City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening. The Puyallup City Council meeting for September 1st is called to order. Will everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Will the city clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Smolko?

Present.

Councilmember Adler?

Present.

Councilmember Castamon? Present. Councilmember King? Present. Councilmember Gilliam?

Present.

Deputy Mayor Johnson? Present. Mayor Whitting?

Present. Moving right along, do we have a motion to approve the agenda?

Motion to approve.

Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes. Moving along to presentations and proclamations, we have a proclamation regarding the 9-11 25th Anniversary Memorial Proclamation. And it goes as follows. Whereas September 11th, 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when nearly 3,000 lives were lost in New York City and the Pentagon and aboard Flight 93. And whereas we honor the firefighters, law enforcement officers, emergency medical personnel, military members, and civilians whose courage and selfless actions demonstrated the very best of our nation. And whereas we remember the survivors' families, first responders, and recovery workers whose lives were forever changed and recognized the lasting sacrifice made in the years that followed. And whereas September 11 is observed as Patriot Day and a national day of service and remembrance, reminding us to honor those we lost through remembrance, service to others, and a commitment to strengthening our communities. And whereas 25 years later, we reaffirm our commitment to preserve the stories of September 11 so future generations understand the lives lost, the acts of courage and sacrifice, and the importance of standing together in times of adversity. Now, therefore, I, Ned Whitting, Mayor of the City of Puyallup, do hereby proclaim September 11, 2026 as a day of remembrance, service, and unity, and encourage our community to pause in remembrance of those who lost their lives, honor those who answered the call to serve, support those who continue to carry the impacts of that day, and renew our commitment to unity, compassion, and service, we will never forget, in witness whereof I have heretofore set my hand and caused the seal of the city of Puyallup to be affixed this first day of September, 2026. And I'd just like to ask for a moment of silence in recognition and remembrance of those that served us on that day. Thank you. Our next agenda item is a presentation from Forever Green Trails and Foothill Rails to Trails Coalition for the 15,000 for the Puyallup Riverwalk Trail Phase 5 project. And we have Larry Levin, Brianna Foulkes, here to make the presentation. And I'd like to call up Cody Geddes as well. He's our parks and rec director.

Thank you, council. I just want to introduce Larry and Bree here from Forever Green and Foothills to present this donation. We started out talking about a grant program through the Washington state. And Larry talked about this TAP Fund Drive and how helpful this could be. Unfortunately, we weren't quite ready for that grant. But the TAP Fund Drive came through. And Larry and Bree are here to present.

Good evening. I'm Larry Levine, the executive director of Forever Green Trails. We're a Pierce County-wide trail advocacy organization. Our role is to help local governments throughout Pierce County build out our planned regional trail system. And when we talk with our partners, our government partners, we hear that they need two things. It's actually the same thing. They need funding, funding for the projects, funding for staff capacity to run the projects. We know from surveys, from parks plans, that trails rank very highly as community amenities that citizens want. They want to be able to walk, bike, and roll safely through their communities and have places and spaces for all ages and abilities to enjoy the benefits of trails. And we know that that requires dollars. It's more than that. The $15,000 that we raised with our partners at Foothills, it's not just the dollars. It's what the dollars represent to the grant agencies. And that's community support and partnership above and beyond what other applicants for grants are providing. So this program, this fund drive that we do, is to help the city of Puyallup and our other local government partners stand out from the pack of applicants when you're applying for grants. Some grants do require local match dollars. Some do not. But they all want to see strong public support of these projects. And that's why Foothills, our generous partners who provided $5,000 of matching funds to help prime the pump of local giving, worked with Forever Green Trails in a fund drive. And some of you donated to that. I thank you. It was so important. We pressed two former mayors of Puyallup into this effort. And we are very proud to present the city with a $15,000 And for the young viewing audience, this is how money used to be transferred. We were unable to find a Venmo for the city. So hopefully, Mr. Mayor, this will work. And we'll send you the actual sizes that banks prefer to have in the near future. But I want to thank the Parks Department as well as the Public Works Department for their partnership on this and their communication. It's been just great working with the staff. They've been stellar partners. And it ain't over till it's over, till we cut ribbons and celebrate. And I hope that the council will also consider, you'll hear about it later in the month, about the soft surface path alternative a little bit closer to the river. But the project that the city is moving forward with is going to be a great improvement. And we are around to help you with the other planned trails and also on-street projects that you're interested in supporting. Thank you.

Thanks for having us. I'm Brianna Folks, the executive director for the Foothills Rails to Trails Coalition. We are the primary nonprofit supporter of the Foothills Trail, the 24-mile paved trail that runs from Puyallup to Enumclaw, and hopefully someday all the way to Mount Rainier, all the way to the Tacoma waterfront. We're so grateful to be able to provide the $5,000 match for this top fun drive that we do with Forever Green Trails every year. And it's an honor to be here at the city of Puyallup to give it to you guys to support this Riverwalk Phase 5. So thanks for having us.

If anybody else is here from Foothills, Rails, or Trails, or Forever Green, come on up.

One, two, three. Great. Okay, one, two, three. One, two, three.

I'd just like to take a quick moment to express our appreciation for this donation. Priming the pump is a great analogy. It's a way to get those other funding going. And in the process of this, I'd like to recognize those two former mayors, Mayor Hopkins and former Mayor Palmer. Former mayors are a great resource. We like to have them around. They continue to yield results in the years after they step down. So again, thank you for this contribution, and we're excited to get that Section 5 going. Okay, and the final proclamation we have tonight is a Washington State Fair proclamation. We've got a fair coming up here shortly. I commend it to everyone. Here's the proclamation. Whereas the Washington State Fair, formerly known as the Puyallup Fair, held annually, has been a cherished tradition for over 125 years, showcasing the rich, agricultural heritage, cultural diversity, and community spirit of our region. And whereas the Washington State Fair provides an exciting platform for local, regional, and national artists, performers, and vendors to display their talents and products, fostering a sense of unity and pride within the city of Puyallup, And whereas the Washington State Fair has a longstanding commitment to supporting local agricultural education and family-friendly entertainment, drawing over one million visitors from across the state and beyond, and contributing significantly to the local economy. And whereas the city of Puyallup has been home to the largest fair in the state of Washington since 1900, where you can do it at a trot, you can do it at a gallop, or you can do it Do the 165-acre campus real slow so your heart won't palpitate. And whereas for over 125 years, the Washington State Fair has provided a place to escape the ordinary, to be entertained, to experience the joy of lasting memories, to feel the excitement of discovery, and to enjoy thrills, and good food. And whereas some of the country's biggest and most popular musicians have performed at the Washington State Fair, like Frank Sinatra, Reba McEntire, the Beach Boys, James Taylor, Billy Ray Cyrus, Chicago, Bob Hope, the Judds, Tim McGraw, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Journey, Bob Dylan, and many, many more. Whereas the Washington State Fair serves as a strong community partner, providing various opportunities for all individuals to participate in the fair with the opening day food drive, Labor Day weekend free kids admission, a school supply drive, rodeo breakfast and parade, military appreciation days, local school district education days. And now, therefore, I, Ned Whitting, Mayor of the City of Puyallup, do hereby proclaim September 26 as Washington State Fair month in the city of Puyallup. I encourage all residents to participate in the Washington State Fair to celebrate the many activities and events and to show support for the fair's ongoing role in enhancing our community spirit and well-being. In witness whereof, I have heretofore set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Puyallup to be affixed this first day of September 2026. And to receive the proclamation, I'd like to invite Carrie Dixon to come forward and accept the proclamation.

CARRIE DIXON Good evening. Yes, Carrie Dixon. If I might have a few words, would you like to take photo first?

VOTES FIRST. THANK YOU.

Good evening. Yes, Carrie Dixon, Chief Growth Officer of the Washington State Fair Events Center, and here with Marty Mattis, our Chief Operating Officer of the Fair. Mayor, council members, members of our Puyallup community, thank you very much for the recognition of this proclamation. I'm going to let you hold that, Marty. Thank you very much, sir. On behalf of the Washington State Fair, our board, our staff, and many of the people who help bring the fair together every year, it's truly an honor to accept this proclamation. For more than a century, 126 years as you stated, the Washington State Fair and the City of Puyallup have grown up together. We are incredibly proud to call Puyallup home. And we are grateful for the partnership and the support of the city, our first responders, our local businesses, neighbors, and the entire community. Welcoming nearly a million guests is no small feat. We are palpitating our hearts right now, Marty. I think we are in the setup mode. And each September is a tremendous undertaking, and it simply wouldn't be possible without all of you. This Friday, September 4th, we do open our gates for 20 nights and 20 days of fair fun, agriculture, food, entertainment, traditions, but most importantly, community. And this year, we're especially excited to open our fan favorite, our food, our farm, our Washington exhibit. We're celebrating our 250th America Celebration as well, and also the 9-11 tribute. And we welcome everybody down to the Puyallup Rodeo Parade, Cattle Drive, and some of the great food drives and school supply drives as well. The fair will welcome many guests from around Washington and beyond, but Puyallup will always be our home. We take great pride in representing this community and the economic, cultural, and community impact we create together. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. And thank you, community, for today.

Thank you. For the next month, the fair really is the heart of Puyallup. We'll now move on to citizen comments. First, City Clerk, could you read the instructions for public comments?

This part of the meeting is for general citizen comments. Please reserve any public hearing testimony to that section of the agenda. The mayor will call on those who have provided their names in advance. Then the mayor will call for other citizens who wish to speak. For the record, please state your name and address or city council district in which you reside. Please direct your comments to the council as a whole, not individual council members. All comments are limited to three minutes. The clerk will provide verbal notice when only 30 seconds remain. As a reminder, this portion of the meeting is council's opportunity to hear from the community and not the time to engage in debate. Lastly, per state law, this public comment period cannot be used to speak in support of or in opposition to a ballot measure or individual candidacy, and no such comments will be allowed.

Thank you. First, we'll hear from Valerie Dent.

Valerie Dent, District 2. During the city council meeting held on August 25th, 2026, belittling, demeaning, and insulting conduct by a sitting council member towards constituents was observed. This conduct was unbecoming of a public official in accordance with RCW guidelines. 42.52.900, and was not corrected by the mayor, which, in accordance with Section 2.3 of the Puyallup City Code of Rules of Procedures, was fully within the rights and duties to do so. This behavior is distasteful and erodes public trust by sitting elected officials. Pertaining to the issue of the flagpole, This has always been about finances and not politics. Members of this council's consistent attempts to try to deflect as otherwise are disingenuous. This is not about highly charged politics, as the Council continues to claim, but the existing financial imposition placed on constituents without their vote for this project and without presenting full financial disclosure. As requested on long-term maintenance forecast, If the donations collected have gone back into Tier 3 budget as proposed by Mayor Mitting, what is the long-term financial forecast for this project once public donations and sponsorship funds run out? Until these issues are addressed and the public itself and the project itself has been signed off and completed, this is not a done deal. Even then, there is still procedural room to revisit this issue in the future with regards to the subject of possible expected continued financial support from the constituents. requesting that the council move towards being more publicly transparent on issues concerning the public, especially around finances. These are our tax dollars. Additionally, revises and corrects how they conduct themselves in a public setting, which reflects on the council and influences public trust and perception. Thank you.

Thank you. We'll next hear from Jim Steves.

Hi. Hi, Jim Steves, District 3. A Pensacola, Florida resident, Jacob Rockwell, is challenging an $158 red light citation issued after his vehicle was recorded passing through a red light in March of 2026. He raised concerns about the citation process during a Pensacola City Council meeting in June because He was in Seminole, Alabama during the time he allegedly ran through the red light. He is now forced to prove his innocence instead of our constitutional due process of innocence unless proven guilty. Flock cameras are at least 7% inaccurate. It's obvious that there are systemic problems with utilizing mass surveillance. The errors and sharing of data are not under your control, as promised. We, as the citizens of Puyallup, expect you to cancel flock contracts and any other surveillance system until the regulations and the restrictions are implemented. We don't want this. We don't want any of this happening to our citizens either. Hopefully, you all feel the same way.

We'll now hear from Kathleen McLeod.

Kathleen McLeod, District 3. I was asked to say something also about flock cameras, and I didn't even know what they were until a few months ago. So I did a little delve into what the policy and trust issues are around it as, well, on your website. Puyallup, Washington, Police Department, Transparency Portal. Overview. The Puyallup Police Department uses block safety technology to capture objective evidence without compromising individual privacy. Puyallup Police Department utilizes retroactive tools to solve crimes after they've occurred. And then there's, well, I do my thing, and I basically copy down what was on there. Policy and trust, which I have now renamed mislead and confuse. And also... Surveillance in the city has becoming something that everybody is talking about, not just here, but as you all know nationally. And things are happening that are not good. And here we sit trying to balance privacy with security. And it's not even. In fact, it's scary. How much money does it cost also came into my head because I was here when the police department gave that rather impressive video about using drones and that he actually had crime in action. Not once did they say the name Flock or mass surveillance, but that's where we are and that's what it was really about. A quarter million dollars later, a contract back in 2023, 43 flock cameras surveilling us across our city. And that contract ran out, so now it's $3,600 a month fee to use those cameras. Where does that stop? But here we are, all these things, what's detected, what's not, acceptable use, prohibited uses, access, hot list policy. We share this information, according to this, with about 100 other cities in this state. I don't know what their policy and trust issues are. And if they're not exactly what's on here, this is useless. So I'm just going to talk about Amber Newell for a minute. She and her daughter were pulled over at gunpoint and detained by Milwaukee police twice in one week. terrifying her and her young daughter because her car was mistakenly flagged by an LPR license plate reading flock camera as being connected to a crime. That camera misread her license plate and put Amber and her daughter in this traumatic, deadly confrontation, all because a technology error occurred. It is obvious there are systemic problems with utilizing mass surveillance. Errors in sharing of data are not under your control. Not completely. Please stop supporting. Cancel the plot contract. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be Matthew Karras.

Matthew Karras, District 3. During a City Council meeting in a suburb of Wisconsin in April, the City of Oshkosh considered whether it should approve a contract to use automatic license plate readers, AOPR, from Flock Safety. a prominent company that provides ALPRs to law enforcement agencies across the country. During the meeting, one city council member asked Flock if the company's ALPR system created heat maps that could reveal where a particular vehicle had driven over a period of time. Flock's chief information security officer, who was in attendance, told the council that Flock's system did not create a pattern or heat map of an individual movement through the tracking of their vehicles. At the end of that meeting, the Oshkosh City Council approved a contract with Flock The very next morning, the city learned that Flock had lied. Flock later admitted that ALPR system does indeed produce a heat map that shows where point-in-time images have been captured of a vehicle for up to an entire month. However, the company chose to respond to the revocation of this contract by attacking the city of Oshkosh and its city council, complaining that Flock had not been afforded the opportunity to explain its lie after being caught. We have seen across the nation that police officers have used Flock to stalk their own spouses. We have seen across the nation that Flock has not been a tool for safety, but instead of a tool for intimidation. So let me ask you, do we want to live in safe communities? Or do we want to live in widespread surveillance over a company that really doesn't care about our safety? What are we really doing to provide safety in our communities? How are we showing up for our communities every day? That's why I want you to ask yourselves, how are you showing up for your community? That's how we provide safety for all of our members. That's why I talk to so many constituents on a daily basis, especially our houseless, especially our immigrant communities. That is how you provide safety, not with mass wide surveillance. Thank you.

We'll now hear from Michael Craven.

I'm Michael Craven, District 3. In April, Florida Highway Patrol arrested a woman, Lindsay Brooke Isaacs, for eight felony counts based on an error in the flock system. She was jailed for two weeks and is now severely traumatized. We all want to live in safe communities. Widespread surveillance is not how we get there.

We'll now hear from Penny Thorpe.

Good evening, Penny Thorpe, District 3. In January of 2026, I was assured by now-retired Police Captain Jason Visna that due to our sanctuary state policy, ICE would not have access to our flock database. But did you know that recently a public records request found that ICE had informally gained access to camera networks across more than 5,000 communities, despite those particular communities, those states having laws barring that use. And the way they did it was national lookup opt-ins and agency-to-agency sharing. We all want to live in safe communities. Widespread surveillance is not how we get safe communities. Thank you.

Our next speaker will be Andrew Breyer.

Good evening, council members. My name is Andrew Breger, and I live near Fruitland Avenue in District 2 with my family. Sorry, I'm so tall for this. I'm here tonight to express support for the Puyallup Moves active transportation plan to add safe bike routes in town and ask that we move it toward implementation and build. My family loves to ride bikes in Puyallup. My 14-year-old son often rides to Ayland Junior High School, where he attends school. My seven-year-old daughter and I ride together to city parks, the library, the farmer's market. Unfortunately, though, compared to other places we've lived and other communities near ours, it can feel very dangerous riding bikes in Puyallup with kids because there's often no bike lanes and virtually no sidewalks, even on busy roads like Fruitland Avenue and 9th Street Southwest. A couple elements of the plan that are particularly important to my family. First, adding bike lanes along West Stewart Avenue. We use West Stewart regularly to get to and from Sam Peach Park. Bike lanes there would provide a key east-west connection in town. My family's been looking forward to having those bike lanes built for many years, and we're a bit disappointed that it has taken quite a while to get them built. I know that it's complicated and it's a complex challenge. Second, we would love a safe route to access the Riverwalk Trail from downtown Puyallup. We have an excellent trail right here in our community, right in our backyard, but it is truly difficult to safely reach this route on a bike or even on foot from around town. Puyallup is truly such a wonderful community. We feel so blessed to live here. We have excellent parks, excellent schools, an outstanding library and farmer's market, and a thriving downtown. But I do feel that we are missing safe bike routes for people, for kids, for families who want to ride their bikes, who want to walk and roll in our community. So I'd ask that we would please work harder to make Puyallup a safe, healthy, and fun community for people walking, biking, and rolling. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Next speaker will be Craig Dittien. Did I get that right?

You did. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. I live at 703 22nd Street right off of Stewart Avenue. And I know what he's talking about. There's an agenda that's going to be probably undertaking paint lines for the biking. And so that would be good. Here's what I want to talk about, is that Mr. Engle, our police chief, is setting up a little more radar toward Stewart Avenue. It is a very bad place. And they talk about the flock cameras. I would love to have about 100 of them on Stewart Avenue, because those people are coming through there I'm not kidding. 80 miles an hour, 100 miles an hour, all times of the day. It doesn't matter. And they come through there. They find out that it widens out from down by Stewart Crossing. It widens out coming toward town. And they want to pass in that lane. And there's only Ts that come to that Stewart. And somebody's going to pull out and not see them. is they're going to die. And so I just want to reiterate the safety. Also one other issue that I would like to address, and that's on Pioneer, we have a piece of property that's up for sale or it's already been sold. And it's an eyesore. It's right by our police department and fire department. I would like somebody to take a lawnmower to that baby right now. That thing is incredibly Just sitting there, it's a fire cake. And so I would love to have the city either take care of it and get somebody responsible enough to take care of that property. Because somebody's going to toss a cigarette, and that's all it takes. And then we're going to have a big mess downtown. And it's an eyesore with the people coming to the fair. I was a usher for the fair for seven years in the grandstand. And it was when we still had a racetrack. And that's been a while. I was there from 62 to 72. So yeah, I knew Bradish Man and his crew very much so. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Next, we'll hear from Charles. And I'm struggling, can't quite make out the last name.

Help me out. It's Hitz Taylor. Took the umlaut out years ago. You'll never pronounce it correctly, even because my ancestors took that from you. But I'm here to talk about, not my last name, but biking infrastructure. And I have a strong vested interest in this as someone who is a cyclist, but also as someone recently struck by a car within where Sumner and Puyallup kind of mix. And so my interest is in having more bike lanes, which will, I think, enhance awareness of cyclists who are on the road. If you look at the objective data around this, we don't have the safety. In fact, we're not one of the safest cities. Obviously, Tacoma would be much better as far as biking infrastructure. I feel safer in Seattle, which is where I end up. I'm bike commuting to the train. and then from there i take the train and i bike the remaining of the distance to my job in seattle and i feel safer there because they have you know bike lanes they have one of the strongest infrastructures for biking despite being a large city with much more traffic over here there's just plain nothing i go down shaw road and there's no sidewalk you have to go back on the road there's no lights minimal and i mean i'm surprised i've not been struck there so now i have to ask myself do i bike to work or do i not bike to work Not only that, but for my kids' enjoyment, much like Andrew presents, I like to go to the Riverwalk Trail. I like to go into town, market. And I'd love to do that with my kids. I feel like it would enhance businesses if we were all going over there. I'm not going to do it because of the safety. I'm certainly not going to bike with my kids around Meridian, where that's extremely unsafe. There's some sidewalks. But when you have that disruption, now these kids, in some cases, might be unaccompanied by an adult. And they want to ride their bike to the store or to Marketplace or parks. We have so many great ones. And so this is kind of my same presentation is that I would argue like, hey, can we get some bike lanes and start working on this infrastructure, especially in the advent and emergence of all of these e-bikes, e-scooters. We're going to see more commuters, more people like myself. And to prevent more incidences, I think this is going to be a fantastic benefit for all of the community. And that's my statement. All right. Thanks.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be Andrew Lynn Squaredo.

Good evening, council members. My name is Angelina Sciurato. And you said it right this time, too. Thank you. I'm from Pierce County District 2. September 11, 2001 was a rough day for American citizens as recognized in the 9-11 25th Anniversary Memorial Proclamation. I recall being in high school on this day during my business computer class watching the news as we were all shocked first thing in the morning. And at least three of those incidences were there up in the air in the plane, down on the ground near the Twin Towers in downtown Manhattan, or in a very full busy hospital emergency department in New York City. My family happened to be involved. It was nerve-wracking and troublesome having to wait on the news of the unknown, in which it took more than that day to figure out what was going on, as people got lost in the rubble, unfortunately. My stepfamily has a family member on one of the planes that got hijacked. There was a tale of a missing family member who went for a stroll downtown near where the event occurred of the plane smashing into the buildings and was not found for some time. Then there was another family managing medical professionals trying to gain any momentum on this amount of emergencies that kept piling up in one of the hospitals nearby. Such a traumatic event led to heavy restrictions and regulations, but there was an increase of concern as well as pursuit for public safety. I am grateful for the intentions and the changes over the years that have helped in this manner, but there is still a long ways to go. There's still room for others to exploit these policies, including human traffickers, as well as racists who racially profile and cause a fiasco that affects people's travel plans, plane flights, and theft of identities with documents going missing or not being returned at the counters. It has been 25 years that we have been playing tug-of-war with these policies, but it is still recognized how there is room for improvement. Thank goodness for this. This shows that things will get better and hopefully sooner than later. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be Bud Metzger.

Bud Metzger, District 3. I wish I didn't have to say that I'm still kind of... Uncomfortable with the way that the council majority is treating the public on a lot of their comments For some reason it's difficult for you to hear from the public and and I'm not sure why since that's What part of the job is listening to the public and for some reason? You're unable to do that in a respectful way. I Wish that wasn't the case I don't like it when I hear council members laughing at citizens that come up and give their opinions. I don't want to hear you call the police because someone in their 20s is frustrated by your lack of hearing them. I've been at these meetings for 25 years. I've never seen the council call the police against a 20-year-old because they spoke too loudly after the council's comments. I just think we're lacking so much there. Laughing at the public when you can, I mean, it's so petty. I just don't understand it. For some reason, you have a hard time hearing the public. I don't know why. I don't know how you come to that conclusion that you know so much that you can demean the citizens that you represent. You know, I told you about the flock cameras a long time ago when it came out. I told you you should have meetings with the public and work through the difficult conversations prior to implementing flock so that this didn't happen. But you chose to think you knew, you know, something different and look where you are now. You know, I tried to help you. but you didn't seem to listen. Some of you have called other people on the council and the public unpatriotic because they didn't agree with your opinion. This is the council talking to the council and talking to the public. I mean, please. You know, it's just ridiculous. And it's more than ridiculous. It harms our city and it prevents our city. It makes our city look ugly. On a positive note, I don't know because it was not mentioned here or by the Fair Board, but the Australian firefighters were just recently here and got to have a nice time in Puyallup. And how fortunate we are that those people that live so far away came to our help where we had over 500,000 acres on fire in the state. Mr. Mayor, speakers reach three minutes. They're a gift to us, and we can send them a letter. It would be a good thing. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker will be, I believe it's Vicki Burke.

Hi, Vicki Burke, District 1. I really didn't plan on speaking, but everybody's kind of like certifier within me today. Number one, the flock. I recently worked at SeaTac Airport, and I was an employee of PCS Construction. I talked to my boss about that camera, because we had a break-in, so they felt they needed some assistance. So I gave her the information, like Bellevue had dropped it. I said, you need to really do your research. She did her research. She put it up anyway. My concern is, as I work with probably seven people, let's just say brown people, that have green cards and things like that. Right now, there is some targeting going on towards our brown people in this area, and it's embarrassing. And I feel these flock cameras reflect on this board right here. You're going to hurt our people. What are you going to do when some little girl doesn't get to have her daddy come home? There's construction workers getting pulled off jobs everywhere. And now the access, we know everybody has access to these cameras. My boss has access to her camera. So it's not that. Controlled it's not a very controlled access which I have concern especially with a certain sheriff that we have in Pierce County Who could possibly be abusing that as well? Also, I just wanted to talk about the safety. I agree that we need some bike lanes, but I live on one of the darkest streets of I think Mr. Castema may agree. There's no street lights on our street, personally. We do not have sidewalks. As much as I want safety for the bicyclists, I also want safety for our students. I believe we need sidewalks, and we need a lot more infrastructure to this town before we put up a flagpole. I have lots and lots of things in my head, and I call them squirrels. And like I said, I wasn't planning to talk, so I'm shooting from the hip today. But I believe that I know how many times I've been in front of you. How many times have you listened? We put the moratorium on the drug thing. We did the police station no matter what. We need people to listen. I hear people, the recent thing about the skate park, people about the design. The kids go, that's not it. That's not what we want. That's not what we want to do. Why are we not listening to the constituents of Puyallup? Comprehensive plan. OK, I know you're going to tell me to get over it, but I can't. I'm an Alaska native Indian who just recently watched you guys rip and gut PLP history out of our comprehensive plan. So I have a lot of things to say. I got 10 seconds, so I'll wish you all a good night. And I'm going to pray to God that you guys learn to listen.

to speak. Is there anybody else in our audience that would like to make public comment this evening? Seeing none, we'll move on to our consent agenda. The consent agenda is the portion of our meeting that is expected to be non-controversial and accepted in total, but if there's any on this consent agenda that one of my colleagues would like to have pulled off for further discussion, they can make the request at this time. If not, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Move approval.

Second. Motion has been moved and seconded. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Motion passes. Next item on our agenda is item 4A, a second reading on ordinance adopting amendment to PMC chapter 21.06, critical areas. Deputy Mayor Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to approve a second reading as listed in 4A under ordinance.

We have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Motion's been moved and seconded. We'll now open for discussion.

Councilmember Kasten. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think it's very important on this particular item on the agenda, and I know it was articulated last time, but I think that sometimes second reading, we need to familiarize the public a little bit more of what was actually done prior to that. And this is, of course, dealing with the critical areas. And one of the great concerns we've had in this community is that we'll be expanding the buffers, which will severely impact certain residents of this community. And this particular proposal here, this ordinance that we have here, does not include any of that. We are going to spend more time. on that aspect in a more deliberative or, I guess, in a way that will require some degree of research and investigation beyond that, which would be a normal level to implement these types of ordinances. So I just want to remind the public of that, because we've had people come before us commenting on their particular piece of property, how it would be severely, frankly, it would make their piece of property completely unbuildable. And even where their current home is, would make it so that if anything happened to that, they could not add on to it. And maybe even rebuilding it would be a challenge. So I just want to make that clear. I think that this is a reasonable, these are reasonable aspects of that ordinance. And I appreciate the deputy mayor making that motion to pass this. Council Member Smolko.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm comfortable moving forward tonight in large part because I understand that this does not close our discussion regarding riparian management zones and stream buffers. I strongly support taking the additional time, as Mr. Kastema has said, to examine the best available science before making those decisions. And I just want that on record. And then I do have a couple of questions, if it's appropriate to ask them. Oh, sorry.

Proceed.

Thank you. Hi. Can staff confirm for the record that adoption tonight does not prejudice or predetermine Council's eventual decision regarding stream buffers or riparian management zones?

Yes. Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, members of the Council. Happy to clarify, Councilmember Smolko, we have removed, in essence, every prior, every revision that was previously presented pertaining to riparian management zones and the buffer widths. in order to further evaluate the best available science with some regional partners. So everything has been removed and put on pause for us to continue those deliberations and conversations with council.

Thank you. I just wanted that on record. And I do have a follow up question, if I may. If mitigation, this is kind of a flash forward situation, if mitigation fails several years later, who bears the financial responsibility for correcting it?

I think that varies depending on the critical area. But in general, depending on the nature of the failure, that may result in a code enforcement case. Depending on the critical area, fish and wildlife may be involved. Oftentimes, that burden could fall on the property owner or the city, depending on the nature of the failure. So without specifics or a specific critical area that you're wanting us to that I could respond to tonight I think that that's something that we could certainly be prepared to answer more thoroughly at a future council meeting But right now I would say that it really would vary depending on the nature of the failure in the critical area I think that's a fair response for tonight, and I'm happy that we're still looking into it.

Thank you Deputy Mayor Johnson Thank You mr. Mayor

Yeah, I support this because it does allow for more discussion and analysis that's specific to this area, the state, and its good intent. well-meaning, oftentimes we'll do what's called a paintbrush approach and just come up with these random numbers to, again, to protect whatever it may be. And while I appreciate that, the opportunity to be more surgical, specifically in this area of our city, is a wise thing to do, and many cities haven't taken it on as we have. And so I think it's a real compliment to our city staff and to our council that says while we appreciate the intent of what the critical areas and the buffers are, we want to make sure that we're not disenfranchising responsible development and property owners if in fact the mitigation opportunities provide that there's no impact and so I think this is a wise thing to do and quite frankly if we're looking to increase affordable housing and infill I would like to see if there is science localized science that can prove shorter distances to critical areas without affecting it negatively, then we should be looking at that. Because I think that ultimately that's what we're after. No one wants to wreck the environment that we live in. But if it's too broad without good science, then we're really disenfranchising the intent, which is to get affordable housing and infill. So I applaud the council and staff for seeking out verification. And it may come back. Again, let's just be fair. It may come back that the state is right. Again, we don't know that, right? But it may come back that in this specific instance, there are some allowances that would not increase the buffer, but perhaps lessen the buffer if clear mitigation can be shown without impact. and allow for responsible affordable growth. So that part of it I'm very excited about and that's why I'm fully sponsoring this second reading and looking forward to getting that science and hopefully getting some more applicable fine-tuning here for development and protecting our environment, which is great here in our city with the trails and the streams and the creeks. It's fantastic. Thank you.

Thank you. Seeing no further Councilmember, comments requested? We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please so indicate. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Our next roll call. Second reading, we need a roll call vote. Please proceed.

Councilmember Adler? Aye. Deputy Mayor Johnson? Aye. Councilmember King? Aye. Councilmember Gilliam?

Aye.

Council Member Kastema? Aye. Council Member Smolko?

Aye.

Mayor Whitting? Aye.

OK, moving on. Our next topic for discussion tonight is our regional hazard mitigation plan. And we're going to have a presentation by Emergency Management Manager Kirsten Hoffman.

Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council Members. My name is Kirsten Hoffman. I'm your Emergency Manager, and I am very excited to be here tonight to share with you that we have completed our City Hazard Mitigation Plan, which is an annex to the Pierce County Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan, and it has been approved by the Washington State Emergency Management Division and FEMA Region 10. So our final process in this very large undertaking is to have you all approve and adopt the plan. We send that back to FEMA. They do their final official approval. And then we are in compliance for the next five years with our hazard mitigation plan. So very excited to share with you that process that we undertook and some changes to the plan from the previous version of the plan. The planning process for a hazard mitigation plan is anywhere from three to five years. And this is one of the plans that we bring in Puyallup City staff from all departments to really collaborate on the plan and ensure that we've got the best information available in our hazard mitigation plan. This is also a plan where we engage with other organizations as well. So we bring in our partners from the Puyallup School District, our partners from Central Pierce Fire and Rescue, partners from Pierce County Emergency Management, and other public safety utilities that support our city. So it really is a collaborative effort and these folks have spent the last three years working on this plan to bring it up to date and really meet the needs of our city. So the purpose of a hazard mitigation plan is to improve our resilience to hazards and lessen the impacts of disasters and emergencies. It's a process that brings together the whole community, so city staff, partners, residents, people throughout, and identifies what's really important to us and the city of Puyallup, and then puts time and effort into hazard mitigation strategies. And there's a very large variety of hazard mitigation strategies. There are some that have no cost. there are some that have significant costs. But we work together to identify those so that we can share with the public the strategies that we want to undertake in the next five years to really mitigate the impacts of disasters on the city of Puyallup. We look at short-term strategies and long-term strategies, and all of that information is in the plan. So our city hazard mitigation plan is an annex to the Pierce County Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan. That plan has also been approved by FEMA and the Washington State Emergency Management Division. These are lengthy plans. There's a lot of content. It's very rich in information about Pierce County. And then our plan has specific information to the city of Puyallup. So they work in collaboration with each other. But our annex is a standalone annex that addresses the city of Puyallup's needs. So these are the different sections that are in the city's hazard mitigation plan. This is also available on our website. And the full plan with the final approval will also be available on our website as soon as we get that information back from FEMA Region 10. This is just a graphic that shows how these different plans work together. So at the very high level is the regional hazard mitigation plan for the county. Then we have the jurisdictional annexes. So cities and towns have jurisdictional annexes. And then we also have utility divisions, fire, education, and other partners who have hazard mitigation plans as well. Those are all annexes to the Pierce County regional plan. So we've had a hazard mitigation plan for many years. It is one of the two plans that council approves and adopts. The other one is our comprehensive emergency management plan. Both of these plans are five years. So we will start the planning process for 2030 to 2035 within the next six months now that we have finished up this planning process. So just highlighting some of the key changes from this plan from the previous version. The name did change. It's now the 2025 Pierce County Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan. Used to be referred to as the Region 5 plan, but Pierce County more accurately describes the geographical area from that plan. There is a section in our plan that's the risk assessment. And we've consolidated 21 hazards into 14. So that just is more representative of the city of Puyallup and the hazards that we face. Section 5 is really where we get kind of the key meat of the plan. Those are our hazard mitigation strategies. Those have all been reviewed, revised, and we've added additional strategies as well in that section. One thing that we were really excited to do with this revision was we did a lot of public involvement. When we do outreach to the public, when we talk at events and different trainings that we hold, we ask the public, what are you most concerned about? What are the hazards that you worry about in the city of Puyallup? And we collate that information, and then we summarize that through a couple of different tools, and that's included in the plan as well. And we did an electronic survey this year, which really helped us reach people in Puyallup to give us some helpful information. And we asked really simple questions to kind of get away from that heavier mitigation language, because when people hear mitigation, sometimes that's hard to wrap your head around. And really, we just want to know, what are you concerned about, and what should we be prioritizing for the city of Puyallup? So our plan has seven major sections and four appendices. The appendices go into previous planning processes, highlights our community outreach efforts, and then has a change matrix if we make any changes to this version of the plan. Next steps, like I mentioned, it's been fully approved by Washington State Emergency Management Division and FEMA Region 10. You all will adopt by resolution. We'll send that off to FEMA Region 10 and then get our final approval. And what that means is that we are eligible for multiple grant opportunities. So often when we're looking at federal grant opportunities, mitigation grant opportunities, you are required to have a fully approved hazard mitigation plan. This will bring us into compliance with that, and we are very excited to then start the process for the next hazard mitigation plan. So I'm available if there's any questions about our plan.

Deputy Mayor Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Are there any cities that do not opt in this? Because you said this helps us in terms of federal grants, but are there any cities that don't opt into this? Are there independent cities that stay out of it?

So in Pierce County, there are 65 annexes, I believe, to the regional hazard mitigation plan. Most cities do opt into this. You don't have to work collaboratively with your county to do a hazard mitigation plan. Cities like Seattle have their own standalone hazard mitigation plan with a base plan and then information specific to that city.

Yes, it seems so. And this resolution, was this PLOP specific or was it regionally specific and we're adopting PLOP? I know you mentioned a little bit, but I just want to reaffirm, are there specifics to PLOP or is this kind of a general region and we adopt into this resolution language?

We're adopting the city-specific plan, and then we're also adopting the regional hazard mitigation plan, of which we are an annex to.

Are there any conflicts or parallels that would?

There are no conflicts. Our annex does refer to the base plan because the base plan has a lot of information about the different risks and assessments. And so our plan will say, see the base plan for more information on this particular risk. So they do complement each other.

You mentioned that there were some surveys. Forgive me if I missed it, but I don't think I did. But you said that you put on some online data. What were some of the things that people were concerned about? I didn't know if I caught that or not. You mentioned there was concerns of danger.

Yeah, so off the top of my head, we have folks who are concerned with natural hazards, so earthquakes, wildfires, lahar. We really get a wide variety of concerns that people have about hazards in the community.

Again, just asking the questions, because I feel like without asking questions, it's kind of rubber stamp. Here's a before you. We adopted this. We're partnering with these. We're collaborating. So just here we go, counsel. We'll at least be educational in terms of understanding it. Is there anything in terms of, if we adopt this, is there anything that would strengthen what we already have at this point? In other words, before we adopt this, I assume we have some kind of plan. Is that sufficient? Does this add any strength other than opportunities for more funding, perhaps?

It does add other strengths as well. Some of the mitigation strategies that we've identified, we will undertake collaboratively regardless of receiving funding. We've also used this plan to go after other funding sources as well. So it really does encompass citywide what those mitigation strategies are. And we've really put a lot of time into making sure that although this is a required plan to have, we want to make use of that time and that partnership so that we have a plan that accurately represents the interests of our city and puts that roadmap in place for those strategies that we want to accomplish.

Okay, hypothetical situation, I guess my last question. This is important for me. I think that our identity as a city should be maintained and not grouped into control by a regional or statewide response. I don't mind collaborating. I think it's wonderful. Sharing resources, ideas, wonderful. But hypothetical, if a tragedy hit, and we're getting direction from county or state, this is the way we need to respond to this, and if the city of Pilp says, wait a minute, that's a one-size-fits-all, we're not going to respond that way. We're going to respond this way under our own emergency management team. Do we have the latitude to be independent in a case of a crisis to handle it in a way that we think fits our city and maybe not the way that it's going on a regional, if in fact it was proved to be better?

Yes. So City of Puyallup is an independent emergency management organization, and we dictate how we respond and prepare for emergencies.

So we're not bound by this. That makes me feel great. Again, I think autonomy, how we want to run our city and protect our city based off of the data that's specific to us in a specific situation. We should not be bound by a regional state or county. We want to, again, work together. But as long as we have the say as a city to respond as we see fit, then I would support this. Thank you.

Council Member Smolko.

Thank you. I have three questions. You said there's now a more consolidated list of 14 hazards. Of the hazards identified for Puyallup, you said citizens are most concerned about earthquakes, wildfires, and lahars. Are those actually, scientifically and historically, our most pressing three risks? That's my first question.

So in regards to our most pressing three risks, It depends on what context. So is it the most likely to happen? Is it the most likely to happen? The most likely to happen are things like winter storms, flooding, those kind of natural disasters that we experience regularly and frequently, and we will continue to experience those. The no notice lahar has incredible catastrophic impacts, which is why we talk about that so much, because if we prepare for the true worst case scenario, then we've prepared for all those other things along that spectrum of how impacted we will be. We're seeing concern about wildfires come up more and more in our region there are efforts to work on a pierce county-wide wild land urban interface you'll hear it as wui fire prevention projects and so we're finding ourselves working more and more with partners on those types of plans we also have a lot of people who are concerned about earthquakes hopefully you all are aware that we live on the cascadia subduction zone and could experience a very significant catastrophic earthquake in this region

Thank you. That answers that first question beautifully. Sorry, that was kind of scary. That was awesome. Nailed it. Second question, or it's more of a comment. And then I guess I really only have two questions. So this one's more of a comment. I'm concerned about the neighborhoods and populations which are least able to recover from these disasters. For example, evacuation instructions aren't equally useful to someone who doesn't own a car, has limited mobility, doesn't speak English, is unhoused, lacks internet access, is elderly, and lives alone. That leads me to my second and final question on this. Does our mitigation planning specifically identify people who may not have a vehicle, financial resources, English proficiency, mobility, or somewhere else to go during an evacuation? Are we able to pinpoint these people and with intention target them positively for such intervention.

Yeah, so there are some strategies that talk about preparing City of Puyallup residents and taking into consideration people who have access and functional need challenges. We also address this much more in depth in our comprehensive emergency management plan, which talks about the statewide LEP requirement, limited English proficiency requirement, and how we're meeting those needs for our residents. That's one of the reasons that we partner so much with the Puyallup School District, because we can reach a lot of those members of the community that don't have the luxury to really truly be prepared in these situations. So we have a number of different plans that also speak to those efforts as well. And that's something that was one of our findings from our 2026 Lahore evacuation exercise that rose to the top of all our after actions was working with students and staff and populations with access and functional needs. So as we start to plan for the 2028 exercise, we'll be looking to including a lot of that work so we can come up with some strategies to reach those parts of our population.

OK. I lied to you. Not intentionally. I do have a third question. This is a promise for this bit. What is the highest impact mitigation project in this plan that we currently don't have the money to do?

I would like some time to be able to research that a little bit and get back to you. Totally. Thank you.

OK. Councilmember Adler.

Thank you. Well, I don't know about y'all, but I feel like we should all knock on some wood talking about all these things. I'll knock on my noggin. I'm sorry. So I just got to say, I wish that I had a counter with me so I could count how many times you have said partnerships or partner. Because I got to tell you, if something happens in our city, we cannot go alone. We have got to come together with our partners. And partnerships is what's going to help protect us, what will help save us. And there's no doubt in my mind that the work that you're doing, and I can assume the many, many, many meetings that you sit in with many, many, many, many, many different partners across our county, our region, our state, is a lot of your time. But I pray to God we don't ever see the fruits of that labor. But I'm sure glad that you're there and the city is represented. We will not be able to get through any type of disaster alone, period, full stop. So thank you. And thanks to your colleagues and other staff and the group of 14, is that right, from the city that has been part of this for the last many years. I bet that there are times that you and your colleagues feel like we're hopefully planning for nothing.

Knock on wood.

But this work that you're doing is likely very thankless because it doesn't materialize unless something happens, God forbid. So thank you. It's very serious work. And I just, again, want to give appreciation for the commitment to partnerships. Finally, we're a day late, but August was Emergency Management Awareness Month. And so we missed out on formally acknowledging that, but a day late isn't so bad. So thank you, again, for the work that you do.

Thank you. GREG MCKENZIE- Council Member King.

Thank you, and thank you for all of your information that you've given us this evening regarding all of the potentials that could come down the pipe. Just as a clarity, once this gets adopted, what is the timeline for implementing everything?

All of the strategies have a potential timeline associated with them. Some of them are easier to attain. Some of them, it's a lengthier timeline. We do have strategies from the 2020-25 plan that carried over into this one because we either weren't able to start them or finish them or they're in process. We have a lot of strategies.

Perfect. Will there be a summary available to the public? And how soon would that be available?

Yes, we can make a summary. I'm looking at my colleagues over there.

And a follow-up to that, will it be available online, do you know?

Yes.

And those that don't have internet access, how soon or how would they be able to access that?

I think we can put copies in the clerk's office and have them available there and people can come and read them and be prepared because it's about 800 pages long.

And with each update that you do, because you mentioned that there were numerous that will come down as they get implemented, how will that be communicated?

So in every plan that we do in emergency management, we always keep a record of changes. That lives in the front of the document. And any time anything has changed, it is specifically noted, and the person who did it, and the time that they did it. So we do that with these plans so people can see when things have been updated.

Thank you very much. again you are a very important team member to the city of puyallup and i just want to acknowledge you for that and all the professional tidbits that you have along the way because every every instance that you have updated us regarding anything regarding our emergency preparedness plan i think i can probably I won't speak on behalf of the council, but I'm going to. I think you amaze us all with your intelligence and professionalism regarding this. And I just want to say thank you for being part of our team and doing such a great job.

Thank you.

Keeping everybody safe. Thank you.

Council Member Gilliam.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to go on record in stating that I'm a huge fan of you, Kirsten. I've toured your office even when you weren't there. And your part-time staff showed me maps and layouts of things and contingency plans and above and beyond. And so I... I hope all of the residents have at some point checked in with the CERT team booth at any event that we have in the city because there are handouts that you can get for quick escape and what you need to have for your pets. I never thought about caring for my pets. Just get in the car and let's go, right? But amount of water you need for at least 10 days. It used to be three. Now it's 10. So I just want to encourage everybody. First of all, when we take a vote, I'm going to say yes on this. But also, they're at public events. I hope they're at the Senior Activity Center.

Mm-hmm.

I hope they're at assisted living facilities in our our city hope there and maybe even in our schools we can Check in on that but I am grateful for how well you lead our city and putting us literally on the map For the collaborative work and helping people be aware and how to do it needs to be done in a crisis so you are So far, you elevate Puyallup beyond other cities and, dare I say, even above Pierce County. The only reason why I say that is because Puyallup does host the CERT community emergency response team Kirsten and her team lead that literally for all of Pierce County. So if you want to know how to handle a crisis in your community, you come to Puyallup and you take the Puyallup CERT team. So I just want to go on record by saying there are resources for a quick get out if you need to. I don't know if you have time to read an 800-page document that tells you how to do every little detail. Those handouts are really powerful, and you've already done the work. So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you.

Council Member Kastema.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think what's important, what can, I think, bring everybody around understanding this issue very easy is that the fundamental philosophy of emergency management, Kirsten, you know this, is collaboration and relationships, period. That's it. When you ever get at a conference of emergency management professionals, The philosophy that they all talk about is relationships and collaboration, because nothing ever goes as planned. And when it happens, you have to know who your colleagues are. You have to trust them. You've got to know what their strengths are and their weaknesses are. And the only way that it happens is you You experience drills, exercises, plans. For example, in Puyallup, we have the world's largest Lahore evacuation drill. Again, the world's largest involving, I believe, 40,000 to 60,000 students. And in that, they bring together all the jurisdictions. And they collaborate. They relate to each other so that if something happens, I know Pete over there. And I know what Pete's strong points are. And I know when he says he can do something, I know that, well, there's a likelihood, yes, he's going to do it. Or Pete overstates things, et cetera. It's about relationships and trust. That's what it's about. That sounds simple. But I remember back in the 1990s, the Wenatchee fires, for example. Oregon wanted to give us equipment. And they couldn't because we had no contract set up for them to share equipment with us and how that was going to be compensated. There was no relationship whatsoever. And we went ahead and we looked like we're outliers in Washington state, but we established these relationships with Oregon so that in case of emergency, We knew how we would both respond, and we would get them immediately. In that particular case, the governor had to sign on the tarmac and greatly delayed to get the equipment going. Now, I know today we had a proclamation on 9-11. There was a connection there. In 9-11, New York Assembly went in to special session, and they passed that very same bill. to allow interstate collaboration because they realize that, in fact, that ability to share and have things set up in advance, that in case of an emergency, was absolutely essential. So what you're doing is just you're basically doing what emergency management professionals have all been taught to do. is to collaborate, to form relationships with each other. And in case the unthinkable happens, we can maximize every resource. And when you call someone, they know you. And you say, you know the person's reliable. I need this. And if they say it's going to happen, you know it'll happen. So I'm proud of you bringing this forward. Thanks for what you do. And that's it.

I'd just like to weigh in a little bit and second comments by a couple of my colleagues. Councilmember Adler talked about partnerships and the need for those partnerships. And we've just had an example of of partnerships. We've got our Australian firefighters coming to help us fight our local fires. So this isn't some novel thing that we go out for partnerships. When a disaster strikes, it may strike really locally or it may strike really broadly. Aloha coming through Puyallup, we're going to need help from everybody around. And there may be whole communities, a lot of the areas around us aren't going to be touched. And Puyallup could potentially be, downtown Puyallup could potentially be gone just the way we saw the cities going in Nepal this past week. And just as a matter of passing, that looked to me an awful lot, they might call it a glacier something or other, but That was a lahar, right?

So we did reach out to the USGS because we started to get some questions about this. Because it was not associated with a volcano, it is not referred to as a lahar, but very, very similar in all other aspects of that disaster. A rose by any other name was...

Yes, so anyway, that's... Looking at the material coming down off that mountain, it looks like slurry and concrete and that's what I've been led to believe the lahar is going to look like. So we have the potential to have that happen in the Puyallup Valley and we will need help. And partnerships are what will bring us through. Now, the other concern is some of these disasters could be much broader. If we have a Concordia Fault 9.0 earthquake, it's not just going to hurt Puyallup. It's going to hurt Vancouver, Washington, Vancouver, Canada, California, the disaster is going to be really broadly hit. And if you think about a 9.0, how strong was the Loma Prieta?

It was a seven point something, and the Nisqually here in 2001 was a 7.1.

Okay, so let's just take the Nisqually quake at 7.1. For those of you that were around here at that time, that was a pretty good quake. It shook down up pretty good. Okay, so we're talking a Richter scale here. So each factor up, so a 9.0 quake, is, am I right, 190 times as strong as the 7.1? I would have to check the math, but it is, yes, it increases exponentially as it goes up the Richter scale. So I'm pretty sure I'm right that it would be 190 times as strong. So imagine what that would be like. And so overpasses are going to come down. just getting relief supplies into the area is gonna be a major, major kind of thing. So we're gonna need help from everybody. It'd be kind of like that tsunami, when that tsunami hit over in India and just took out large sections of town. So these very unlikely, very low probability events could be very, very disastrous. So when we consider our hazards, they run from small hazards that happen frequently to really bad hazards that happen maybe in three or four lifetimes or 10 lifetimes. Who knows? They're unpredictable. But Kirsten has the responsibility to prepare for all of those. And the other point I'd like to make in closing is you're never prepared. You cannot prepare for everything all the time. You prepare for a lot of horror, and you're not preparing for the next pandemic. You're preparing for a pandemic, but you're not preparing for a terrorist attack. You're preparing for a terrorist attack, but you're not preparing for a flood. You can't prepare for everything. So if we prepare for the worst things, then we should be partially prepared for everything we do. And that's the objective. Most of all, we need to prepare our citizens. Because if our citizens know what they need to do to preserve life and to take care of themselves, then loss of life will be minimized. Because we cannot depend on our first responders to respond to these things. Their first objective is to make sure that they're around to help after the event. They're not going to be able to help us during the event. If you think about that Nepal situation, you're not going to see any police officers running into the path of that lahar to save anybody. They're just committing suicide. So we've got to get through the event as best we can. And the best way we can do that is education, education, education. So thank you for what you do. And I'll turn the time over to Deputy Mayor Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll be brief. We know that it is possible for some lahar issue here in Puyallup. I was talking many years ago to a guy that does dirt work and does a lot of digging of foundations and things and putting in infrastructure. And he said that he went down 30 feet and found a whole preserved cedar log. So we know that when that comes down, that's why the Puyallup Valley is such a fertile place. It's all topsoil. I can go anywhere on my property in the valley, put my foot on the shovel without any resistance, and bury it with not hitting one rock. complete topsoil. That didn't just happen because the rocks have been tilled out. That came because of silt that came down from the mountain. So we know it's entirely possible. But again, the best thing that was, you know, when that hit last time, there wasn't high densities of people. Now we've got a lot more at stake and risk involved because there's high density of people living down this corridor. So I think getting the word out in communication is super important. But anyway, that being said, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve the resolution as stated before us in item 5A. Second.

Move and seconded. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Kirsten. We appreciate all you do. We really do have a gem working in the city of Puyallup. Next item on our agenda is key to the city policy discussion. We had a proposal to award a city key recently. And there was some discussion about a need for a criteria to guide our selection process or guide our vote. So the question tonight is, do we want to have such a criteria? I have put forward a potential document for our consideration. Hopefully, you've had a chance to look at it. And so I am welcoming discussion of the need for a key or need for criteria. Council Member Castema.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have not received any such proposal. I'm ready to comment on this, but I just haven't received any kind of proposal.

Was that not distributed?

More than happy to make some hard copies, and I can distribute here on the dais tonight if, yeah, more than happy to do that.

Do we have it online?

Certainly could display it if we need to. Yeah, you bet. I can have the city clerk work on that, and we can make some hard copies too.

Okay. Council Member Kacima, did you have?

Well, I would only ask or make a request. What is the current policy? I think the public needs to know what the current policy is.

Can you provide that?

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Currently, so the city council, you've adopted your council rules of procedure and section 12 of those rules of procedure outline the process for different forms of recognition. And so there's five different forms of recognition, certificates of appreciation, coins, et cetera. The most common ones that you deal with are proclamations, which we had one this evening. And under proclamations, it in essence requires a majority of the council agreeing to the proclamation being on the preliminary agenda. And then when you approve an agenda, at the beginning of the meeting, that proclamation is formally approved and read. So in essence, that takes four majority vote. The highest form of recognition within your Rules of Procedure is the city key. In the past, I would say, decade or so, there's only been a couple keys that I recall being distributed. There could have been more before that. And I say that because it does have an additional step above the proclamation, and that is it requires five council members, so a supermajority, to approve of a key being on the agenda. And then once it's on the preliminary agenda, then you all have to vote. And there has to be five of you voting to approve that the key is issued. So that's, in essence, the procedural, the process for issuance of a key.

Mr. Mayor, if I could comment, I think that this process, as it currently is in code, provides tremendous discretion for the council to make this decision. And it gives the opportunity for a council member, if they think someone is worthy, is to state why they think that individual or maybe individuals are or were worthy of receiving the key to the city. But I think that one thing that everyone understands is that this is a very rare honor that we give. Since I have been on the council, we have given this honor to Sister Pat. when she retired from the position of being the head of St. Francis House. I believe it was founded by her mother and her father. I could be wrong. Yes. Mrs. Michaelick, I believe. Correct. Yes. I see some nodding heads there. She retired. And then also Kent Holmgren, upon his retirement service as the CEO of the fair, received the key to the city. These individuals received that. But other individuals, many, have received proclamations. Each member here is given 10 coins that if they want to have them engraved with something, they could do that, that they can give out to community members. I've been here now, what, almost 10 years. So that's almost 100 coins. And I've probably only given out a handful. That's it. So when I think of a key of a city, I think it's extremely rare. I think it's for someone for distinguished service to the community in a variety of ways. But it could also be for someone who performs something that brings tremendous honor to the city of Puyallup. And I can think of a myriad. of reasons why that would be. And that's why, ultimately, I think it's up to the discretion of the council. Rather than putting criteria that would limit our ability to award the key to an individual or individuals. I think that we should have that discretion, and the public should understand that we have a representative form of government. I represent the first district, along with Councilmember Adler. They, in their wisdom, elected me to make decisions for them. And that's representative democracy. And in this particular case, if five of us come together and say, that person deserves a key, I think that that's up to our judgment. So I believe the current process is fine. And I would ask that we leave ultimate discretion to us to make that decision.

So I'm going to respond to that. I put a name forward here recently. I heard from several of my colleagues that they wanted to have some criteria by which to judge whether this individual measured up to the standard. And we can have our gut feels or we can have criteria. So I don't feel strongly one way or the other, but we need, as a As a council, we need to come together on whether we're going to have it or not have it. Can I respond to that? I don't think it needs a response.

Well, the only thing I say is that all I got in an email was a name. I had no rationale, no reason.

Again, if an individual feels that someone deserves... Jim, I did not recognize you. I had the floor. Okay, I thought this was a discussion.

I'll take my name off the board, but I thought it was just a discussion.

There was... I did put forward a... I don't know why you're not getting these distributions, but can I... the city manager. We've got the proposed criteria on the screen, which was distributed previously. proposal to hand out a key was distributed just in the same form as the proclamations were with plenty of whereases. I drafted it up and it was distributed. So I'm not sure why you're not getting these things, but we'll need to look into that. So I'd be interested in hearing from my council colleagues whether or not we feel we need criteria. And if we feel we do, then I would put forward these proposed criteria. If we feel we don't need criteria, then we can dispense with that. So I'm interested in hearing from, we'll

i think deputy mayor johnson's next on the list thank you yeah thank you mr mayor um yeah i'm looking over your your uh you know draft which i think is good um When I too look at this, it is, I mean, I've been on the council 10 years. And again, it's the same thing. I've only seen two handed out. So it is kind of an exception. So there's already a built-in screening that is taking place kind of organically without necessarily having criteria that qualifies. I'm not against some criteria. I'm just wondering if it's necessary. When I look back at looking at this criteria, I guess some of the questions would be, you've got one, two, three, four points. Would it, hypothetically, I'm just asking the question, it doesn't need to be an answer, but just for a separate discussion, do they have to meet all four points, or can they meet two of the three, or three of the four? I don't know. So that would be kind of something to ask about, because one is clear, two is clear, four is clear, but Do they have to be a hero? I mean, I don't know. It's just kind of an interesting dynamic.

If you look under eligibility, there's a recipient should meet one or more of the following criteria.

Yeah, so... Yeah, I think, you know, I don't have any problem looking at it. I guess my thinking is... If it's not broken, why tie it up more? I don't feel that we've loosely given them out like candy. So I feel like there's been a lot of discretion going on. It does take a supermajority. So it's not like even a majority of four can do it. It has to be five or more. So I think that in itself, and most of us up here, you know, pretty much know people in this area. So our ability to discern that kind of organically with a super majority of five or more, I think, is there. But I'm open to looking at it. I'm not sure it's necessary, but I'm certainly open to it.

Council Member Smolko.

Thank you. I agree with Council Members Kastema and Johnson about the supermajority being strong. And I also think Mayor Whitting's proposed criteria is strong without being a hyper-specific checklist of things. I think it's broad enough, but still gives clarity and definition to what it might mean to earn a key to the city. I would add a third point. Mayor Whitting, you said that there's kind of two options, a supermajority vote or criteria. I think it can be a both and piece. And also, I would propose some sort of stronger community involvement. provide the nominations and written justification as part of our public agenda packet before we vote, so that that is something that is transparent and open and out there. And then we vote. And I don't know whether that would continue to be a private matter or whatever, but I think that if we are truly representing our constituency and what they value as heroic or as worthy of this kind of recognition, that we'd be willing to stand 10 toes down on that publicly.

Councilmember Adler.

Thank you. I agree with the comments from Councilmember Kastema and Councilmember Smolko. Appreciate those. I also appreciate the criteria here. I do have a clarifying question, and it gets to Councilmember Smolko's point. Is the intent of what was put forward here with the criteria this in lieu of a supermajority requirement as well?

Absolutely not. There's no change to our rules and procedures here which require at least a 5-2 vote. So the supermajority will remain in place with or without the criteria.

Thank you for that. I support having a guide. I guess I would maybe recommend that it be considered that it's a proposed guide. And we use that as the North Star, if you will, and just a gut check. I appreciate the deputy mayor's comments related to our discernment, which I agree with. But I think that it's important to have something in writing, on paper, that we can always reference back to as a guide. And so I appreciate you, Mr. Mayor, putting this forward. And again, I think it's good to have a North Star roadmap, a gut check. And I would also be supportive of keeping the supermajority. So for me, It would be great, again, to have a guide here. But if the will of the council is to maintain what we have, I'm OK with that, too. Thank you.

DEAN COLLINS- Deputy Mayor Johnson.

MR. Yeah, this is a discussion, so that's why I'll have some short spurts to kind of help respond and understand, whittle it down. Again, I'm OK with this guy. I certainly would want to maintain the supermajority. What I don't want to do, and I would absolutely caution, say don't go there. Get into a debate on an individual publicly out in the open like this on some kind of vote, that's just not right. It puts people on the spot. It debates their character. It should be much like a proclamation. It's all done transparently under public record, but there should be a process that gets the five support ethically, according to the rules of disclosure, but has not become a debate on the dais. So if that's happening, my blood pressure is going to go up because that's disrespectful to anybody, a recipient, And it puts the council in a weird spot to have a debate on whether someone's qualifying or not. It should be very similar to the proclamations where information is put out by the city and asking the questions. There's nominations. And those that support this say so. If you don't support it, it's mute point. But I don't want to get into a debate of a person. I think that would be really destructive if words are stated pro or con against someone. I just think that's not the intent of that. So if there's safeguards in that, then I'm moving forward with it. But if there's not safeguards, we really need to address that before we open this can of worms.

Councilmember Kastema. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, I have no problem with a guide if a person needs that. I think that would be fine. However, I would, first of all, I think we should have the opportunity to look through this in close detail to make sure there's Something in here that we don't find is limiting. But I will say what they do on a state level is they'll state criteria for naming a building, for example, or whatever the case may be. But one of the points that they use in code and statute, you can check this out, is that they say that none of this is intended to remove the discretion of the city council members. In other words, if there's criteria that is not one of these, we can do that if we want to. But ultimately, the discretion Because what you're trying to do is you're not trying to tie people in. You're trying to give ultimate discretion to the council. Because there may be a unique situation. I don't know what that would be based on all that you have stated here. But I can tell you the state legislature always puts in a provision that says that the state legislature has ultimate discretion as to who would be awarded. such an honor still say having a building named after you or something of that sort so I guess that's kind of a providing guidance but also very clear as far as where the ultimate discretion lies councilmember Gilliam

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just realized that the reason why we're even having this discussion at the dais is because there was a name put forward that I was absolutely and am absolutely in support of. However, there was no real explanation. It was just assumed that you would know this person and their impact in the community. And so I think it's really helpful, again, to consider. I appreciate this outline. Maybe in the future, if a council member wants to recommend somebody for a key to the city, that they would actually back, hey, I've seen this person do such and such and such. And maybe there's even more than what's on this criteria that really amplifies this person. So I just recommend that we keep... keep it as it is super majority and then when we put a name forward that we're very clear on why we're choosing this person and not just assume that we everybody on council knows the reputation of the person so um that's it's okay if everybody would like to move on to the next agenda item after councilmember king has something to say uh just just i need to clarify he you know i put the put together the

the key proposal just the way I would put forward a proclamation. Was that not distributed according to our policies?

What your policy requires is that a council member may nominate a proposed recipient of a key to the city by sending the nomination to city management, who in turn will distribute the proposal to the council. And so you propose the person with

So my question is, I proposed the person. I put together the official document. Was that distributed or was it not?

Whatever you submitted to us was provided.

So my council colleagues, you all saw the criteria that was presented for that particular individual. Apparently, Council Member Castema has not seen it I'm looking for input now. I don't remember specifically getting those.

I remember having to research on my own.

Council Member Smolko? I may have a false memory. Council Member Smolko, if you could turn on your microphone.

So sorry. We don't have microphones in our schools. I don't remember getting something. That does not mean it didn't happen, but I do remember immediately having to do my own research to find out who that person was because I did not know.

I don't remember seeing your description. So let me just ask, have council members seen that document? Yes. So it was apparently distributed.

Yes.

OK, so I'm not going crazy. OK, so again, I can, I'm not going to, so I guess the question before us is do we want to have some, let me summarize a little bit. I agree 100% with Deputy Mayor Johnson that we do not want to have a public debate over whether or not we want to make an award to somebody. I think we could, on further reflection, we can all probably agree with that. I also want to acknowledge Council Member Kastema's thoughts about making it always having the council have discretion If somebody doesn't meet these criteria, this is a guideline, not an absolute. And if we have an extraordinary circumstance that doesn't meet one of these, but we have a supermajority that thinks the individual deserves a key, then we should be able to do that. So the question I'm still a little bit up in the air on is whether or not we need criteria at all. Do we want to have some kind of base guidelines, or do we want to continue with the process we've got, which is kind of a seat of the pants approach without any guardrails? So Councilmember King.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You know, I like the discussion that we've had here. It's a collaborative effort regarding this situation and this topic, and it seems like a lot of the members have come together in regards to the specific process that we have currently. It seems to be deemed okay, and I appreciate Councilmember Kastema's comments regarding the state that the state has ultimate discretion, I think that should roll over to the city as well. I also think that what you proposed here with the criteria can also help kind of be a pathway of understanding for those that want to nominate someone for key to the city. So I appreciate you making this document just as a way for council members to be able to cipher and to make sure that some boxes are checked but I agree with a lot of what was said here tonight regarding this I believe that the criteria that is already set forth is great as is and I appreciate you putting in the time and for the proposed criteria. On top of that, that does not need to necessarily be adopted, in my opinion, but can be used as a north star, as one council member had said. And I appreciate everyone's comments here tonight. So with that, I would say that I think Collectively, I think we're good here on this subject and I don't think any further discussion needs to be had so I appreciate the discussion Deputy Mayor Johnson.

Yeah, I think I'd like to Make a recommendation if not even a motion to adopt this guide that's been presented to us with the contingency that we add some autonomy, as Council Member Castema, we add some verbiage that would include autonomy for discretion, as well as a process similar to our proclamations that they would not turn into a debate of how someone measures up or doesn't measure up through a legal process. Either you have the supermajority votes that are supporting it, without debate through the email communication. And then that would be brought forward as we'd have proclamations without a debate on the floor on whether you support a proclamation or a person. It would happen with that. So that's kind of my entertainment. If it calls for a motion to adopt that, I certainly would make that motion. If council wants to get some of the added autonomy in there, in a process included in there, we can come back. and make a motion, but if everyone's comfortable with that, we can certainly take care of this tonight or we can come back with a final draft that includes councilor Acasima's discretion as well as a process that mirrors the process of a proclamation so it's clear and we're not, you know, in a sense muddy water. So that's kind of a thought on maybe how to move forward.

City Manager.

Just as a point of reference, if council does determine that you want to formally adopt the criteria as part of your rules of procedure, that does need to be done by resolution, which staff can certainly prepare and bring back at a subsequent meeting. I just wanted to interject in that regard. If you want to make this a formal part of it, we would need to prepare a resolution, and we can bring that back at a subsequent meeting.

OK, so this is a discussion. I don't feel a consensus at this point, or I don't want to assume a consensus at this point that we can determine whether or not we want to have this guiding document here. Again, it doesn't change the code with the requirements for how the keys are awarded the supermajority vote. And the process would be follow the process that we've established for proclamations. Do we need the criteria? Deputy Mayor Johnson, let's go ahead and have a motion on this.

I mean, I can make that motion as stated, but if we wanted the staff to work on a resolution to make it to crystallize what our understanding I think is, so it's in writing, then we could formally do it then. But I'm okay with making a motion if we're comfortable with understanding what the criteria is here and they'll just bring back a resolution. I'm open to it, Mayor. I'm just... trying to figure out how we get there. Or, just kind of pausing, if in fact the nature of this document doesn't need to be formalized, if all of us agree that this is our guideline, we don't have to adopt it in our rules of order. We can agree that we understand this. We can keep it the way that it is right now because now we have understanding that this is kind of a criteria, but we still have discretion. If that's the case, maybe we don't need to add this to our rules.

I'm going to suggest that we direct staff to bring a board resolution back to us at a future date and we can discuss the merits of it and decide on it at a future date. Council Member King, do you have?

Yeah, I was just going to reiterate again. I don't think any modification needs to be made to the current procedures or any resolutions need to be written. But you are the mayor, and you have that discretion.

OK, I direct staff to prepare a resolution to codify these criteria.

Do we need a vote on that?

Thank you. Just saying, typically when council directs staff, depending on what the situation is, but generally it's done by a majority of council. That's just kind of how it is. So typically speaking, there would need to be direction from a majority of council, whether that's a voter consensus. I don't need that formality, but I would prefer to have a majority of council say, yes, please work on this resolution, and we will follow that direction and bring it back at the next meeting.

So I think this is the clearest way of bringing this to a resolution, if you will. So do we have four? I'll direct the city manager to discuss this in our weekly meetings to see if we have a majority to put forward the resolution. With that being said, let's move on to the next topic. The Puyallup Road Safety Action Plan, City Engineer Hans Unger will introduce the presentation.

uh good evening mayor and council members so uh safety action plan is a brand new planning activity we're starting to endeavor here and so our goal tonight is to introduce you to the topic allow you to give some feedback or raise questions to it and stuff this is something that we got a federal grant for it also unlocks after we adopt this action plan it unlocks implementation grants, so actual infrastructure grants that we could apply for through the federal program there. So tonight, I'm introducing Michael Houston from Tool Design. We've hired them. Council's previously approved that contract. for helping us implement or help us to develop this plan. And you'll probably notice as he goes through the presentations, there probably will be some correlation to other activities like traffic calming program that we're trying to implement more proactively and stuff. So there's overlap, and we're trying to make sure that we're coordinating on all those.

All right. Good evening, everyone. Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. My name is Michael Houston. I'm with Tool Design. I'm the engineering manager in the Seattle office, but work on the safety action plans throughout Washington state. Wanted to talk about a few different aspects of safety action plans, beginning with the safe system approach. And then talk through the different elements in a comprehensive safety action plan. And then touch on public engagement, which is going to be one of the first components of the planning process. And then finish up with a project timeline and schedule. So the safe system approach is focused on fatal and serious injuries on our streets and roads. It is based on the pie that's shown on the slide here, which really focuses on several different elements, not just infrastructure, but also safer people, so encouraging safe behaviors when people are out walking, biking, and driving. thinking about safer speeds on our streets as well, and that this is a proactive approach and one that acknowledges the shared responsibility that everyone has on our roadways. And so as part of the kind of holistic approach to the safe system approach, it really increases redundancy. And we use a kind of Swiss cheese graphic to really illustrate that those fatal and serious injury crashes only occur when all of the systems fail. And a couple definitions provided here, just talking about different elements of the safe system approach. Vision zero is the overarching philosophy and zero tolerance for fatal and serious injury crashes. And then the comprehensive safety action plan is a strategy document that outlines how the city will approach and implement that vision in order to identify projects and secure funding. So our approach to the safety action plan includes first engagement and so we're just at the very beginning of the plan right now been working with Hans and other city staff to gather data whether that's crash data from the prior have five years of history, but also just prior planning and policy documents. So we can learn from those and start to integrate that into our identification of safety issues. From there, we'll develop countermeasures and prioritize them. And then we'll use that to pursue funding, to identify potential grant opportunities, to advance them to implementation. And so why develop a Safety Action Plan now? As Hans mentioned, the City of Puyallup received an SS4A, which is the Safe Streets for All Planning and Demonstration Grant to develop the Safety Action Plan. It's the first step towards unlocking some of that federal implementation funding that's available. An eligible safety action plan is required before the city will be able to compete for some of those implementation grants, which can provide substantially more funding to move these projects forward. One of the required elements in a comprehensive safety action plan is engagement. And as part of that process, I've identified a few different ways that the public will be involved throughout this 16-month plan. So we're still early on, but this early engagement would identify safety concerns and experiences from constituents. Later engagement would be used to inform and identify some of those countermeasures and safety improvements that are part of the safety-driven analysis. And that will include those trade-offs and potential improvements as well. And then throughout the project, online engagement can also be a useful tool to gather input, whether that's through mapping or information that's available throughout the duration of the project and can be updated along the way. Some of those other really key elements of engagement involve going to where people are, meeting them where they're at. That can include community pop-up events during existing events that are already planned. And that can be a really useful way to gather input on transportation safety concerns and priorities. We've identified a couple potential locations or activities here already, but we're in the process of developing a full public engagement plan that will lay this out in a little more articulated and clear manner. But another aspect of engagement are these targeted listening sessions, which can provide an opportunity for more one-on-one or small group discussions around specific safety concerns in the community. And then again, that online engagement can provide different means for collecting engagement throughout the project. As I mentioned, the total project duration is approximately 16 months. We're just getting started. And I identified a couple different council touch points here at the bottom. So we're at this first one in September. Data collection is underway. This crash analysis, which is also a required element of a comprehensive safety action plan, is underway. And that public engagement plan is being developed. We anticipate returning sometime in spring of next year with complete safety analysis, what's known as a high injury network, which we'll describe in more detail then, and start to identify some of those potential projects. And then in the fall of next year would be a draft plan and project implementation. With that, I'm available to take any of your questions.

Thank you. Appreciate that update. Any questions from colleagues? I think we've digested it. Deputy Mayor Johnson.

You're going to look at some crash data, is that correct? Find out where hot spots and issues are? Correct. Will you also look at... opportunities that would kind of highlight if we need more lighting, like stoplights and things like this where potential safety could be happening. I mean, that's kind of kind of an important one right i mean uh but lights are expensive but would this provide data that might highlight hey there's some areas in the city that probably could use some lights here and would that criteria only be because there's crash data or could it just be you know this is just a disaster waiting to happen maybe there's no crash data that supports it but this is a kind of a glaring hole let's get this summed up before the crash data starts proving in that area

Yeah, absolutely. The crash data that we receive from WSDOT does include lighting conditions. So that can be one way to look at the crash data, the historical crash data. But then also, as part of some of the data that we're gathering for the city, it can also include light locations from which we could infer light conditions.

Yeah, I guess I'd like to look at it from this perspective. One is, you can come in and assess scenario safety improvements based off of a reaction of data, but could you come in from a perspective that's proactive? Listen, we don't have the data in this section or area, but this all indicates that this could be a problem. So getting in front of it, versus reacting to it. And I'd like to see that in the study it's holistic, not just the obvious that we know. Our city staff can look at crash data and say, hey, we've got to do some improvements. So I appreciate that. But I'd sure love to see a holistic approach that, hey, there's some certain areas in the city that maybe doesn't have the hotspot data, but the way that traffic and population is increasing, this is really projecting as a potential problem and therefore highlight proactive, almost like a doctor that takes care of you when you have the disease or the doctor gives you some good health before a disease comes. And I'd like to see that part. So is there opportunity for that to happen on the proactive side?

Yeah, I appreciate those thoughts and comments. And as part of our analysis as well, what we look at is taking some of that historical crash data that might have occurred in certain locations, but seeing what those common factors are, and then looking at other streets and roads that have similar elements as where those crashes occurred in order to, I think, get out a bit of that proactive approach that you're talking about.

Delving a little deeper on the proactive. I mean, car accidents are awful, right? But sometimes there's some protection around that. Again, I'm thinking about proactive, even around school zones, these kinds of things, right? So we don't want to wait for some data on that, right? And maybe we're fine. I don't know. But again, I would want some objective eyes looking at some of the safety issues around our schools, both elementary middle and high schools. And again, looking at, hey, maybe it doesn't have the data that shows accidents, but as schools grow and as traffic grows, we want to get ahead of this and address it. So I hope that that's part of it. To me, that's having foresight and not just reaction site, which we certainly appreciate. So I hope that's built into your study. and if it's not i'd like to consider that you look into that and bring back doesn't mean that the city has to adopt it but give us some objective eyes in here sometimes our sight eyes can see things that we can't see internally and so we want that third party perspective that says hey listen we think this is a you know a potential spot that we want to look at and maybe take an address to that sure thank you council member adler

Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Just real briefly, going back to your commitment to public outreach and ensuring that you're connecting and hearing resident feedback, if I can, for whatever it's worth, just also encourage you to consider maybe running the tape, if you will, maybe the last six months, a sampling of our council meetings, particularly during public comment. Traffic safety, road safety, pedestrian safety has been a common theme, not only from constituents, but also myself and my colleagues. I think there's a lot to be found in those public comments. And for as much as I am sure folks will turn out and engage with you related to the plan, I do think that there are some really good comments and feedback that are buried, if you will, in our past meetings. So for whatever it's worth, I just offer that. And thank you for taking it very seriously.

Sure.

Appreciate that. Not my recommendation. Taking the feedback from our residents very seriously. Thank you.

Of course.

Gotcha.

Thank you. I don't see any more people. I appreciate your presentation and look forward to the results.

All right. Thank you very much.

We'll now move to our city manager's report.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No meeting next week as it is Labor Day. And your next meeting is September 15th. And the primary item on there is the public hearing and first reading of the street vacation request. So this is the Puyallup School District and their request. Council is very familiar with this item. So there will be a public hearing and a first reading of an ordinance. That will be the main item. And then also staff will be presenting on the Design Review and Historic Preservation Board and their scope, a potential ordinance relating to that committee. So thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Councilmember reports. Councilmember Kastema.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just only two items. One of them is that I know the community has had several requests. Sounds like a very small point, but I just want people to know about it. When I would speak at the senior center on a monthly basis, people always ask for dance classes in Puyallup. And I just want people to know they're finally here. This Thursday the 3rd, they're starting dance classes at the senior center at 730 at night. I've already signed up. My wife and I have. I just want to make that announcement to the community. I know people don't think it's that significant, but I wanted people to know that. That's all. The second item I have is actually very somber. But I feel compelled at this point to tell everyone. I think the community needs to know that Councilmember Robin Ferris recently passed away. And I served with Robin for a number of years. She served for eight years from 2016 to 2024. She was a tenacious individual, for those of you who knew her. I met her when I was in the state legislature when she came down. She was running a recall petition for Dale Washam, who had been elected through this thing called ranked choice voting, which I think sounds really good to most people. But most communities where it's actually implemented It really doesn't pan out the way people want it to, or it doesn't meet their expectations. And in this case, Dale Washam was elected, and Robin worked very hard to get him recalled, and I believe he was recalled. And I think it was very well justified. And I think it took a lot of courage for her to do that. Now, people who knew Robin here knew that she was sometimes with you, sometimes she was not. And it would be surprising, but she was someone who was very driven by what she felt was right and what was wrong. And her and I would cross swords at times, but then we would join together. And it was only because of that relationship I had with her and our ability to agree on something that some significant policy decisions were made for the safety of the people in Puyallup. She spent 23 years in the Navy. And we were always exposed to idioms from the Navy. I don't remember all the sayings we would hear about. Well, in the Navy, this is how we do it. And there's a lot of wisdom that she would bring to the Navy. to the council because of her 23 years in the Navy, which she was very proud of. There's also a very personal connection. My parents, who lived across the street from me, and they passed away approximately 10 years ago, Robin and my parents were very close. She would come over, and she would spend time with my dad, who was a former corrections officer, college professor, and someone who could talk a lot about public policy decisions, especially in the correction areas. And Robin was always very interested in that and was very good friends with my mom, too. So there was very much a personal connection. In fact, she once told me, she says she wished she would have had my dad as a dad. which of course has got to be one of the greatest compliments you can ever receive, because you oftentimes think, well, it's just my dad. But nevertheless, we were close. So very sad to see her pass away. I will just add this one last moment, one last point, is that in her heart, one of the most important things to Robin, and something that her and I could agree 1,000% on, She agreed that the diamond in this city was the Meeker Mansion. And she believed that someday she would always hope that she would see that mansion opened up on Meeker, as we have the Festival Street, which we're getting closer on. But she has family connection, because I believe the property there once belonged to her grandfather, or at least some of the property in that area. belonged to her grandfather, and something very, very important to her. And her and I were absolutely 1,000% in agreement. That is the diamond of this community. So God bless Robin Ferris, and so be it. Thank you.

CHRISTOPHER KING JR.: Council Member King.

Thank you. I do echo everything that Councilmember Kastema has said about Councilmember Ferris and her service on Council for the eight years that she was here, and I was honored to be able to serve with her for two of those years. I believe it was two? Yes, it was two. But You know, like Councilmember Kastema said, you know, she was either with you or against you. And you never really knew. But at the same time, you know, she was very witty. She was very fun, if you will. She had jokes on the dais that I will say and admittedly so that most of us didn't get. But she knew that. And she had always come up to me after council, after she tried to give her one-liners and say, hey, thank you for laughing at my joke. You're the only one that gets me. And I thought, uh-huh, yeah. But she was definitely a character and someone that we will miss and be able to say thank you to her for 23 years in the Navy and her eight years here serving our community. And she will be deeply missed. Moving on to the most notable thing that's happening in our city this month. The fair starts this Friday. Make sure you bring a canned food for the Puyallup Food Bank. A non-perishable food item will get you into the fair for free. And there are a lot of great opportunities on Friday for everyone to enjoy. Get out here and do the Puyallup at the Washington State Fair. Mr. Mayor, that wraps me up. Thank you.

Council Member Smolko.

Good evening, everyone. As we close tonight, before that happens, I wanted to briefly reflect on where our community is headed right now, because we're in the middle of a very important transition.

Schools are starting up.

Tomorrow is supposed to be Puyallup's first day of school. I teach in the Bethel School District, and today was day two. So that moment matters. It doesn't just mean students returning to classrooms. It means our neighborhoods are waking up with new routines, families planning their days, and our community getting ready for the school year ahead. And with that return comes a shared responsibility to make sure our schools and the areas around them are safe, welcoming, and prepared for growth. Safety has to be more than a promise. It has to be a practice we support. We've talked a lot about that tonight and in previous meetings. At the same time, the beginning of the school year is also a signal of opportunity. It's a chance to invest in our youth, to strengthen family trust, and build toward long-term community growth, socially, academically, and economically. When schools do well, communities do even better. And that's it. Thank you.

Councilmember Gilliam.

The other teacher. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I wholeheartedly agree with Council Member Smolko. Tomorrow is the first day of school. And, of course, September is a very busy month for us as a city with all the activity going on with the fair. I'm wearing... A pin that was given to me, I got it today. It is, I honestly don't know how old this is, but it is Washington State. And then it says the Washington State Fair, do the Puyallup. And it has a little heart where Puyallup is on Washington. My friend Christine Haas' mom had this, and she sent it to me today. So Christine, I'm wearing the pin. Thank you. If you're going to the fair and you want to support your local schools, please park at Cowles Junior High. I hope it's okay that I do a plug for that. And we're so grateful the fair brings so much to our community, not only on the fairgrounds, but also into literally our community and the stimulation. And then I'll just end my comments with, I have a lot of fond memories of council member fairs. When she was on city council, I think it was her first term, she discovered the Youth Investment Center. And she was really into leadership building. And she loved that there was a hub for youth to come. And I remember her talking with one of my students who was on my leadership team. And she was just sharing her passion about leadership. And he was just like, uh-huh, uh-huh. And then she walked away. And he told me, he goes, Renee, I didn't have the heart to tell her all the things that she said she wanted to see in leadership. You were already doing with us here at the youth center. I was like, Hey, great minds think alike. Um, she showed up, she shows up, she showed up for community. Um, I really enjoyed watching and helping council member door and, uh, council member Shadco, um, and council member Ferris all help decorate the daffodil float. And so our youth center kids would go over and, plug the holes with all the daffodils. So she is missed, she will be missed, and I think she will be thought of fondly. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Councilmember Adler.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I, too, want to send my condolences to Councilmember Ferris' family. I want to thank Councilmember Ferris for her unwavering pride and love for Puyallup. I had known Robin for a very long time, since I was quite younger. And we always had very good conversations, albeit they were sometimes short, because we were in passing. But one thing that I learned I appreciate about her and always will is just the way that the love for Puyallup just flowed out of her. I mean, we, I, found out that she was very close with her cousins. And one of her cousins graduated with my parents. And when my father passed away, her cousin wrote one of the nicest things about his memories with my father. And I told Robin about that, and it was like, just the love that she and her family have for Puyallup and the people of Puyallup, in that moment, she became emotional herself that I was able to put together the pieces of how we were connected. And she really enjoyed doing that. She really enjoyed getting to know folks, their Puyallup story, and the connections that she or her family may have, which I think We have heard from several members on the dais tonight about her pride and love for this community and how deep it was, echoing Councilmember Castema's comments related to the Meeker Mansion site and that land and her family's involvement. So I pray that Robin is at peace. And as I always say, I believe. Um, in, in the same that, you know, they say you die twice when your physical body leaves this planet and the second time when they stop telling stories about you. And, um, as long as we have this city, I think Robin will continue to be alive. So, um, well done faithful servant council member Ferris. Switching gears, I want to thank constituents that came out this evening, the public comment. I want to especially thank our resident who commented on the Bell property, which is the overgrown property off of Pioneer next to the downtown police station and this is actually something that I have been asking about for probably a month and a half. I too am very worried that a cigarette butt or something else could ignite that property and I have been assured that it The city is working with that property owner to get the property cleaned up. And so thank you. Sometimes I think that I might be hypersensitive to properties around the city that might be overgrown, or I know that we could put our better foot forward. And so that comment tonight, I really appreciate it and can assure you that we are on it. and working with that property owner. Really briefly, today the city of Puyallup was able to host a small event with Washington State University's provost and executive vice president, Chris Riley-Tillman, as well as the dean of the college that oversees the research and extension centers. And I only describe his title like that because the acronym, I can never remember what the acronym stands for, but it's CARNS. both incredibly dynamic leaders. They joined us here today with other WSU executive leadership, if you will, in honor and celebration of the Puyallup Research and Extension Center. And it was a great afternoon demonstrating Puyallup's commitment to that campus and highlighting over 130 years of partnership that the city and the Puyallup campus has had. I'd like to thank the mayor and Councilmember Castema for joining and providing remarks and sharing a proclamation in honor of the Puyallup campus that we will issue here later this month. It was a very good event highlighting, again, the partnership. To dovetail off of that, we also have WSU Day at the Fair, which is a part of our College Appreciation Week for the WSU Puyallup campus. I know that some information went out from the city today related to the WSU Day at the Fair, how to get tickets. and a little bit more about what that event is. And it will be the official watch party. The Cougars will take on the Arizona Wildcats. that afternoon. So we'll have a big screen TV. We'll have refreshments. The WSU Alumni Association Pierce County chapter, it's their official watch party. And we'll have grabbers, the ice cream grabbers from Ferdinand's, from Pullman. And it'll just be a really great opportunity to get together with fellow Cougs and others to celebrate and share more about the Puyallup campus. And that will be on September 26th. I encourage everyone who might be interested to log on to our website now because we only have about 150 tickets left to the event. And that does seem like a lot, but we started at 300 today. So not even 24 hours. We're halfway through. So please check that out. And with that, do the Puyallup. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Three things. Two fairly brief and one just a little over brief. Concert in the Parks Series concluded. A tremendous smashing success. I want to thank the Parks Department for putting on another great series of concerts. Virtually every band that came out was fantastic. The crowd engagement was over the top. I don't know if there's any data, but I suspect that If we have some data, it'd be nice to look at that. I heard with the Journey concert, there was probably numbers of over 4,000 people, they thought, coming out and attending. I even got comments that there was great parking here. They were able to find some great parking for some of the outlying areas and the Sounder parking lot and stuff. So they loved it. And so it's something that our city is hosting, and it's growing, people coming from outside the cities. Because these same bands are playing in other cities, but they come here because the culture here is so marvelous. There's a sense of just joy and community and pretty fun. So I want to thank the mayor for allowing me to kind of help emcee that. It wasn't a chore for me at all. It's like you kind of get paid to do something you love doing. And it's like, I don't even get to have this much fun. Thank you. So thank you, Mayor, for letting me lead that this year. It was the highlight of my summer, and it usually is. So I just love connecting with the community and the people. It's fantastic. And then moving on to, I know we all spoke of Robin Ferris. I do want to touch on her just very briefly, but I want to honor her. I know that when the memorial service comes I certainly would love the opportunity if there's open mic to speak a few words then more formally But I do want to be in this moment because we're on a council nights the first council meeting after her passing and Seems appropriate to just take a moment and honor her Her and I got elected at the same times and so we both got elected together on that same same night and So we kind of walk this journey with her for eight years and I think she was a great example of what Councillor Castema stated. You know, her and I, politically, we didn't see eye to eye on quite a few things, quite frankly. And it was pretty different. But I think, again, it was another amazing display of our mutual respect for each other and the process, the political process, that we didn't see each other as enemies. And we display that beautifully. hear very well, I think, even in this current council. There's a culture that's happened in, I think, the Puyallup City Council over the course of, I think, probably about eight years or so, and I believe it will continue for decades to come. It's a precedent, so we'll take care of it and continue. But it's civil discourse, debate, and then when the process determines the outcome, we move forward, and we're not going to do what we see on federal levels where you become the enemy, and we're just not going to do that here. And so Robin was a great example of that, and I appreciate and honor her and thank her for that. And so we'll have more to say on that at her memorial service. And then a great big shout out to Marla. Marla, she had some great news. She had some housing issues that she was struggling with. And those have been taken care of. She's got a new place. She loves it. And so congratulations to Marla. That's it, Mr. Mayor.

OK, I'll wrap up. We had a great one Puyallup this past week. Lots of kids having a lot of fun. It's a great event, a chance for our young people to get to know our police officers. And I appreciate the PPD for putting that on. With regard to police, we also had a retirement event for Dan Drasher. Our school resource officer, I can never get the SRO straight in my mind, but he did a phenomenal job. He's been with the police department for 13 years, and we'll miss him. The schools will miss him. Robin Ferris, I'll just say one thing about her. She had a good heart. She was a good person. And we're all a little poorer for her being gone. And finally, just to help out. council member adler a little bit college of agricultural human and natural resources it's a mouthful karnes i don't know how they get the that acronym out of out of that but but anyway that's it for tonight uh yeah yeah i've messed it up too i took note uh so meeting adjourned thank you

Thank you.