential above. Point order.

I also feel that by doing a building that might be vacant might fill that spot, right. It might be an eyesore and by refacing that building might help draw another tenant to fill that spot. So I don't want to exclude them because I think that might help sell it. When I say sell it I mean somebody using that spot. Just my 2¢.

That's for Trinidad. Did you have it?

No.

No. Okay. So

you talked about how it's for economic feasibility and development. I think the intent as I understood it to be is one where we're creating a more aesthetically appealing downtown core that will invite economic development. So that's my first observation. My second is that I think when you when you think about the primary function of these buildings downtown, I think most if not perhaps all are gonna be residential in nature. And I don't think we wanna exclude them. I think it's bottom floor commercial and then who now who knows how many residential units in the second or third story there are. So I I think we have to be very careful with how we choose that language.

I did try to find out

the information.

I was not able to. FYI.

Anybody else have any? Other? Okay. Alright. I think we've got a motion on the floor.

Mister Mayor? Yes.

Just a clarifying point for the public if they come back and watch this. It was actually the city of Auburn you guys had reviewed not Tukwu.

Tukwu. Sorry. Sorry, yes. Auburn. Why not? You. The city of Auburn.

Hearing no further questions. I know. Took words in my head. We've got a motion and a second on the floor to approve a resolution establishing a downtown refacing grant policy. All in favor, please say aye.

Aye. How do I state if I want an amendment to it? Like, I would agree if it was amended. Do I No. State

It's either yes or no.

Okay.

No. Okay. So we have six in favor. And to your question, prior to the vote you would have made a motion for an amendment.

Thank you.

Excuse me, prior to the vote.

Got it, thank you.

So we're to item e now, is approval of amendment number two, contract number C063Dash25 with active construction for the Sydney Road non motorized project. Mister Ryan, this is you.

Good evening, mayor and council members. The city executed a contract with active construction to construct the Sydney non motorized improvements project. During the installation of the project's sanitary sewer force main, active construction encountered significant delays caused by unforeseen conditions with an adjacent sanitary sewer trench that had been installed prior to the project. As active excavated, the wall of that trench repeatedly sloughed and collapsed into ACI's trench, our active construction. This created roadway instability and made still plating unsafe.

To maintain safety and public access, ACI, our active construction, had to backfill the trench each evening and re excavate each morning. These conditions also required the contractor to change construction methods from continuous welded pipe to daily installation of fusion coupling using specialized equipment, which slowed construction and extended the schedule. Active has submitted related labor, equipment, and material costs. To amount to these impacts, the city will grant seven additional working days for delays caused by the defective deficient trench and an additional five working days due to conflicts with another contractors working currently on the Sydney project. This resulted in a total of twelve added work days to the project.

Change order two increases the contract by $87,406.81 bringing the new contract amount to 2,839,000 I'm sorry, I can't, I have a typo here. It increased the total contract by $87,406.61 and extends the contract time by twelve working days.

Council member Chernary. Yeah. Mister mayor, I authorize the mayor to execute change order number 2 to contract number C063Dash25 with ACI for Sydney non motorized improvement project, increasing the contracts amount by $87,406.81 for a new total contract amount of two million eight hundred and thirty nine thousand nine hundred and ninety five dollars and seventy seven cents and granting an additional twelve working days. Second.

Motion by council member Trenary, a second by council member Rosa Pepe. Are there any questions, mister Ryan? Alright. Hearing none, you'll be voting on amendment number two to contract number C063Dash25 with active construction for the Sydney non road non motorized project. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Is there anyone opposed? Hearing none the change order has been approved. We're at item f now, is approval of a professional services agreement for legal services for the city of Port Orchard Building Appeals Board. Miss Archer, this is you.

Thank you. By this action this evening, the council would authorize, the mayor execute a professional services agreement with another law firm Ogden Murphy Wallace who provides municipal services. The lawyer from that firm would be exclusively serving in a representative capacity for the city's building board of appeals. You may know that there are times when I as the city attorney have a conflict representing any of our sub agencies. So for example, the Civil Service Commission also has a contract with an attorney, a different attorney from Ogden Murphy Wallace who is a specialist in civil service Councilmember Warren's probably worked with him.

The role that that individual steps into as the legal advisor to that board is time bound. It is when there is a need for an attorney, we seek one out and we hire one for the city. Most law firms don't like to have ongoing sort of on call retainers for years and years if they're only called upon on a relatively minimal basis. Your Board of Appeals has never met as far as I've met. Yep, correct.

Never met. And we have a current potential appeal in the works. There's been conversations with a particular applicant so we want to make sure that the Board of Appeals is adequately situated in the event that we do have to move forward with an appeal. This law firm again is highly qualified in this arena. These attorneys do this type of work on a regular basis and so this contract would be open ended in term, but we could terminate it at any time and the rate would be 395 per hour. And I'm happy to answer any questions associated with this body of work.

Councilmember Morrissey. Yes, mister mayor. I move to authorize the mayor to execute a professional services agreement with the law firm Ogden Murphy Wallace for special legal services.

Second. Motion by council member Morrissey, a second by council member Diener. Any questions to miss Archer on this? Council member Morrissey?

I don't think I have any questions for miss Archer. Thank you for your report. I'm glad we're looking at this. It's unfortunate that we may need it. Hopefully, we don't put ourselves in that situation in the future that we would need it, but there's no budget authority with this as well. Do we have anything in the I don't believe we have anything in the budget, director Crocker, so we would have to bring back in a budget amendment should we need that.

Correct. A cleanup amendment at a later time.

If we use it. If we use it.

Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Other questions? Councilwoman Debbie.

Oh, okay.

So I noticed in the engagement letter that, the attorney mentioned, the possibility of using legal assistance and paralegals. But, while they called out what the hourly would be for an associate on the case, they did not mention any hourlies for that. I would like to see hourlies for that labor.

It would actually not be typical for them to utilize paralegal or legal assistance services that they bill through to the client in this context. So I think what we'd be more likely to see in a legal engagement letter is that those costs would not be passed through to the city. So I can propose not to circumvent your question, but I can propose that that the city would not pay for paralegal or legal assistance services if that would help clear that up.

Whatever you think is best. Okay.

Just knowing we also do this for other agencies and we don't pass through those costs on this type of work. We mostly use paralegals for public records or other things like that and we always get preapproval.

Any other questions? Councilor Morfanton go ahead.

Yeah what about using one of your colleagues or like Jennifer? How come we don't go that way

instead of great the question. If I have a conflict, everyone in my firm has that conflict. So Inslee Best represents the city, so no Inslee Best attorney could represent a separate component of the city. Great question.

Any other questions? Right. You'll be voting on approval of a professional services agreement for legal services for the city of Port Orchard Building Board of Appeals. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, the agreement is approved. We have, our two additional business items, the first of which is former, consent item f, which is now business item g, the town hall meeting minutes. Is there a motion to approve?

I move to amend the meeting minutes to include

the I motion to approve

thought we I thought but we're not trying to approve it.

We'll get called by the May.

To make a motion to approve and then that second it and then you have first speaking and then we can talk about an amendment.

Oh, that's so exhausting. Okay.

Council member Rice Peffey.

Mayor, I move to approve the city council special meeting minutes, town hall of 04/09/2026.

Second. Second to approve the meeting minutes. Casper Dederman, do you wanna propose amending those

I would like to propose amending those minutes. So I do I just

Go ahead.

Save what it is to to cut down on time? Thank you. I move to amend the meeting minutes to include language clarifying that the city's chief that as the city's chief administrator, the mayor sets the city's priorities.

That would be a factually incorrect statement. But

Okay. Then whatever you think is factually correct that we helped clarify to those at the meeting, because the city people are under the impression that council sort of sets the priorities here, and you as a chief administrator actually set the priorities. So that's why we we talked about that at the town hall. There's no language as to that in the meeting minutes.

Go ahead. And you made a statement to that effect at the town hall

Okay.

But it

wasn't correct. Right.

Okay. So then from my perspective, so everybody thinks so you would argue that the city council makes the priorities?

That's why we had a retreat. Here last Friday.

Yeah. You had a retreat,

but I'm telling you on a day to day basis, that's not really true. Like,

what goes on the agenda? Like, people need to know that.

The you guys set the priorities. You approve the agenda. Staff and I prepare the agenda that you guys modify and approve. So so council member

Okay. Well, Heidi had and then I'll speak

because Heidi Dean was up first.

Well, I I had I have a point of order.

Go ahead.

Go ahead. Go Go ahead.

My point of order is where are we talking about making this change in the minutes?

There is a q and a in the four four town hall meeting. I just wanted to clarify because when I read it, there was no clarification for people to understand things Councilmember

Fenton, do you have a question or a statement?

Maybe both, but I do get what, councilmember Dedmon is saying because our meetings here, I don't see anything sometimes for city council members or especially our work study. I'll put something out there and it's it's not on our work study. Our work study is all provided by what you wanna put down there. Not so I get what she's saying that

Can we get to the motion on the floor is to amend the meeting minutes? I haven't heard a second to amend those

Okay. They stated I was incorrect. So I would just I would say that you could even put council member Dedmon incorrectly stated that from her point that that council member Dedmon, from her perspective, stated that that their priorities are set by the mayor. You can say that. But there was definitely a discussion at the town hall trying to clarify how things are really done that is not reflected in the meeting minutes.

You've you've made you've made a motion. Is there a

second? Second.

So there's a motion and a second. Is there debate or deliberation related to I don't believe there was

To put on or I think we already debated, so I'd like to call for the question. Fair enough. Unless there's somebody who hasn't spoke.

I haven't spoke. I think that meeting minutes are usually at a high level and don't cover everything down to what I would consider a gnats. So in this instance, I think the meeting minutes fairly state what was said at that town hall.

There's a motion and a second to amend the meeting minutes, to reflect that the mayor sets the priorities, and all in favor of that amendment, please say aye or raise your hand. I think this will be a split vote.

Is there Okay. I will move to amend my my motion. I will

We have a vote We have a call on the question, so we have to answer that question. So somebody's gotta vote yes.

I could

assume Point of order. We have a you called for the Yeah. For the question. So

Let's call for the question. Yeah. So we're All in favor of the motion on the floor please say aye. Not hearing any votes. All those not in favor of the motion please say nay.

Nay. I

move to amend the meeting Point of order.

Okay. Are you proposing codecade?

I didn't know. Was she recognized for the floor?

Okay. Are you wishing to make a motion?

That's what you said to wait till the vote went and then to state my my motion.

And then you

get recognized by the chair.

Please, do you have a motion? You go ahead. I

move to amend the town hall meeting minutes to reflect my statement about the day to day operations being set by the day to day operations and their priorities day to day operational priorities set by the mayor.

Second that.

All

right. Any deliberation of that? All okay.

I don't want to kill us too much. Oh sorry.

Go ahead.

That's actually true. He does set the daily priorities to daily operations. That is true. If we're not happy with the priorities as a council member has told me a few times, then we need to set the priorities and we need to stand firm on that. But that is that literally whether we're doing it or not, whether you feel that we're doing that or not, it falls back on us. Then we're not doing a good enough job. And there's times that I feel we're not doing a good enough job. But that falls on us. The daily operations and daily priorities most definitely falls

Okay.

On on the mayor.

So Then what then we need to discuss the

Point of order.

Oh, sorry.

Okay. Council member Warden, go ahead. You're you're done. K. Verify that.

Thank you. While the comments that council member Warden just made were accurate, they weren't reflective of what happened at that meeting. So I just would remind people when they vote that.

Council member Warden.

Thank you for pointing that out council member Warden, and for clarifying. So I well, I will I'm going to go ahead and back off of this. What I will say is what I will not back off on then is that our agendas start reflecting what city council wants on them and that I will personally stop experiencing seeing council member Fenton's suggestion for agenda items be ignored? Thank you.

Councilor Morse.

Thank you, mister mayor. You know, I might just call back that the whole thing started around setting up priorities. And perhaps if priority was set to be at a retreat to set those priorities, we wouldn't have this conversation. But additionally, would also say to councilman Fratton, I've given her the same feedback. She needs to get three other votes to get that on the agenda to go along with

the four people to put

that on an agenda. So k.

Not necessarily. I could go with a a a work study and get one vote.

I was say, do you have any

order and please wait for

We have a motion and a second on the floor. Thank you. The discussion needs to be related to the motion on the floor. Is there any further discussion of the motion on the floor? Okay. All in favor of the motion on the floor, please say aye.

Aye. No, no. I'm sorry. This is the wrong motion. I thought we were back to approving The amendment. The

motion to amend the meeting minutes. All in favor please say aye. There's a motion on the floor somewhere.

Aye. Aye. Okay

so there's two ayes. Is that what I heard? Those, not in favor, please say nay. Nay. And was that five to two is what I heard? Okay. The the amendment fails. Okay. We're back to the main motion, which is the meeting minutes of the town hall meeting. Are there any further amendments proposed or corrections? All right. All in favor of approving the town hall meeting minutes please say aye. Aye.

Opposed? Nay. Yeah, let's answer. I oppose. Oppose to the

meeting minutes, okay? So is that six to one then? We're to our second business item h. The last business item which was previously consent item e which is the road closures for the special events. And Councilmember Warden, were you gonna step out?

Yep, right now.

Okay. Alright. And this is miss Wallace. Go ahead.

Alright. Good evening, mayor, council. So staff received a special event application for the class of 2026 graduation car cruise scheduled for Friday, 06/05/2026. As you recall, reviewing, the application that's provided to you in the packet, this, is an event, like I said, class of 2026 graduation car cruise. It is, a type of event of a car cruise dated Friday, 06/05/2026.

Setup time starts at 5PM. Cruise will start at 6PM until approximately 9PM. The location of this event will be Downtown Port Orchard Bay Street State Route 166 from Harrison Avenue to Port Orchard Boulevard. The closures, for this specific event, will be Bay Street's State Route 166 from Harrison to Port Orchard Boulevard, Orchard Avenue, Port Orchard Street, or excuse me, Port Street, Frederick Street from Bay Street, State Route 166 to the waterfront, Sydney Avenue from Bay Street, State Route 166 to the Waterfront, and then Porterton Boulevard, Robert Geiger, Frederick Street from Bay Street, State Route 166 to Prospect Street, and then parts of Kitsap Street and Klein Avenue, as well as Parking Lots 12, And 8. The required notice pursuant to Puerto Rico Municipal Code five point nine four point zero five zero subsection three, allowing citizens to provide written comments regarding how allowing the special event will impact their property, business, or quality of life has been published.

As of to date, the city has received no written concerns regarding the event taking place. Staff and outside agencies have reviewed the application and are working towards ensuring safety measures and traffic controls are in place. The applicant is requesting closure of Bay Street State Route 166 and several side streets. They are working with WSDOT for their approval. In the meantime, pursuant to Porter's charter municipal code five point nine four point zero five zero subsection four, staff shall bring forward the special of an application to the city council for approval when the event requires a street or a highway closure.

Staff is in support of the highway and road closures as presented and is continuing to work on the final details of the event with the applicant, ensuring that the highway and street closures are to safety and traffic control standards outlined in all city, state, and federal codes. Therefore, staff recommends the approval of the road closures as presented.

That's power of Cherry.

Yeah. Thank you, mister mayor. I move to approve the road closures for the class of twenty twenty six South Kitsap graduation car cruise event scheduled for Friday, 06/05/2026 as presented.

Second.

Motion by Council Member Chenieri, a second by Council Member Tefenton. Questions? Miss Wallace about the road closure? Alright. All in favor of the road closure for the special event, please say aye.

Aye. Anyone opposed?

Hearing none, the road closure has been approved. We are two council committee reports. Let me find oh my goodness. I miss Janine right now. She normally prints that page for me, Brandy.

But I'll look it up here online.

She she can put it on the screen for you.

Yeah. I can read that. Let's see. Let me get to it.

Is that right?

There we go. Thank you, sir.

You're hate me right now.

Alright. We've got economic development tourism.

Has not met.

Has not met. And utilities. Has not met. Has not met. Looks like your next meeting is May 12 on both of those. Finance met last week.

Had a report. Two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago. No, it was last week.

It was last week.

It last week. It seemed like two weeks ago.

Most of it was on the agenda tonight.

And most of it was on the agenda that we talked about tonight, but we also reviewed the sales tax and REIT reports. Still not good news there. They're down over the previous year. However, the good news of those both are that we're over 4% above budget on REIT, and 5% over budget for this year on sales tax. So great budget work by the team there in the finance department.

We did review, discussed the downtown revitalization program we saw tonight, the low income threshold changes we saw tonight, and the leak credit we saw tonight. Our next meeting is scheduled for May 19. Transportation met this evening.

We did. We did. We had an update on the Mile Hill High School, the Wolf Roundabout, we're calling it. Update on that. Some good conversations over bicycle lanes and whatnot, how to make that work.

Real possibility this could be groundbreaking next summer, not this summer, next summer. Bethel Phase 1, there's some timeframes. Offers are moving really good, really well, sorry, on right of way acquisitions. So they're doing basically half of the people they've spoken to are commercial, the other half are residential and no one's been upset yet including the property right there at Sandbury, right there. So they're really good communication with them as Okay.

Yep. Oh you mean all the businesses?

The businesses in that little shopping center there. Yep well not the businesses. The property owner.

That's who matters.

Who owns the business? No.

Who owns the building?

That's what I meant, okay.

Yeah because there's like four businesses there. That's really good feedback.

I

don't So have that that's a huge deal when you're trying to acquire right away. So good job on that, Dennis. Ruby Creek area. We talked about connecting the sidewalks to go all the way through. So the city will probably put a little bit of sidewalk in there to connect the transit center to the apartment complex because there's a strip right there.

So we're gonna connect those, so that's a safe walk. And pretty good news is there's interlocal agreement with Kitsap County for paving. So the county is going to this summer in July, they're going to pave for us if we sign the agreement, which is actually a really good deal for us because they get the materials a lot cheaper than contractors do and whatnot. So that'll be good. The county has some employees that could use some work right now with the budget shortfall.

They didn't pay last summer and they're not paying this summer. So they have some employees that could use some work. That's really good. Buyer sale. Please. We

do the intermodal already in place. That's this ongoing

Oh we do have it in place?

We have it

in place.

Okay. Thank you. We just haven't signed it yet.

It's been executed. It's multi year ongoing.

Oh.

I guess it's already completed then. So there we go. That's all I have. It was a great meeting.

Question for you. When you said an update on that roundabout with the SK on it.

The state roundabout?

Yes. So you're saying bike path along that way?

So bike lanes? Or bike lanes.

Yeah. It's going to

be tough to put bike lanes in there cause it's a state Yes. Scott do have anything to add on that? The bike lanes and the roundabout. It's gonna minimal

infrastructure for bike lanes. A steep slope there along the mall.

Yeah. Yeah. I figured. And and nothing nothing going up the hill is was what we learned. But certainly, Mile Hill will have some minimal infrastructure. And they can always use the off ramp on the roundabouts.

And just and just for clarity. Yes. We're talking about the the new to be constructed roundabout on top of the hill where high school comes out at the intersection Wolf Road, not this one

down Well

that's good. Got that. Thank you.

Right. Is that it? That's it. Land use?

Land use committee meeting was, mean you say pretty sedate, but it was. We just had general discussions on the window display. We're continuing that discussion. We also had some more discussion on parking, which comes up every now and then, but there is no major change. We got a brief on permittable AI, where we are on that. We talked about, and I know that council saw the permit inspection report. We continue to be very active in that area at DCD, and McCormick North development agreement is coming up. We had a discussion on that. So there wasn't anything earth shattering unless anybody would like to add anything else, and we'll have our next meeting next month.

Lodging tax, I'm certain hasn't met. And sewer advisory, anything to report there?

Not till June.

I

have a report on the ad hoc. Committee. Ad hoc, we met in May, had continued discussion on our council norms. We're looking at having a draft in June. We're meeting again in May. We'll forward that to Charlie in that time. So I'd like to take a look at possibly either getting on the July work study or the September work study at the latest to roll it out to counsel. Okay.

Okay?

Let me know when you're ready.

Alright. Thank you. K.

Report of the mayor. I I've got three things. One, today, I was driving around, and I saw our new roadside mower out there. And it's pretty cool seeing them out there. Last year, we weren't able to perform that activity other than with weed eaters and that's not very efficient because our our motor had our prior mower had broken and wasn't repairable and we weren't able to get it till this winter.

So we didn't have a need to mow the ditches in the middle of winter. So it's cool to see that out there. And Brandi, could you bring up those pictures of the Myrese Building real quick? I don't know if anybody's driven through downtown the last couple of days, but yesterday public works put up the majority of the black and white photos inside the windows and they look really good. I've gotten a lot of really good feedback.

Couple of them are needing to be reprinted. So there's two more that go in the two blank spots that you're seeing down there. But it really looks cool. So there's a picture there. That the one there on the left side of the picture is 10 feet across, and majority of them are about five foot by five foot. So they're really nice sized pictures of our history. Many of them are downtown. Go ahead, council member.

Yeah. Mister Merritt, are we gonna put any kind of that history It's there's small cap Oh, there. Okay. I didn't On the bottom

of the edge of the picture Okay. It tells

It does.

Where what we knew. Some of them are, you know, Bay Street.

So I saw him putting him up yesterday, and then I drove by him this morning. I have not gotten out to see, but I just wanted to make sure. And from what I saw, I just I didn't see captions or anything underneath of it.

So There's those black two black spots. There'll there'll be pictures going in there. Like that one on the Sydney side on the left side that's a picture of the original courthouse on the right in that window setting and then the new courthouse in 1932. So and we're still in the new courthouse. So councilor Merdier?

How are those gonna be protected? The vinyl the banner material.

Okay. If they get vandalized we'll just replace them. A that's what I was few $100 apiece. So it wasn't insignificant that came out of the beautification dollars. It was under $5,000 to do all of them.

I'm just curious, would it be cheaper to put plexiglass or something like that over it? I guess that becomes a maintenance issue.

Yeah. Would get penalized too. Mean it's Probably cheaper. It's fine. It's really heavy duty vinyl material and grommets and then screwed into the hardy board.

Counselor? Same same question.

Okay. Alright. But anyway yes?

I would buy it. It looks great.

That's so good. That's Cruise the crews were really excited doing it. Alright. The next picture you can't bring it up yet, Brandy. I gotta foreshadow here a little bit. I am just the messenger. You may you might like this. You might hate it. So we got a mural going on that Adam Smith is doing. And so I had Lizzie down at Pam Salmonberg's bookstore.

Was my husband's an artist, and he would like to paint a sweater on the Marina pump station. And I I said, I've gotta see a rendering of what a sweater would look like on the Marina pump station. And, so she's provided me a rendering. I don't have a cost yet. I know that it would take he said, he's got a daytime job. It'd take him about three months to do this. It's huge. So enough said. Randy, could you put that picture up on the screen? Like a bad Christmas sweater I can't think.

It's cute. It's cute.

So Sam's feedback was she basically insinuated I was old. She said people under 40 would like it. And if we could incorporate Port Orchard and established in 1890 around one of the anchors. Maybe it becomes a place to do selfies. I'm not advocating one way or the other. I'm just sharing the information and looking for some feedback and maybe we look for a different and Sam suggested a different color when I mentioned that to the artist. The artist kinda wants to paint it the way he presented it.

I'll be the first to step off his ledge. I like the notion of painting, but I think it needs to be something that's a little more timeless, maybe more classic. I'm not keen on this, but that's just my opinion.

Over 40.

Yeah.

Okay. You're over 40.

I'm just barely over 40. I might be a little bit with Scott. I love the idea. I love that it's nautical, that we're looking at anchors right here. I think we can do a lot more with that. Actually, council member Warden and I had the opportunity to visit and see these 15,000 pound anchors on Friday. So we haven't been able to do anything with it other than see it and start getting some ideas of what that might look like. But I love the anchors. I don't know that I'm in love with the sweater part of it. I don't even hate I I I'm okay with the colors.

I think it's just I'm I'm with Scott. I think something a little more timeless or even something that just is a little more matching our current aesthetic. And I don't know how to say that other than do you and I don't want it to be so matchy that we're doing the exact same thing as the as the community events center either because you wanna have that little juxtaposition. So I don't know the right answer, but I think we're on the right track. That's my 2¢.

Jay? I'll just weigh in since I am the oldest guy here. No. I'm not it it doesn't wow me. I don't think it's timeless, And I would say that a good way to go, I think we actually talked about doing something for the building at one point in time, would be to solicitate some artists to submit some work so we can get multiple ideas. Right now, mine would be down air on this one.

Yeah. I think this is I mean we can do something different. I'd like yeah. Maybe our year when we were established or some more history on there at Port Orchard, but I mean I like the anchors. Sweater or not, yeah, I'm over 40, so I kinda like it. But but, anyway, I think it's we're going in the right direction with this.

Okay. Yeah. Same. I I like things that are funky in the sense of it goes with the theme that we're looking for, which is the anchors. But it's funky enough for people to actually care, like, tourism because ultimately, our downtown is supposed to be about tourism. And, like, I don't know if y'all have ever been, like, to Tennessee, and you go around and you try to find these things. And so when we were kind of, you know, talking in the work study about having anchors around the city, it would be really cool to have this, like, radical, like, sweater, anchor sweater. So I do really like that idea.

Reward? Yeah. A little background on her husband. He knits.

Oh, yes.

And that's why he likes us. We have

a huge fiber committee. So

just my opinion. I'm not I'm not that's not my taste, which is fine. I'm not everyone's flavor either. But I I honestly would like to I'd like to wrap it myself.

Dennis has tossed that idea.

Yeah versus paint I'd rather wrap it. You see vehicles and things but you can get some super nice high end just like those photos. You can get some really cool stuff out in there. You can incorporate it, design it any way you want. We can still pay an artist to design it and then we can wrap it. And they come out and they wrap it for you. There's great, great local companies that do that and I think that would be it would last a lot longer and we can get way more creative. But again we're still using humans to design it. So that's my 2¢.

It is a unique texture because it's corrugated, so we have to take that in mind. But I agree that I'm just trying to be objective and bring an idea forward. The money that we have for beautification is virtually gone. I might have been able to squeeze something for a few thousand and what we're talking about. We're talking about putting another big chunk of money in, maybe next year's chunk of money, a large portion of it goes towards doing something decorative on this. It might not be the right time either if we've got a gigantic construction zone and all the dirt and everything and dust going on to that. Do you have any thoughts you want to share or you just want to keep I'm

sure I

share them.

I like the theme. If you look into the depth of that we've got the anchors, we've got the waves, we've got the fish, we've got the sun, we've got steering columns on a ship. Not sure what is. Is that a chain on the top? I'm not sure what that is.

And I think there's even some seagulls there.

So so I like I really like the theme. I just I'm just slightly over 40 and it just doesn't appeal to me that way. But I like the direction where we're going and I do I do like the wrap idea as well. The only thing I would be concerned with as far as rapage goes is to make sure we're using the material that doesn't lift and heal. But that's that's for another another story.

Well, we've spent enough time on this this evening.

Well, I

I just wanna point out in the future if if you could bring that back up or maybe not. The the detail that is shown in that was gonna be a lot of hours. Yeah.

Yeah. He was gonna take

a detail there. That's that's a lot of painting and that's gonna be a huge

Yeah. Cost.

Yeah. It it was gonna be a a very three month endeavor, he said. So alright. We've heard enough from the mayor. Like changing the into the Director's report? Mister Ryan? Discussion about that. Nick Bond's life so Nick Bond's wife is a designer, and he floated this by her and her response was she didn't hate it. Sorry, Claudia. I was

gonna talk about the Marina pump station. This isn't the picture that was shown a few weeks ago when I attended the APWA spring conference. The city was recognized for the Marina pump station project as the environmental project of the year for category of environmental for 5 to 25,000,000. And all the agencies in the entire state of Washington, 11 agencies got project of the year. Port Orchard was one of them.

Bremerton was recognized for Quincy Square for a project under $5,000,000 And of the eleven, three of them went to the Seattle Waterfront. So quite the accomplishment for the entire city. And also, we have a very talented engineering team and our operation team that support the project, inspectors. It's a big compliment to the city. Just wanted to pass it on. And then also to update everybody, we talked about the SR 16 FISH cohort that's gonna affect our waterline. That thing is moving along quick, so we are targeting May 11 for that work to start. So you will start seeing construction activities in the next couple weeks out there. Thank you.

Think I've a share microphone over there. Mr. Crocker, what do you got?

I'm just gonna stick with the theme of good news. So we finished our audit with the State the Audit Office, and we got a clean audit, which means that we did not have an audit finding, we did not have a management layer, nor did we have an exit item when we finished the audit. So I just wanted to read a couple statements out of their audit report, which is now available on the public site, because I think this is something we communicate with the citizens of how well we're managing the funds, and that we get audited every year. So they selected certain areas of risk. They selected cash receiving for timeliness and deposits.

They selected payroll for gross wages. Selected the police department and the property evidence room, and disposition of property and citation and reconciliations. They always select public meetings. All the comm minutes for compliance. And then they look at the overall financial condition of the city and

of the apartment.

And so in their examination in all those areas, they found that we complied with all material respects, as well as applicable state laws, regulations, and our own policies, and provided adequate controls over safeguarding of public funds and resources. So just wanted to let you know, another great year, another great So

thanks. Nice to be

done.

Okay. Mister Paul? Nothing to report?

Nothing to report.

Unless great news. There was a recent court decision I just wanted to flag for you. The city of Burien is unfortunately the recipient of an OPMA lawsuit from mister Arthur West, and he was victorious. The interesting takeaway from this case is it involved a press conference the city held related to legislation they had already passed. They were merely sharing information with the public and the press and the court said that does constitute an open meeting insofar as all the counsel are present and they're receiving public testimony or comment through the media.

So the court reiterated the concept that passive receipt of information via email, that is still okay. That's not an OPMA violation. So when you receive information from staff or even each other as one single passive receipt of information, that is not an OPMA violation as long as there's no back and forth. However, in any setting where there is a majority of counsel present and you are receiving public live testimony, it doesn't have to be testimony with a capital T, it has to be feedback from the public. This case now indicates that is not passive receipt of information.

That is something that must be noticed as a meeting. I would note there is a recent legislation or there was recent legislation that deals with press releases in the context of an emergency in response to the December flood events, so those are automatically carved out from this decision. This decision predates that or the law this court was looking at predates that exemption, but that wouldn't have applied here. This wasn't an emergency press release or press conference.

I'm just curious what was the award?

Know it's usually just Arthur West is looking for his fees and he gets his attorney's fees on appeal and then they've remanded further proceedings. So determination of penalties will occur at the trial level.

Chief, something positive please.

Yeah. I know there's been some concerns about us being able to manage downtown, so I just wanted to share with you guys that we did start over this weekend, doing emphasis patrols on Fridays and Saturday nights. We did have a number of contacts. It is nerf war season for the South Kitsap High School. That is not sanctioned by the city or the high school, but that does bring gathering of kids in the sunshine downtown to shoot at each other with guns, which caused some consternation amongst the community. So we did some education, and then, we'll be doing some enforcement in the following weeks.

Wallace?

Yes. Just a reminder, if you want to sign up for coffee with the council for June and after, I don't have anybody signed up. I do have council member Morrissey, Ternary, and Warden for May 2, but nothing else, so just reach out to the clerk's office.

Please put me down for June.

And

that's all I have for tonight. Thank you.

Okay. We're to our second citizen comment. And don't rush off. We're gonna have a brief executive session at the conclusion of the meeting too. You can do that. I will let you do that. To our second citizen comment period, is there anyone online? Because we have no one in the council chambers. You can briefly raise your hand, and we'll bring you into the meeting. And seeing no hands raised, I'm gonna close the second citizen comment period. Anything for the good of the order? Council member You both counted. Go ahead.

Yeah. Good of the order. Ladies' night out this coming Friday from four to eight. It's denim and diamonds. So hope to see the ladies downtown.

Council member Warren?

Yeah. Saturday, I attended the South Kitsap Public Education Foundation fundraiser. And I want to thank Jay and his wife for the countless hours and time that they put into that event as one of many. But definitely he and Susan put a ton of time into that. It was a fantastic event. And then John, do you wanna

Yeah. If I could just take a moment. I I I failed to bring it in, but so it's in my car. But our mayor was honored as one of their four honorees on Saturday night, and it was the distinguished alumni award. So not only is he a leader within our city, but he's a graduate of that high school, and so they recognized him for that. I wish I had all the great words that they had, but I didn't grab that for you. But I definitely have your really cool award, which is a wolf in and of itself.

So quite quite the honor, and I wish I could have been there. But I had it was my wife's birthday, and we had plans with the family not here in Port Orchard. So thank you for getting that for me and it was a tremendous honor.

So

I have two points for the good of the order. Okay. The first one is that with our public hearings, we'd just like to make sure or would like to ask that an email initial email go out at the same time that we are putting it into the newspaper, which seems to be about a week prior. So having an initial, e blast or put on the website I mean, social media accounts at that same time would be great. That way, you know, especially as we talk about folks who might work in Seattle, gives them extra time, especially if they would like to show up in person.

And my second point that I'm gonna bring up I would like to do it in email but it might lead to discussion and we have to worry about open meetings. And with that said is you know for me telling earlier in this meeting, council member Fenton was told that to get something on the agenda, she would need, three people to agree to it. And from my perspective, that seems like disparate treatment to because I see other points of agenda items getting added where I don't think I've seen it go down for a vote where three other people need to, agree to it. So I would like to be cognizant of that, and I also wanted to mention it now in case, you know, there is additional discussion around this. Yeah.

And because I have not seen that language, I haven't seen it in the AWC mayor council handbook requiring that. In fact, the handbook says reiterates that the council sets the meetings. It's this is a council meeting. But that seems to me that that's a way of creating a barrier to that happening because again I've seen a barrier to her being able to bring agenda items. Number two, I have not seen it in Robert's Rules and again somebody else might know Robert's Rules better than me but I've been trying to read up on it. I've not seen Robert's Rules come up with that or set that point nor have I seen it in our code.

Councilor Deener. So I have

two things now. I had one before but I have two now. I I think the concern is that where you have a council member who has sole support for an issue. And we've seen that in the past, I think, with foray treatment where you wanted to bring that back to the table, but previous discussions showed that nobody had supported it. So at that point, you're bringing something back for discussion that we've already talked about and some might perceive that as a waste of our time.

Right? So I just would want us to be careful about having council member with a pet project bringing that forward when nobody else sees value in that. So for example, if I wanted to restrict our our hall sales on Sunday, that might be something I wanna lean into, but nobody else will have support for that. So is there value in bringing that to work study only to have a fruitless discussion? That's my first thing. My second thing is I wanted to thank Brandi for an iterative agenda as we move through the night when we are modifying the agenda. That's it's she's modifying it real time on our screens, which I think is pretty cool. And I think the public will like that as well.

Oh, that's rad.

Heather, come.

Sure. Thank you. So to address some of the Robert's rules does say that the chair sets the agenda. Our chair happens to sit in in the mayor's seat, so he gets to say that. Anyone who wishes to amend that, it takes four votes.

Well, we haven't done fluoride in a long time, so that's passed. But that will be forward. But I did call the mayor and we went back and forth and I even had a conversation with our lawyer too back and forth saying, and I'll come up with I wanted to bring something up for a work study and he goes, you have to get three votes with that and I go, where is that written down? Well, it's not written down and I even asked the the lawyer about that. It's not written down about getting three votes. And so that she council member Dedman does make a point about that because it's not written down.

Yes. Thank you for I was waiting my turn to be recognized and I hope other council members will wait their turn to be recognized. A couple of things. Thank you, Eric, those kind words. I would like to also acknowledge that Eric played a large part in that, the other night too. So, thank you. Just a quick update. Duncan, which is our dog, did get licensed. I do appreciate bringing that to my attention. It was an oversight, and I apologize.

It is, it was very painless. I encourage everybody to do it because it's a good way of getting your dog tracked in case it gets lost. And I did hold up my end of the bargain that I talked to the council and did make a donation of $50 to the, Kitsap Humane Society. So, they acknowledged it and said thanks.

If I could interject here. Brandy and I have a discussion. We're not certain. The Humane Society is our enforcement agent. You can license your pet there. You can license your pet here. We don't really see an upside to licensing a pet. We could be bringing something before

you That's guys to amazing. That's my next

subject to bring right up in Oh, I'm not.

Sorry I interrupted. It's okay. No. I did wanna point out that the mayor is facilitator of our council meetings. They are our meetings, but he is a facilitator, and as such, the administration of our discussions.

He has said before that he he if somebody wants to bring something up, he takes up kind of a poll about whether that's something that people are interested in. If he's not seen four peep had four people nodding thumbs up or or thumbs down, then it doesn't move anywhere. It doesn't preclude anybody from bringing an item up at good of the order or any other time. We do have, and this is in AWC, as our primary duties are financial oversight slash budget oversight, where we control basically how the city operates by funding those items and also creating policy. So if we wish to amend the policy, doing away with dog licenses, then we can do so, and we can bring those items up.

So we control our destiny, folks, not the mayor. And one of the things that you will see with some of the I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds here, Charlie. But I can say discussion can in the changes to the council norms or rules, however you wanna look at it, that would give us a more defining more of our pathway toward things like the agenda and other items that we've heard from the council. So stay tuned in a very positive way. But to say that the mayor controls our council meetings is incorrect, and we control our council meeting.

He's the facilitator, and he does a bang up job, and we should stop giving him crap about it. Thank you.

Council member Gedman. Go ahead.

Okay. Thank you for that. Just I did get a little bit confused when council member Morrissey pointed out and said that as the chair, the mayor sets the agenda, thereby controlling the priority set of this of our meetings.

So I've

noticed the Pottery City Road dividers in there got cleaned up. Got a nice new material down there. They look really sharp. Thank you to the Public Works Department for that. Chief, appreciate your time. Our discussion earlier this week, and I look forward to my ride along coming up mid mid May at some point. Got it. And Randy? I I echo the sentiments over there. Civic Plus updating on on the fly is awesome. Thank you for that. Appreciate it.

Alright. From that, we're I'm gonna adjourn the meeting after the executive session. Charlie, we're going to have an executive session related to potential litigation. So, give us that statute,

please.

RCW forty two thirty one ten subpart, one subpart I for ten minutes?

Ten minutes.

Ten minutes. So we will return for the purpose of adjournment only at 08:50.

Hey, Brandy. I don't

what?