City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the November 18, 2025 city council regular hybrid meeting. My name is Salem Nice. I'm the mayor and this evening's hybrid city council meeting is being brought to you in person and by Zoom. We're also broadcasting live on the city's YouTube channel. Welcome and thanks for joining us tonight. Council members, please have your microphones turn on for roll call. City clerk Andrea Larson, please call the roll. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council member Androl here. Council member Becker here. Council member Reynolds. I heard him say here even though it didn't come through audibly or I saw him say council member Wer here. Council member Weinberg

here. Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb here. And Mayor Nice here. All right. Next we have the pledge of allegiance. If you're in council chambers, please stand and face the flag. If you're on video, please turn it off. 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. All right, we now move to approval of tonight's agenda. If there's no questions, may I have a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Second.

Okay. Moved by council member Weinberg, seconded by council member Anderol. City clerk, please call the role. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council member Becker. Hi. Mayor Nice. Hi. Council member Weinberg. Hi. Council member Andraw. Hi. Council member Reynolds. Hi. Deputy Mayor Rosenom. Hi. And council member Wer. Hi. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. All right. So, this gets us to our first item, which is the item of special business. and Chief Lane, if you might come to the podium tonight. We want to thank Chief Ben Lane of East Side Fire and Rescue for his 25 years of service to Mercer Island and the greater East Side communities. Chief Lane began began his career at East Side Fire and Rescue in 1994 and successfully moved up the ranks until he was appointed chief in 2022. Throughout his career, he's led and participated in programs that supported youth prevention efforts, peer support, health, and wellness. As chief, his leadership has extended countywide, including advancing mobile integrated healthc care to better serve vulnerable and high need populations, and strengthening readiness and regional coordination for wildland fire challenges. Locally, he served as chief of Merceron's fire department for two years and assisted with this the city with the transition of responsibility to east side for fire and emergency services for the island starting in January of 2024. Chief Lane ensured that there would be no change in service levels and supported fire department employees as they became employees of East Side Fire. Chief, we want to thank you for your excellent leadership, your dedicated public service and care for our community. and I will open it up to council if anybody on council would like to say a few words of appreciation.

Sure. Council member Weinberg. Uh it's a thank you uh Chief Lane for your years of service and I'll be very brief, but it's been an honor serving alongside you these years. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Andrew. Yeah, thank you. I'd like to add my thanks as well. Um Chief Lane, it's it's been a pleasure. Um it it's uh I think not insulting but rather flattering to say it's been so uneventful and thank you for everything you and your team uh does to keep the community safe and and feeling safe. Thank you. Thank you, Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb.

Yeah. Uh Chief, even though I wanted to be a firefighter when I was little, I started when started working with you, I realized how little I knew about how fire departments work. So, I just want to thank you um for your patience and your time um talking through some really complex issues with me about how you know fire administration works and how um you know your recommendations on how we should do certain things differently. And um I'll also uh never forget when we were looking for my son who decided to play hide-and-seek at the fire station without telling anyone. Um which was definitely a highlight of my service here. Um, you know, I just think, you know, your your attitude is always so great and patience and I appreciate it. Thank you.

And, you know, I just want to add, I've been on council for almost nine years and in nine years, you see a lot of things. Maybe the the only thing that was more handring than going through the RFP process with fire was a garbage contract and and going from republic to ecology services. There's certain things that communities care a lot about and fire is clearly one of them. And you know, that process uh was guided uh by a lot of folks, but you know, we had a ton of confidence in you and and your team as we you know, you did interim leadership through that transition. And I just can't thank you enough for everything that you did that grounded us and and the community and that decision-making process. And really ultimately looking at where we are now, it was the right decision for the community and uh we appreciate that. The East Side Fire and Rescue team is just a phenomenal team to work with.

Thank you. Okay. Any other words? No. Well, thank you again for coming tonight. Is it okay if I say a couple words? Yes, I would love to.

Even though I'm here at the strict orders of the city manager, um which I do appreciate. Um, you know, serving as your fire chief has definitely been an honor and a privilege and the men and women of our organization who provide the service to community. Um, they provide the best service and when you surround yourself with great people, great things happen. Um, and and in that there is a bright future ahead to uh to our organization. We have Assistant Chief Will Ao named as the next fire chief. And I also like to take the opportunity to bring up our newest deputy chief, Deputy Chief Car Putnham. Uh Chief Putnham joins us from Central Kitap and uh Eastside Fire and Rescue is as you know a large organization. We're split up into four different um battalions and Chief Putnham is responsible for overseeing operations in battalion um three and battalion 9. Battalion 9 is here in Mercer Island and she's already had the great opportunity to do some direct communication with both Ally and Jesse on some incidents. Um, Chief Putnham is also responsible for special operations EMS and training for throughout Eastside Fire and Rescue. And again, this is about the future of leadership of the organization is is no doubt in great hands. And the the the great service that you're accustomed to is no doubt going to continue. And I'd just like to give Chief no chance and just to say hello.

Hi, thanks Chief. Um, like Chief Lane said, I originally um worked at Central Kids at Fire and Rescue. I was there for 17 years. Um, my last few roles were as operations chief, training chief, safety chief. So, I feel a great honor to to be here and to serve, especially Mercer Island. Uh, one of my dreams is to live uh in the community I serve, and I'm getting awfully close. I live in southeast Seattle, so when I go for walks along the water, I can look over and see island and the and the people in the in the community I serve. So, that means a lot to me. It's an honor to be here to represent the fire chief and Chief AO and Chief Garat. And uh my door is always open. Ally and Jesse have my phone number. So if any questions, just let me know. Um I'm here to serve you and your citizens as well.

Well, thank you very much. Thank you.

Okay, that brings us to our city manager report for which we welcome city manager Jessie Bond. All right. Good evening, city council. Thank you, Casey, for the screen share. Next slide, please. And next one. Uh, just a quick look ahead at how the rest of this year is shaking out. Your next meeting will be Tuesday, December 2nd. Council, I am 90% sure, not 100% yet, that we will not need the second meeting in December. and I will be able to say for certain in just a couple of days. There's one matter outstanding. So, I'll I'll be in touch with you by the end of this week regarding that second December meeting. Uh our boards and commissions uh continue to meet uh through the end of the year and we keep all of our meetings posted on our website at the link below. Next slide. Hey, that's all of you just about an hour ago. I wanted to share with the community that uh earlier this afternoon our city council, our staff, and many fra friends friends of uh late council member Jake Jacobson gathered at Luther Burbank Park to officially dedicate the pickle ball courts. Uh you can see in that photo there, although it was getting a little dark as we were taking pictures, um a beautiful sign in honor of of Jake. So, we are now pleased uh to call the pickle ball courts the Jake Jacobson pickle ball courts and we'll be updating all of our maps and website as a result. Thank you council uh for sponsoring this. Uh it certainly meant a lot to the staff to be there today as well. Uh switching gears but uh talking uh about playground updates. We are making great progress on the first hill playground replacement project. There's

a picture there to the right. This is a really cool new structure. It's called a tower. It's about 20 feet tall. Uh it's it's geared for older kids. And that was uh one of the goals of our playground upgrades over the next 15 to 20 years is that we meet a variety of needs, including uh putting in some more challenging pieces for the older kiddos. Um you'll also see some other improvements if you pop by the park, including a cedar timber timber wall and closing the play area. uh and new post for what will be a new swing set. We are anticipating opening by year end. Some of this is weather dependent. Famous last words. And I'll remind you that the funds for the playground replacements come from the 2022 parks levy. Council, I have seen some questions on social media lately about why it took so long to get started. I'll just remind you that after the levy was approved, we had to uh start planning for all these replacements and there was a little bit of a lag, but we're rolling now and on average we will be replacing one playground structure a year. Next slide. Okay, this is uh just an update on a little bit of a a headache situation. And I'm pleased to say 81st Avenue Southeast uh which is how we travel uh here uh to the community center is back open again. You may recall that a little over a month ago, King County Sewer and their contractor had to close the road again for what was a repair of a re-repair. Um very inconvenient. I know council you did a lot of complaints about this, the staff did as well. We appreciate everyone's uh patience while they uh completed that work. So, the road is open now. Uh looks like basically what you see in that picture. Uh they will come back and do um a final lift of paving in the spring of 2026. So, thank you everyone uh for your

patience. If you'd like to read more information about the sewer project, we've got the King County site linked there. Okay, council. Couple uh heads up items. We have our holiday tree lighting Thursday, December 4th at 5:30 p.m. I think that's on your calendars, but I'll have uh Casey double check. If you came to town center tonight, you'll see we have lights um up on most of the trees, and I think that work is almost done. Uh also, community holiday party December 19th here at the community event center. That's also when the Argusy Christmas ship uh stops by Luther Burbank Park December 19th. And one more event to shout out. Also in December, December 6 from 10 to 3 here at the community center, we have our holiday makers market. This is a partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and features lots of handcrafted gift. 75 plus vendors will be here. Kids activities, food, drinks. It's a great time. Uh entry is free. So, if this isn't on your calendar, I will make sure that Casey adds that as well. A couple uh youth and family services shoutouts. First of all, in October, uh thrift shop staff coordinated with Covenant Living at the Shores, and we went over with our van to pick up things that they wanted to donate that were maybe too large for them to get them to the shop uh without our assistance. We filled an entire van in our first visit. And I just wanted to say thank you. These types of collaborations are so important to sustaining uh the critical work that Youth and Family Services does. So, Covenant Shores, shout out. Thank you. And it sounds like we need to make another trip and come back and do it again. And speaking of partnerships, really just uh overwhelming gratitude to the Mercer Island Youth and Family Services Foundation. Uh they reached out a few

weeks ago and said, "Hey, uh we'd like to help. We know that uh your budget is tapped and due to the impact of the SNAP benefit program, we had many people contacting the city needing assistance. Uh the Youth and Family Services Foundation stepped up, made a onetime donation of $30,000 to the city, which allowed us to buy additional food cards. And I have to say, if you've been following this on social media, this spurred a whole movement in the Mercer Island community, uh it's it's snowballed. So, we have had people out at grocery stores over the weekends uh collecting more uh gift card donations. I saw a post this weekend where over $1,000 was generated in gift card donations. So, just really really profound thanks. We are already putting that um those resources back into the community and uh helping meet uh household needs during this uh what can be a very challenging holiday season. Thank you again, Youth and Family Services Foundation. That is all I have this evening.

Okay, thank you for that. Our next item, businesses is appearances, which is an opportunity for anyone to speak to the city council on any item except items requiring a public hearing or any quasi judicial matters or campaign related matters. City clerk, do we have anyone sign up public comment? Yes, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Tonight's agenda will include in-person public appearances and remote public appearances via Zoom. Individuals wishing to address the council may do so in person or by Zoom or telephone, provided they register with the city clerk by 4 pm today. When it's your turn to speak, you'll be called by name. Remarks must be addressed to the council as a whole and not to individual council or staff members. Any person making personal, impertinent, or slanderous remarks or or who becomes boisterous, threatening, or personally abusive while addressing the city council may be requested to leave the meeting. Please speak audibly. State your name and city of residence for the record. There'll be a timer on the screen. You have three minutes to speak. When your time's ended, I'll thank you for your comments and move to the next speaker or item business. City clerk, please call the first speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Our first speaker tonight is Addie Smith. Play a video first. My video once again is not working for some reason after I just got it to work on my phone. But that video is three police officers at my former apartment where I used to live prior to being assaulted by a white resident whom these counselors know um had been attacking me for months and they never did anything about it. The police who had known for months never did anything about it. And when the police came to my home in that video, I'm going to try again when I come back to the next counselor's meeting to get that video to play. But I but um the police chief uh Ed Holmes I think is his name, he sent me an email prior to one of the most vicious assaults wherein I had to defend myself and then those police officers in the video that I had been trying to play um arrested me just for defending myself against a racist white woman. Mercer Island. I'm going to try one more time to get this video to play. But Mercer Island has taken years of my life. They've taken employment and career opportunities for years. These people sitting right here, every single one of

them have taken employment opportunities because they're racist. Every single one of them sitting here, I am a black woman. I was attacked by a group of white racists. And this group of people who are not all white because one of them is Muslim and Indian. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor, point of order. Okay. Stop the timer. I believe these comments go against the decorum of our uh of our body and our our rules of procedure. Okay.

City attorney, is is there a point of decorum that I can acknowledge? Yes, Mr. Mayor. Um, under under your rules of procedure, um, which I will pull up right now for you. public attack, personal attacks are against um the your your procedures for appearances as well as slander. So, if you'd find that uh the the content of Ms. Smith's current, you know, tonight's appearance includes any slander or personal attacks, you are within your right to either warn her to stop or to to cut her appearance short of the three of the two minutes.

Okay. Miss Smith, can you continue without any slanderous or attacking type language? Do do you have a point that you can get to that does doesn't include any of that? I'm going to restart your time. If you if you can conduct yourself in a way that doesn't include those things, we'll let you finish your minute. Go ahead. I'm going to play the video that I've been trying to play. 10 different orders. And the problem is you guys told her no that you would not arrest her. But the black lady, the black lady, me,

I'm the one who situation. So

in that video is what I have been saying to the Mercer Island U city council, Mercer Island police. When the woman attacked me, these Mercer these same Mercer Island police officers in the video that I just showed um arrested me for defending myself. And for years since I defended myself against that one one of the white people who had been attacking me, Mercer Island allowed this assault to go on my record. They have allowed this to hurt my name. They have allowed this to hurt my reputation. They have allowed this to hurt my employment.

Who else do we have for public comment? Our next speaker tonight is Dan Nordell. Welcome, Dan.

All right. Yeah, thank you very much. Uh, my name is Dan Nordell. I'm a 22 23 year resident of Mercer Island. Um, speaking on two matters. First, first of all, uh, congratulations to you all for recognizing for the dedication of the pickle ball courts, recognizing the tremendous community service, uh, from Jake Jacobson. I think it was a really, uh, spectacular gesture. Um, and you're all to be commended for that. Um, the second item relates to u the, the provisions for to to make permanent the the regulations for uh, temporary structures. I want to recognize the uh great work from the planning commission that they put a lot of time in. It really it's it's evident in um in the um the co the code that they've uh presented uh forward. There's three items that I'd like to call out that that cause some um concern for uh the country club. Number one is in log number 19, the there's a there's a termination of the entitlement at 20 years. Really, the investment that's been made it to expand um court access, it really has a longer life than that. And and so I certainly understand the provision of wanting to continually review and I think the other provisions that are in there are fine. I think the the termination of the entitlement going back to square one 20 years in doesn't reflect the the magnitude of investment that's gone into the to the infrastructure uh to make that real. That's number one. Log number 22 um has some provisions around yard setbacks which uh don't reflect like for for us that we we've got some um we've we've negotiated some easements on other property but technically strictly

speaking those are those are additive provisions that we probably wouldn't u be able to live with. So the the yard setback provisions in number 22 and then this 30-day extension was discussed a lot last time. The need for 30-day extension relates to having 180 days useful life of the of the facility. The extension's necessary when it's raining at the time you're going to take it down. You can't take down the structure when it's raining because it can't go it can't be stored wet. So that's when you'd need extension to get to be able to actually use the facility to the end of its life and then you need some relief if the weather doesn't cooperate u to to take it down. Other than that, a lot of great work put in. Uh really uh congratulate and thank thanks for the opportunity to uh to provide that feedback.

Thank you. All right. Any other public comment? There are no further speakers tonight, Mr. Mayor. Okay, that brings us to the consent agenda and city clerk, I'll give you a moment to put the consent agenda on the screen. It contains 10 items which are available momentarily on the screen and they're in the agenda packet. Council, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? Second. Okay. Moved by Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb, seconded by Council Member Wyberg. So clerk, please call the role. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council member Wer. Council member Wer, I didn't hear you. Hi. Sorry. Mayor Nice.

Hi. Council member Weinberg. I. Council member Reynolds. Hi. Council member Becker. I. Council member Andraw. I. And Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb. I. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Motion passes. Um, our next item or first item of regular business is AB6820, the Sound Cities Association voting delegate for the North Caucus meeting. So, council, this is the moment I look to the council for volunteers who somebody will volunteer because I'm not going. Who would like to represent the council for this amazing voting opportunity?

Oh, that's right. Bummer. I I I'm willing if no one else can, but I I would have to reschedule something to make make room for it. But if there's anyone else who would like to, I'll I'll yield to that. Council member Reynolds, are you going to be around inclined to What is What is the date? Uh December 9. It's Tuesday. Um I should be able to do that. I'll I'll throw my head in if it's not convenient for Council Member Weinberg. Excellent. Well, council, is there a motion to appoint council member Reynolds as the voting delegate at the Sound City Association's North Caucus meeting on December 9, 2025? So moved. So moved.

Okay. Moved by Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb, seconded by Council Member Anderall. City Clerk, please call the RO. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Coun Mayor Nice. I, Council Member Becker, I. Council member Wer, I. Council member Androl. I, Council Member Weinberg, I. Council member Reynolds I. And Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb. I. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Such a reluctant I. We We appreciate that, Council Member Reynolds. Oh, boy. Feel like a point is a strong word.

Yeah. Our next item of regular business is AB6808, which is permanent regulations for temporary uses and structures, including outdoor dining. Ordinance number 25 C-26, second reading. And we welcome CBD Director Jeff Thomas. Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, council. Uh, just a quick sound check. Can everyone hear me? Okay, we can.

Excellent. Thank you. Um, joining me for this item is Molly Magcguire, who just popped on the screen. She's going to fire up the slide deck machine here momentarily. Um, we just have just a a quick minute or two, a few slides we're going to walk you through this evening just to set the stage. Um, you can go ahead and advance it. Thank you. Um, a friendly reminder, uh, a couple friendly reminders for the council. This, uh, matter initially, um, began to be discussed with the city council at your planning session in 2024, which I believe was in sometime in March 2024. Um it was at that planning session that um direction was provided by the city council to staff to develop interim regulations for temporary uses and structures. Uh we did that. We brought that to you in May of 2024 and um the city council did take action and adopt interim regulations a couple weeks later in June of 2024. Um the interim regulations uh we did renew those in 2025 after one year of activity. Um the planning commission began working on um permanent um regulations uh to make a recommendation of the city council earlier this year. And on September 10th of this year, the planning commission wrapped up um their work on this and um forwarded a recommendation to the city council, which you received on November 4th, just two weeks ago. Um at first reading of the uh ordinance adopting permit temporary use and structure regulations, um city council directed staff to bring forward an ordinance for second reading tonight that um did not accept all of

the planning commission um recommended changes. Um the numbers I won't read all these numbers, but they're on the screen from the u the change matrix that was in your packet two weeks ago. Um these uh numbered items were removed um from the ordinance that is in your packet this evening and um we can forward to the next slide please. In summary then the uh ordinance that's before you in your packet uh this evening and is in front of you here tonight 25 C-26 does not include those log numbers. These are the same numbers from the previous slide. What it does include though are uh 16 planning commission recommended amendments um that are included in the ordinance. The final we'll go to the final slide here momentarily. The final point I'd like to make um we we do have interim regulations that are still valid on the books. Those are going to expire next month I believe on December 16th. So, um, we we are looking, uh, the idea is we would have some action here this evening that would adopt ordinance 25c-26. Go ahead and forward, Molly, please. And um we can um bring this effort to a successful conclusion with whatever may be in the final version of the ordinance and um get permanent regulations in place and make any operational adjustments that are necessary to uh implement uh the permanent regulations. So, with that, mayor, I'm happy to turn um the hot mic back over to you. And um Molly and I and the city manager, if need be, are happy to support any conversation the council may have here this evening at second reading for this ordinance.

Okay, that's excellent. Council, before I turn it over to questions, what I'm going to uh suggest is that we're going to put a motion on the floor. I'm going to put a motion on the floor to have this ordinance adopted. And then I'm going to open it up for amendments. And to the extent that there are amendments, we're going to table this to the end of the meeting, allow staff to come back, refine the ordinance, and then bring it back for a final vote if that's acceptable to everybody. And so, council, is there a motion to adopt ordinance number 25 C-26 relating to permanent regulations for temporary uses and structures, including outdoor dining, as shown in exhibit one to this AB? So moved.

Okay. Moved by Deputy Mayor Rosen Bomb, seconded by Council Member Weinberg. and then I'll open up to questions or amendments. Council member Androl.

I won't know if I have amendments until I have answers to questions, of course, but um could somebody tell me if the ordinance is adopted as written, what is the duration of the um temporary use permit if if one is applied for and granted? A temporary use of structure permit um is once if it is approved um and issued the permit would be valid for the period of the 180 days that is in the code. Okay. So

be a 180day permit a temporary use permit. So a new application would be required every year. Correct. And what's associated with a new application and a new permit issued every year are any required review that any required reviews that need to be done internally by the city and any required inspections that also need to be done as a result of um in the case of a structure some sort of structure uh being erected for that temporary period of time.

Okay. And just just to put some color commentary on that, specific to the bubbles uh that we've been talking about fall under these regulations, they have to have at a minimum electrical inspections and inspections by the fire marshall every time they go up. Okay, Cander.

Yeah, thanks. Um so I understand from discussions with the planning commission that um one of the reasons that they proposed type two and type three permitting was because some of these structures could be you know quite large or intrusive and um having 180 plus 30-day use is is not inconsequential. Um but that the type one permit process right now does not require any notice public notice at all. Um, and so that the neighbors could have, and I know that this isn't the case with with the Mercer Island Country Club in the bubble, but neighbors could have a temporary use sprung on them without ever having had any way to learn that it had been applied for. Is that correct?

Type one, type one permits, which temporary use and structure permits currently are in the code as adopted by the city council in the interim regulations, uh, do not require public notice. That is correct. Do do you think that that concern that the planning commission raised should be addressed in any way? I think council Jeeoff if I could just tap in here. Go ahead.

I I think the thing we have to consider is that there is a range of temporary uses and a range of permits being applied for. So, if somebody's seeking a permit um to put up a large tent for 10 days, they would have to go through a type three permit. I mean, that's how we're trying to we're trying to tease this out. Uh the bubble the bubbles are up for 180 days, possibly plus 30, uh with the variance as drafted. So, I I may have to call on Molly or Jeff to talk about some scenarios here. Uh, but we did feel that a type one use permit was better alignment of staff resources and also customerfriendly based on the prior direction the council gave us uh particularly related to these uh temporary use bubbles and that was what our recommendation was based on. Molly, can you correct anything I said in error because It's possible that I may make a mistake or Jeff.

Uh, no errors made in your commentary there, city manager.

Um, well, I I've heard concerns about staff resources and I've heard concerns about applicant resource uh resources and and timelines, but but I haven't heard any concerns for neighboring properties. And I don't know if it can be addressed. I don't know if a majority of the council would have the will to have it addressed in such a way that it was appropriate so that the Girl Scouts did not need to get a type three permit to uh sell cookies, but um but in a way that respected neighboring properties who would be subject to the temporary use that that may be significant for 210 days out of the year. And I don't have a motion because I don't I don't know how to address it in a way to balance all three interests. that is the applicant, the neighbors and the staff administrative burden.

Well, maybe another question I would ask is is the code official has the discretion to issue the permit or not. Does anybody have the right to submit a comment or concern to the code official? Jeff, can you anyone can always Yeah. Can you can you explain uh just let's give us a thumbnail sketch of a a type one permit what that looks like compared to a type three,

right? The the public noticing is the the primary component, right? With a type three permit, public notice is required that does have the written comment period associated with it. And um there is a decision a formal decision that's issued that then um goes out for notice again essentially that the decision has been made and um the designated appeal period with it. Type one permits also do have designated appeal periods. Any permit action made by the city is appealable um regardless of the type number that's associated with it. U but the difference is in the noticing and the time it takes to do the notice. of that and so forth. So, um some of you may recall I made a comment two weeks ago. Um if we were to incorporate a noticing component into these temporary use and structure permits, um applicants are going to have to budget the appropriate time uh in advance for applying for such a permit. and uh the cost for the city to recover its cost, which um is something that we have been mandated by the city council to um make every attempt to achieve. Um the fees for these types of permits would go up substantially. I believe two weeks ago I said something in the range of 10x to 12x from what they are now. And um that would be the cost of doing business to have um a permit type that requires the public notice and the the notice of decision as well.

And just to be clear, the the notice that we're talking about here would be a very specific notice to people that were within a radius of the proposed uh site. There is still public notice in terms of the the permit bulletin for all of these temporary uses as long as well as any other permit. Is that correct? So bulletin uh a notice in the permit bulletin would be included in a type two, three or four notice. Um with type ones, Molly, can you remind me we some type ones or no type ones go in the bulletin? No type ones go in the bulletin.

No type ones. So there no type one permits go in the permit bulletin. So maybe that's the maybe that's the amendment you're looking for is don't don't add the cost uh and time component. But if you want to have some public notice, just have these ones put in the public notice bulletin. Is that Jeff or Molly? Is that feasible to notice uh include type one uh permit in the well not type ones but type one temporary type. Yeah.

Right. So, um, to to add that additional function to these, um, what I think the mayor mayor, if I'm understanding your comment correctly, what you're suggesting is that we would put a simple notice into the permit bulletin that a type one temporary use and structure permit has been applied for, but um, that wouldn't have a formal comment period associated with it. It would just be a notice of an action. uh a permit has been received by the city and then a notice that a permit was issued on the back end. That was Yeah, that was my question.

That's certain that's certainly possible. That's a code amendment. Um uh that's a code amendment we uh could certainly make. Um there would be a cost associated with that. I think um there would need to be some internal consultation to figure out what that cost would be. Um, it probably wouldn't be as much as doing the full notice that I commented on a moment ago, but it certainly is something that could be calculated and brought back to the council for your uh, review and consideration.

Well, isn't it just the permit number and a description of the project on an electronic document? Uh it is it if we were to use the format that the bulletin uses currently for notices it would be a little bit more than that but yes it would be information that would be conveyed electronically and put put together conveyed electronically and sent out. That's correct as part of the perma bullet. Okay. So it would be staff time to summarize the permit for publication. Correct. Okay. Council Reynolds.

Yes. Hopefully my internet connection is stable enough. If you can hear me, we'll see. Um, two related questions. One, how many people get permit bulletin? What's on your subscription list? Uh, I I don't have the exact number for you, council member. We'd be happy to get that and follow up. It is a fairly substantial list of subscribers now. Um, Molly, I would estimate it's in the hundreds if I'm not mistaken. So, Jeff, is the bulletin also posted at the website? Yes. Y

and what would be the practical implication of including an announcement in there if we announce it but there's no public comment period? Does it give the public any more rights to do anything? A type one permit is appealable. Council member Reynolds. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Wer. I'll just add I'm not sure how extensive the problem is we're trying to solve here. So, I'd be inclined to wait and get some feedback from staff before we over complicate the rules, the regulations, and the notice.

Council member Androl. Yeah, I was going to ask whether I should um make a motion or just ask the um staff to take a look at this and come back and maybe since our first reading was kind of abbreviated on election night, maybe a third reading would be appropriate once people have kind of had some time to turn things over and digest them. Um I I know that we have a little bit of a cushion since we have a December 2nd meeting and these regulations on an interim basis are still good for two weeks after that. So um what's uh I'm kind of just asking procedurally either the city manager or

Yeah. practically speaking, you have a motion on the floor to adopt um the ordinance. So that would need to be dispensed of uh one way or the other. And then a different motion to uh set for a third reading would need to be passed if that is the intent of the council. Yes. So let me ask another way. If at a later date the council wants to come back and add the type one T temporary use permits to the permit bulletin. Could they do that?

Yes. Uh the council I'll be meeting with the council the next council in January at the planning session. Uh part of that body of work now is revisiting our work plan which is changing given the recent failure of the bond measure. Uh so that would be the opportunity for the council to um talk about the body of work in front of us in 2026 and identify any items that they would like to add or subtract from the list. And then remind me we had a open work plan item which was circling back on the residential design standards and in the RDS there was a noticing component that I believe there was some uh inclination to tune up. Is was there work that needed to be done on noticing around RDS as well? the uh the residential development standards are I I will just note that um the legislature has given us a lot of directives over the last two years regarding housing and there's considerable overlap with residential development standards. Uh some of the requirements have already that we had in the RDS have already changed and more are likely coming. I'm probably grossly oversimplifying that. Jeff would like to add on to that. So, we have we have in effect tabled uh the deep dive on the RDS while we've been dealing with all these other changes with the legislature. Jeeoff, did you want to

Yeah, I think say anything.

Um, two comments if I may. The first one, actually, before I forget, the first one, um, when I made my comment about from a bulletin there a few minutes ago, our city clerk um, finally sent me a message to say I oversubscribed the bulletin. Um, there are 127 current subscribers to the bulletin. I in error said there were several hundred. So, I stand corrected on that and thank you Andrea for correcting me on that. Um, the second comment then to what the city manager just spoke to. Um the I I think some of the conversations surrounding noticing with the RDS uh involve the um how we notice new single family construction building permits. We do notice those Molly. Those are noticed as a type two I believe.

Type three. Three. Yeah. New single family construction is currently noticed as a type three. Um I believe we've had some internal discussion that that is that was instituted with the uh the RDS back in 2017 and uh that may be an area that is going to become addition increasingly problematic uh with legislation as it moves forward. So that is something that may need to be looked at here at some point sooner than later. Okay. Council.

Yeah. One last thing. So if we um adopt these this ordinance as written today and don't do anything about the type one permit uh being noticed in the bulletin, can we make that as a policy change later on or does that involve an actual code amendment?

Uh I would recommend that it it is a code amendment. Um we did we did docket um these temporary use and regulations uh formally through the docket process. Um that was in 2024 I believe. Um so that docket item is still there. We don't have to close that docket item out. So, if the council wanted to um let this ride for a period of time and circle back to it at a later date, uh I think it would be fair to say we could uh make a pretty straightforward determination that we can leave the docket matter still open for temporary use and rags so we wouldn't have to go through a docketing process down the road and we could supplement this work if uh the council desired at some future moment in time. How would I um how would I go about asking um staff to explore the feasibility and cost of making top permits a a permit bulletin item?

Well, let me circle back to um Jeff. To keep the docket item open, do you need an amendment to the motion? Would it close naturally by passing the second reading? I think what I would like to suggest that you do if there's council will here is that we deal with uh the motion related to the ordinance and any amendments to the ordinance as as one motion for the record. If the council has further direction on this topic to keep the docket open and to have us revisit items, let's do that as a second standalone motion. That that would help me keep the record clean.

Okay. Uh back to council member Andrew's question. Do you want to restate it just well you were asking about development of cost? Yeah. How would how would how would we best um direct staff or requests that staff develop uh feasibility and costs uh for publishing this in the permit bulletin so that we would council would know um whether that was something that was a no-brainer to ask for or that it would be you know too too chilling on the applicant. Council member Andro, if you give me about three minutes while you continue your discussion on the ordinance, I'd be happy to draft a motion for you.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Well, great. All right. Any other amendments to the motion?

It's going to be a long three minutes of silence. Well, maybe I have some more questions. Let's uh

I'll take a shot of the question. Director Thomas, there was a there was an amendment, a substantive amendment that was suggesting that beyond summer celebration, additional community events be exempted from certain provisions like farmers market. Can you just speak to, you know, the negative implications of doing something like that? What what would would that be a bad idea, a good idea? Yeah, that's a good question. Um, I think you know what that boils down to in consultation with our uh colleagues over in the parks division um on this question, it boils down to city executed events versus city sponsored events. And with city executed events um like summer celebration for example um the internal coordination is happening you know in regards to check and balancing um using uh public rights away for example closing public rights away um other very important but you know things that um the council and even most of the staff wouldn't generally see like making sure that um any appropriate um you know insurance provisions are you know in place and um other public safety type of um coordination behind the scene. Um so with city executed events um all that stuff happens. It's you know self-propellant more or less. Um the city does get involved with you know whether it be through just marketing or sometimes in more formal um you know interlocal or contractual type arrangements um with other events but they're not city executed events. We simply are uh you know we have some sort of hand in

them but not the full hand. And uh what's important there is that there are um other important provisions that need to be accounted for some of the things that I just mentioned. Um so we want to be mindful of distinguishing between events that the city is truly driving forward and um putting on or executing ourselves versus ones that we're not. Um, and you know, I I want to thank Ryan Dailyaly actually was instrumental in in really explain explaining to me uh some of the finer details in that and it was very helpful information. Okay, I have another question.

Council member Androl. Thanks. Um, so related to that, what type of a permit, if any, uh, does the Mercer Island Farmers Market um, get now if they don't get a temporary use permit? because they didn't exist until a year and a half ago, right? They're likely obtaining a rightway rightway use permit if I'm not mistaken. Yes. And that event is my understanding is that event is uh one of the important events that um the city does have more of a structured uh contractual arrangement with.

Okay. If I could just uh add on to the special event discussion, you know, the challenge with permitting events and and writing exemptions is that special events of all the things we do in the city, I think special events are the most complex. Uh it's like 331 flavors of ice cream. Every event is different. Every event has a dis different operators, different fundamental components, uh different people, uh different risks, different liabilities, different locations, different times of year. Um I appreciate uh the way we do event permitting right now, which is everybody needs to come through us for a special event permit and a rideway use permit. Uh these temporary uh use permits also help. Uh it allows us to meet people on the front side. we get important details worked out including things like insurance requirements which matter to us a lot uh versus being on the backside where an event is happening and something's going wrong. Uh none of this changes our strong relationships with our partners including the farmers market. But it would be my preference that the farmers market not be exempted. It is not a city event. we are partnering on the event and again I think that nothing changes fundamentally but it does allow us to continue to engage when people are hosting events and activities in the rightway which we we care about a lot

okay any other questions um no I mean I can probably find some if I need to by the city manager some more time. I I did. Council member Andrew, you should have in your email a motion uh which I would recommend you present after uh the council votes on the ordinance. Okay.

While we're while she's reading that, Director Thomas, there was a there was an amendment substantive amendment by the planning commission to add um the PPZ zone and the CO zone to certain provisions. Can you speak to that just briefly? Yeah, the um the item um the staff response to that item. We there are very few properties um and we're actually not sure if there's any properties um where that provision would directly apply to by adding those two zones. So that was um one of the substantive amendments that we um uh we it it couldn't in effect be a completely unnecessary amendment if we were able to confirm at some point there are no properties but u short of that there would be very few properties that would be affected by that uh amendment that was proposed by the planning commission. You know, some of the context that I was looking for is when we think about the CEO zone, which is ostensibly where the former city hall is, you have a sidewalk and the sidewalk fronts 36. The permit would be to conduct some business in the rightway, which is the sidewalk adjacent to the business. You know, the adding of this substantive provision would allow somebody to get a permit to put, let's say, some type of tented commerce in the sidewalk on 36 as long as they had an adjacent business that had a current permit. You know, it's it's not the same as doing that in Town Center where you might have a 20 foot sidewalk that's in front of a mixeduse building. It's a three or four foot sidewalk on a busy road with a bike lane. Uh, you know, I'm not sure that the extent of the discussion that happened at the planning commission when they thought about,

well, something's allowed in town center and we allow certain things in the CO and PBZ zone. Maybe we should allow this stuff over there. The the infrastructure is quite different, isn't it?

It is. Um I I think one of the key distinguishments there though is um in the town center as you correctly pointed out there's often uh some sort of pedestrian thoroughfare that is not actually in the public right away but actually comes onto private property. Um you know which is where we're looking at many of the temporary uh provisions here that are up for discussion this evening. Um what can happen though using this the city hall property as an example that you brought up a moment ago once um you know what's happening in that type of situation is you're actually exiting the private property or in this case the city-owned real property and moving over the line into the public rightway. So then that that tent or that that use, whatever it may be, is actually occurring in the public rightway as opposed to on real property where in the town center

that's not going to necessarily be the case. Okay. I appreciate that, Color. All right. So you have a follow-along motion. I do amendments. Well, no. I I believe that the recommendation is I make this motion once the motion that's on the floor is voted on. Okay. So, I got a motion, but I do have one other question, and that is just if the um if Jeeoff, if you can just tell me what's the approximate amount of time for a type one permit from application to granting or denial.

Well, it depends on the type one permit. Let me start by qualifying that. uh for temporary use and structure permits. Um I would provided we receive a complete application uh from the start. Um that's a that's about a one week to a week and a half review time. Okay. Thanks. Great. Okay. All right. Council, any other amendments? Any motions? Any All right. Nothing. All right. I'm going to call the role. City clerk, please call the role. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council member Reynolds. Hi, Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb. Hi, Mayor Nice. Hi, Council Member Becker. Hi, Council Member Andron. Hi, Council Member Wer. I, and Council Member Weinberg,

I. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Okay, motion passes. Council member Androl, would you like to make a motion? I would. Um, I would move to direct the city manager to keep the docket item related to temporary uses and structures open and return to the city council in 2026 with options to include public notification as part of the temporary uses and structures type one permit.

Okay. Is moved by council member Anderol, seconded by Mayor Nice. You want to speak to the motion? Oh, well, I think I've already talked a lot, but um I do think, you know, above all that the citizens value about council is some level of transparency that they can see what's going on in city business and why. And um the type one maybe for other types of activities, nobody cares if they're getting notice or not. uh this I could really see being a real hot button for the citizens and I think it cost potentially costs us very little to do and and increases the transparency with which we conduct our business and so I think it's a good thing. Excellent. Council member Reynolds

I was just going to ask can we put the motion up on the screen please? One second. While we're doing that, um Jeeoff, just really quickly, how many um under the interim regulations, how many uh temporary structure use permits, temporary use, and I just jumbled that uh did we receive? Molly, you've got the number. I believe we talked about this recently.

Yes. Uh it was four in 2024 and I believe there's been three in 2025. Uh, council, one of the things that I would anticipate if we start to see um most of these permits that are coming in are for these these temporary structures to cover athletic facilities, also known uh as our bubbles. Uh, if the staff is starting to observe a change, different requests, and these regulations are no longer meeting those needs, we would certainly also come back to you to discuss um amendments that need to be made. Okay. Council Reynolds, is that are you able to see that on your screen there? Yes, I can. Very helpful. Thank you. No further comments.

Okay. I'll just add a quick comment that you know on the outset of the of the interim regulations, which was a remarkable idea by council member Anderol to to help the country club achieve their goal was to implement these through interim rags. you. We set out to solve a problem that the community had and I think the council got really close to the mark with the work that they did because the amendments that came back while they were good ones from the planning commission, 16 I think that were included, uh the idea isn't to make it more complicated than it needs to be, it is at the end of the day a temporary use permit. And the worst that can happen is something can be allowed for 180 days in a 30-day extension and then the permit doesn't need to be issued again. Um, I commend the effort to look for noticing and better opportunities for people to have more transparency. But I also think that we set out to solve a problem that was kind of pervasive in the community and solving that problem by adding more complexity to make it more difficult to have solved that problem to me is not the direction the government should be going. We've got 99 other problems, all of them much more significant than this. I I commend the effort to keep the docket item open so that this is reapproachable at any time and so I will support the motion.

Okay, city clerk, please call the role. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council member Becker, I. Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb, I. Council member Wert, I. Council member Weinberg, abstain. Council member Reynolds, I. Council member Androl I. And Mayor Nice. I.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Okay, that passes. And that brings us to our next item of regular business, which is AB6815, the public hearing amendments to the historical designation criteria in MIC16.01.030 to comply with House Bill 17 or 1576, ordinance number 25c-28, first reading. Um, we're going to have a public hearing which is now open as of 6:03 p.m. Individuals who registered with the city clerk's office before 4 p.m. today may make public comment on this agenda item. You'll be called by name when it's your turn to speak. Please speak audible. Please state your name and city residence for the record. Let me make your comments to three minutes. City clerk, do we have anyone signed up public comment for the public hearing?

No, Mr. Mayor. Okay. And since there's no public testimony this evening, the public portion of this hearing is closed as of 6:04 p.m. and we welcome CPT Director Jeff Thomas. Thank you again, Mayor. Um joining me for this item is assistant planner Meline Nelson. Um she's going to run you through um about eight slides, a relatively short presentation on this matter. Uh changes to chapter 16 of the Mercer Island Municipal Code. Um this um item is in response to some state legislation that we want to make sure we are in compliance with. And uh Meline, at this point, I'll turn it over to you to start the slide deck and walk the council through the slides, please.

Okay. Can everybody hear me? Okay, sure can.

Of course. Uh thank you so much. Uh okay, great. Um thank you. I believe I have my screen shared, but hello city council. It is a pleasure to uh to be speaking with you today. My name is Maline. I am an assistant planner and I'm here to talk about amendments to Mercy Island City Code Chapter 16.01 to comply with statewide legislation. So, our purpose today is to conduct a public hearing and complete a first reading of our proposed ordinance updating historical design designation criteria. then we will schedule a second reading and adoption. So the state updated the requirements for the historical designation process via House Bill 15776 um affecting all code cities. The bill took effect in July of this year and is currently able to supersede any conflicting local regulations. So staff are proposing a code amendment to incorporate the requirements of this bill into Mercer Island City Code to be consistent with state law. Um, this bill does require that cities may only designate a historic building or site if it exceeds 40 years in age. And if the designation would restrict uh would restrict use of the property, then written consent of the owner of the property must be obtained prior to designation unless the property is within a recognized historic district or if the nominator of the property has provided written documentation to show that the property exceeds 125 years old. and the city is able to to uh confirm this age as well. Um, and to give some background information into what historical designation means, um, if a property is historically designated, then that property can only be altered in ways consistent with their historical past. Um, and in exchange for these limited property rights, incentives like developer agreements, special assessed valuation and certain tax credits become available as described in MSC chapter 16.01.

So, um, to comply with House Bill 1576, it would only require two amendments to Mer Island City Code. Um, section 16.01.30 for historical designation criteria. This code section currently describes a building or site in any zone. May qualify for a historical designation if it is more than 50 years old and is associated with significant historical events or figures or if the building or site um embodies a distinctive historical architectural like design or style. So, as you can see, there really isn't much code that conflicts with the House bill. So, it really is just about codifying additional requirements described in the bill. Um, so to bridge the gap between what the code currently states and what is required by House Bill 1576, the code amendment as proposed keeps the original criteria while adding standards related to property owner consent. Um so only two additional standards would be needed um to meet the state requirements. And a summary of these standards uh would read if historical designation would restrict the use, alteration or demolition of the property, then written consent from the property owner is required prior to designation. However, um written consent is not needed if the property is within within an area recognized as historical district via ordinance or if the property exceeds 125 years old. Um there are additional changes um described in the amendment packet to parts A and C but that's entirely for uh stylistic consist consistency and that does not alter the effect of that post section in any way. Um so overall uh the changes proposed would not affect the two existing historic landmarks established by the city and would only require property owner consent in the in the described circumstances. Um, so for the next steps after our first reading tonight, we are planning

on having a second reading and adoption on December 2nd, 2025. Um, and that kind of brings us to the end of this slide deck. Um, so thank you very much for your time. That way we can begin discussion of the code amendments. And if there's any follow-up questions, I'd love to answer them. Okay, Council Reynolds. That's kind of a nit question, but just to get straight on terminology, property to me means land. Does in this context does property mean property improvements? Because obviously the land is always more than 125 years old.

Yeah, of course. This is actually kind of an interesting question. Um, in the bill I believe it's described as a property, which does mean like a physical land or building, but in our code in Mercer Island City Code, um, we really refer to it as historical designation being able to be applied to um, building structures or sites. So it would be applicable to building structures or sites, but that is a bit of a terminology. Interesting question. So the 125 year criteria will be applied to the improve to the buildings or other improvements, right? Yes. Okay. Thank you. I assume that was the case, but Okay, council. Any other questions? Nope. All right.

Um Okay. Well, I was just going to say, does this really need a second reading? Uh well, council, is there a motion to set ordinance number 25 C-28 for second reading and adoption? We will see. So moved. Council Reynolds moved. Is there a second? Yes. Second. Okay. Moved by Deputy Mayor Rosen. There's a question. Uh if we want to wave the second reading and just pass it tonight, uh would that require an amendment to the motion that is currently on the floor? It would. uh or would it require a new motion? I mean, can I just ask what is the like what do we what's the benefit of doing that?

The benefit is that if we uh pass it tonight, then we don't have to bring it back for a second reading. It's going to be on consent. I mean, it's it's not going to take any burn up any council time. Uh is the consent on uh just the the December 2nd meeting or via is this the thing requiring our December 16th meeting? No. No, this is not the item that may trigger a second meeting, but thank you for that concern. Um, this would go on consent to your December 2nd meeting. Okay, never mind. That's fine. Yeah, I mean, is the No big deal. I appreciate the efficiency first uh thought. Okay. And not seeing any other questions, please call the role. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mayor Nice.

Hi. Council member Becker, I. Council member Andra, I deputy Mayor Rosenbomb. Hi. Council member Wer. Hi. Council member Reynolds. Hi. And Council Member Wineberg. Hi. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Thank you. Our next item of regular business is AB6814, which is the 2025 2026 mid byanual budget public hearing, financial status update, and budget adjustments. This public hearing is now open as of 6:12 p.m. Individuals who register with the city clerk's office before 4 p.m. today and make public comment on this agenda item. You'll be called by name when it's your turn to speak. Please speak audit. Please state your name and city of residence for the record and limit your comments to three minutes. City clerk, do we have anyone signed up for public uh comment on this hearing? No, Mr. Mayor. Okay. As there's no individual signed up to speak, I will close the public portion of this hearing at 6:12 PM and welcome finance director Matt Mourick.

Good evening, Mayor Nice, members of the council, and city manager Bond. I'm Matt Mornick, your finance director, and welcome to the midbian discussion for the 2025 2026 bianial budget. I'm joined remotely this evening by Deputy Finance Director Lewan Tuttle and our financial analyst too, Ben Schumacher, who is going to be steering our deck tonight. Next slide, Ben. Thank you. We're going to go through 17 slides beginning with an update on the city's financial position through uh Q3 of this year. I'm going to share some trends and some highlights from the detailed analysis provided as part of this agenda item in exhibit 2. We're going to then turn our attention to the regular budget actions that the city council takes every year regarding setting property taxes as well as the budget for emergency dispatch services before we go into a handful of budget adjustments that staff is recommending at this point um to address emerging issues that have risen since the budget was adopted in December of 2024. I'm going to pause for questions along the way as well as at the end of the deck. And I want to thank Lan and Ben and many of the staff who worked on all the information that's before council tonight. Next slide. Okay, we're going to start with uh the financial status update. Uh next slide, please. At the end of September, the city's revenues uh for the general fund were at 72% of budget, which is precisely within budget expectations. Compared to the prior year, our our revenues at the end of September were about $300,000 more in the general fund. This is a marginal um increase compared to the prior year, but it it's it's worth noting. And it's been largely driven by the revenues we're

receiving from sales tax, business and occupation tax, as well as uh work in uh the parks and recreation department. So, compared to 2024, January through the end of September, our sales tax revenues are about $380,000 higher. Setting aside uh the retail sector which was uh slightly lower in 2025 relative to 2024, all other business sectors are performing better in 2025 with the construction sector making up the largest component of our sales tax revenues. Business and occupation tax revenues are up uh $370,000 in 2025 um compared to last year. This is a tax on uh businesses gross receipts and as such it is tied to um economic activity within the region and it it is also somewhat difficult to predict. So what we're experiencing right now are revenues that are a historic high at least um as far back as seven years we haven't seen this level of of revenue coming in for being taxes. Um so this is good news. Um and we are dealing with an instance where our budget estimates are are being um our our budget actuals are outpacing our budget estimates significantly. So this uh information is going to inform um our our revenue projections for the 2027 and 2028 budget next year.

Can I get a question? Question. Council member Androl. Yeah. I I must be reading this wrong, but I mean, if you add up 380 and 370 and 411, that's like over a million. So, why does the second bullet say we're only up 300,000, right? So, we're comparing these three revenue streams in in isolation. What I showed you was the net revenue um difference um of $300,000 relative to the prior year. So the city has upwards of of 50 different revenue streams. We classify them and categorize them in about 10 different groups. So the net difference between the two years is $300,000 in in the green. Okay. So others are down.

Yes.

Okay. Thanks. And so, uh, just to to wrap this slide up, um, as I mentioned earlier, um, we, uh, parks and recreation operations have generated $400,000 more revenue in 2025 through Q3 compared to 2024. And this is exciting news, and it's tied to improvements that the team has made around um, rentals for both the community center and uh, the city's fields. Next slide. For 2025, the the gross revenue target for parks and wreck was 1.41 million. And you can see at the end of Q3 of this year, we exceeded that target by about $120,000. The proforma on the right of this slide just provides a little bit of background in detail on what is going on with uh rentals uh out of parks and recreation. the percent increase between January and and the end of Q3 of this year relative to the prior year. So, the community center is in blue and you can see that gym bookings and and room bookings are are up and uh the the bars in green are tied to the city's fields. Jason Kitner, our chief of operations, and the parks and recck team could could give you a master class. they would love nothing more to give you a master class and the efforts that are underway that are are driving this uh this revenue growth. But at at a high level, what's happening essentially is there's a new online portal that staff is utilizing in 2025 that is giving customers the ability to see in real time the availability of community center rooms, rental spaces, as well as field spaces. Um they this online portal also allows customers to book field rentals in real time online.

And finally um the team is using a new technique called rental stacking which sequentially allows allows them to se sequentially schedule multiple uses um within the same room or the same field versus scheduling multiple rentals across many of our assets. And the effect of that is we're being more efficient. we're able to make more rentals within a given unit of time, like a day. And it's it's allowing us to to secure more rentals. And so these changes matter. It's exciting, and we're we're looking forward to seeing what the parks and recck team does to to build on this momentum in 2026. Next slide, please. On the other side of the ledger, the uh expenditures in the general fund are at 78% of budget at the end of Q3, which is within budget expectations. Um setting aside the fact that just costs between 2025 and 2024 have gone up. Um we are spend we have spent through the end of Q3 about $2 million more in the general fund um compared to the prior year and that is predominantly tied to a couple things. First, a one-time transfer of prior year savings in the general fund for the building acquisition um that was completed in September of this year. um under council's direction, we set aside $3.3 million to to acquire the the building um which we'll speak to in a bit. And the second um factor in play is um the second of three payments to shift the time acrual liability um from Mercer Island to East Side Fire and Rescue. Um, as the council is aware, um, this time acural liability essentially represents

a reserve of the value of personal time off that firefighters acrewed but had not yet used um, prior to the transition from Mercer Island to East Side Fire on January 1st of 2024. And so the final payment on this on this liability will go out in Q1 of next year. Next slide. Just a brief update on uh real estate excise taxes. As the council's aware, this.5% tax on property transactions is a non-general fund revenue. It is also the primary resource in the capital improvement fund for parks, um facilities, and and streets. And so this this table gives you a a five-year proforma of the activities on the number of properties sold on average per month from 2021 to 2025 between January and September 30th and the resulting total revenues um from those those property transactions since 2021. You'll notice that the REIT revenues have steadily declined. Um, however, uh, real estate activity that we observed in 2024, even though it is low, it is holding steady through 2025. And so we are at the end of Q3 um meeting budget expectations despite recognizing that this is a period where REIT revenues are are historically very low and so staff anticipated this. We built this into the budget and so we are meeting our budget expectations and working with the resources that we have. Next slide. Are there any questions on the financial status update?

Okay, council. Any questions? Nope. Not seeing any. Thank you.

Okay, next slide, please. Okay, next slide. Every November, the council reviews and adopts property tax levy ordinances for the upcoming year. Um, as the council's aware, cities may increase their property taxes by 1% uh or by the implicit price deflator, um, whichever is less. And so for 2026, the maximum increase that we can put forward is is 1%. Um, state law requires that all cities in King County submit their property tax ordinances by the end of November. And so before you this evening are two ordinances to set the property tax rates um and amounts uh for 2026, both for the regular levy and for the 2022 parks operations and maintenance levy. lid lift as illustrated on this slide. And so the the total increase between the two levies from 2025 to 2026 is $320,000. Next slide. Similarly, the city's emergency dispatch provider, Northeast King County Regional Public Safety Communication Agency, um they adopt their annual budget every December each fiscal year. And so all all the the cities who receive services from Norcom must adopt their their contribution before November 30th. And so for 2026, the city's been notified that the um contribution for um the Mercer Island specifically for emergency dispatch services for the police department is just north of $76,000. This has already been built into the budget. It's about a $8,400 increase relative to 2025. And so there's a resolution included

this evening before council to to adopt the the 2026. I have a question. How does that change? Is that what is that align in the budget we passed last year in terms of what the prediction was? Yeah. Yes. It it came in under what we we anticipated. There was a significant increase right in 2024 to 2025 25% increase. So we were bracing for something similar. It's good to see that um Norcom has um a marginal increase going into 26. Okay. Thanks. because I I remember it being a lot more last year than Okay, great. Okay, any other questions? Nope. All right, carry on.

Okay, it's standard practice uh every midbian for staff to to bring forth recommendations to adjust the budget in response to emerging needs and changes since the budget was actually adopted by council in December 2024. And so we are recommending a total of five adjustments across three funds that amount to about $450,000. Most of these adjustments are tied to the acquisition of the uh new building. Um but we're going to go through each one of these that are summarized on this slide. Next slide. The first three adjustments um are tied to the 9655 uh building which is located at 9655 Southeast 36th Street. Um this building was acquired in September and under council direction, staff sold $1.5 million in limited tax general obligation bonds to put towards those proceeds towards the the building's purchase. And so in 2026, we anticipate uh beginning to pay debt service on that bond sale of $137,500. And staff recommends that the the payment for that debt surface come out of the capital improvement fund unassigned fund balance. Second, uh we're recommending a $30,000 budget ad adjustment for real estate services that were um used to conclude the the building's acquisition and that payment for those services come out of the unassigned fund balance in the general fund. And finally, um we now own a building, which is great news, and the staff team is very excited about that. and work is well underway to map out a plan to phase in renovations while

figuring out exactly how we're going to relocate staff, but we need to set aside resources to operate and maintain that building at least um while it's under minimal use in 2026. So staff is recommending a $50,000 appropriation so that we can can pay for utilities and minimal maintenance and operation of that building. Payment for this budget adjustment is going to come out of revenues that the building is generating from its its leases. So um this is um can be absorbed u as a result of the building's purchase. We're anticipate coming back to council with a more informed recommendation on what it's going to cost to maintain and operate this building once we got our game plan in place as part of the 2728 budget development process. Next slide. Okay. Uh, as the council is well aware, um, in August of this year, the growth management hearing board levied a decision that resulted in the city making mandatory changes to the comprehensive plan by July uh, of 2026. And so once that decision was made, work began in earnest with outside consultants to start working on those changes. And that work includes um land capac capacity modeling um creating development scenarios as well as projecting the impacts of of new changes um to the comprehensive plan and what those impacts are going to be on the the the city's public infrastructure. And so we are recommending a $200,000 uh appropriation. Um and because of the nature of this work, it's tied to long range planning. This resource cannot be covered by permit revenues. It has to be covered by general government resources. So, we're recommending that this appropriation come out of the unassigned

fund balance in the general fund. As the council knows, this decision has significantly impacted uh the 2526 work plan as as city manager Bond mentioned earlier. And so there's going to be more to come in early 2026 at the city council's planning session regarding the the additional work underway, the work ahead, and some of the pol policy decisions for the council to tackle next year. Next slide. Final budget amendment is simply authorizes staff to immediately put to use a $30,000 contribution that man city manager Bond mentioned earlier from the Mercer Island Youth and Family Services Foundation. This is going to be put to immediate use with council's authorization to assist uh food insecure community members um that are dealing with the ramifications of the federal government's ending of the longstanding 35-y year longstanding SNAP program. And so I also want to extend uh our deep gratitude for the Mercer Island Foundation stepping up um and also signaling that there there potentially may be more help to come. Next slide. So the these are the four recommended actions for council's consideration this evening uh summarized on this slide. Uh, we can return to this slide as needed, but we can Ben, please go ahead and and stop sharing the deck. Um, and I'm I'm happy to answer any questions from the council.

All right. Any remaining questions? All right. Not seeing any. So, council, we're going to start with a series of motions. Is there a motion to adopt ordinance number 25-33 amending the 2025 2026 bianual budget? Second. Okay. So, it was moved by Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb, seconded by Council Member Weinberg. Uh, not seeing any discussion, city clerk, please call the role. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council member Wer, I. Council member Beckard, I. Mayor Nice. Hi. Council member Androl, I. Council member Weinberg, I. Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb, hi. And council member Reynolds, I. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Okay, motion passes. Council, is there is there a motion to adopt ordinance number 25-30 appropriating funds and establishing the amount of property taxes to be levied for fiscal year 2026? So moved. Second. Okay. Moved by Council Member Andrew, seconded by Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb. Not seeing any discussion. City clerk, please call the role. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb. I. Council member Weinberg, I. Council member Becker, I. Council member Reynolds, I. Council member Androl. I. Council member Wer I. And Mayor Nice. I. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

All right. Motion passes. Next. Is there a motion to adopt ordinance number 25-31 establishing the dollar amount and percentage increases at the regular property tax levy and the levy lid lifts for fiscal year 2026? So moved. Okay. It was moved by council member Weinberg, seconded by council member Ander. Not seeing any discussion. City clerk, please call the role. Mayor Nice. I. Council member Wer. Hi. Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb. Hi. Council member Reynolds. Hi. Council member Androl. Hi. Council member Weinberg. I. And council member Becker. I. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Motion passes. Lastly, council. Is there a motion to adopt resolution number 1684 approving Norcom's 2026 budget allocation to the city of Mercer Island? So moved. Second. Okay. Moved by council member Becker, seconded by council member Weinberg. Not seeing any discussion. So clerk, please call the role. Council member Wer. I. Council member Becker. I. Council member Androl. I. Council member Reynolds. I. Council member Weinberg. I. Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb. Hi. And Mayor Nice. I. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right. Motion passes. Mr. Morning. Did we get all your motions? Any more motions you got for us? You nailed it. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Our next item of regular business is AB6819, the fire apparatus acquisition and financing ordinance number 25-34. We welcome management analysts Carson Hornsby remotely, I presume. Oh, we're here.

Right. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, good evening, city council. I'm Carson Hornsby, management analyst. Um I'm joined tonight by finance director Matt Mornick and Deputy Chief Gregorat of East Side Fire and Rescue. Uh the three of us will be um covering different portions of this presentation on AB6819 this evening. Um, the purpose of this agenda bill is to conduct first reading of ordinance 2534 authorizing the acquisition and excuse me, acquisition and financing of uh type 1 fire apparatus. Um, I'm going to start things off by sharing a little bit of background information uh on this purchase and then I'll hand it off to Greg uh Garrett of Eastside Fire and Rescue to cover the uh apparatus that is proposed to replace one of the city's uh uh reserve engines. Um from there, Matt will be covering the two agreements that are part of the ordinance. The first is a joint purchase agreement between the city, Eastside Fire and Rescue and Hughes Fire Equipment for the purchase of a total of four engines, one for the city and three for Epher. And then the second agreement is a lease purchase agreement with uh between the city and municipal asset management to finance the city's apparatus. I'll talk about the budgetary impacts and then hand it back over to the mayor mayor for questions and discussion. Next slide, please. Uh, beginning in January 2024, the city contracted with East Side Fire and Rescue to provide Mercer Island with fire and emergency medical services. Per the ILA, the city owns its own fleet and is therefore responsible for purchasing its own engines. While on the other hand, East Side Fire and Rescue maintains and operates the city's fleet.

Um, in February earlier this year, uh, the city council approved ordinance 254 authorizing the acquisition and financing of two fire engines. Um, ultimately that purchase did not end up happening. Um, the uh, at the time of the passage of that ordinance, the city was still negotiating with Hughes Fire Equipment to um, either place a cap or remove a certain uh, contract clause. The the cl in question is a component price volatility clause that allows the manufacturer to pass along price increases from the supplier onto the customer without any um uh any sort of ceiling or maximum amount. Um ultimately that purchase was placed on hold because uh we were unable to come to terms on that and so um the city ended up coming back to the drawing board with East Side Fire and Rescue to figure out next steps. Next slide please. So uh the city and epher regrouped in September and uh by earlier this month in November the specifications were completed for a new type one apparatus uh to replace one of the city's reserves. The um the second apparatus that the city had planned to purchase is unfortunately not available yet for purchase. Um there are some new standards that were introduced this year and so the manufacturer is still uh working on um making that available to purchase. So you can expect another ordinance later on in 2026 to uh finalize that purchase. Ultimately for this purchase agreement, the recommendation from East Side Fire and Rescue is that the city uh purchase an enforcer pumper which is manufactured by Pierce Manufacturing. This is considered a semi-custom apparatus. Um, meaning that the specifications were built out

through the build my Pierce program. Um, it offers sort of a standardized list of customizations that that you can add on to the apparatus and then the um, as long as the city stays within those specifications, uh, there will be a less expensive price tag and a faster delivery time in comparison to fully custom. Um the recommendation meets industry standards and it's also consistent with East Side Fire Rescue's existing fleet which is all uh manufactured by Pierce as well. So um next slide I believe Greg is going to cover um the the two apparatus.

Thank you Carson Mayor Nice. Council members, uh, as mentioned, uh, back in February, the council had approved the purchase of two fire apparatus. The first of those is the what we call a MIDI. Uh, that is MIDI 192. Uh, it's up for replacement. Uh, it is a specialty vehicle designed to handle in particular the shorter wheelbase for the narrower driveways on the hillside properties. Uh, it is um, a custom apparatus. It's not standard uh out there. Um the biggest issue that we have, so we have the design ready to go. Uh due to a 2028 emissions change, uh we are currently waiting for a manufacturer that is able to design an engine or a power plant that will beat the 2028 specifications. Um there are currently none of those available, but uh we hope to have a manufacturer have a unit approved uh shortly. So, we look forward to 2026 being able to come back to you uh for the purchase on that. Uh next slide. So, what we're here before you tonight is for the replacement of the fire engine. Uh the our recommendation is the Pierce Enforcer. This is consistent with what we'll be purchasing. Uh it'll be four identical fire engines. Uh 750 gallon tank, 1500 gallons per minute. This is going to be very similar to the most recent fire engine that Mercer Island purchased, engine 191. Uh, and uh, with the joint pricing that we went through, uh, the total price 1,267,470. Uh the advantage, believe it or not, is that we're down to a 31 to 36 month delivery time, which seems like a long time, but if we were to go outside of the build my pierce, we're looking at uh

roughly uh 50 to 55 months uh for delivery time. So, uh we believe that this is the best way to serve the citizens of Mercer Island uh and uh as east side for our customers as well over there. And I'll turn that over to Matt.

We learned a lot this past year and um in September we regrouped and decided to draft a new joint purchase agreement with East Side to to acquire four vehicles. So the the joint purchase agreement really served as a new starting point with negotiations with an eye towards equitably sharing the risks um that come with building uh one of these large pieces of equipment and and financing it for for all the parties that are involved. And so what we did with this new new purchase agreement was we included a scaled escalator that's tied to the producer price index which essentially is looking to to mitigate the risk of any additional inflation or any significant increases in tariffs um between the city fire and and the manufacturer. We also put in place a um price cap of 10% of the purchase price um should there be any increases to major components of these vehicles that are are built outside of Pierce. So, for example, the transmission or the water pump, these these are not built directly by Pierce. Um they're they're built by third parties. And so there's there's a total price cap. Now, um through this whole experience, the city is going to retain the right to review and um approve any any price adjustments over over the next three years. Next slide. While we negotiated on this joint purchase agreement, Carson led the charge on um requesting bids from investors who specialize in financing, um the acquisition of fire apparatus from municipalities and fire districts. And so, um, we are are going to proceed or staff recommends we proceed with a lease purchase agreement, which essentially is an an installment

contract where the city with every annual payment we make on this this financing agreement, we acrew ownership of that vehicle over time and take full ownership of it at the end of a nine-year term. And so municipal asset management proposed the most favorable terms as outlined in the table on this slide. Um and um we recommend we proceed um with this lease purchase agreement with municipal asset management. Next slide. Debt service payments on on that on that financing agreement will take effect next year. And so the debt service payments are going to come out of the city's equipment rental fund, the city's sinking fund for managing and maintaining and replacing its fleet. However, based on the price of this new apparatus and and the new reality that the the city is facing with buying large equipment and large emergency equipment, we anticipate returning to the council as part of the 2728 budget process with some new funding strategies and recommendations to ensure that the resources that we're setting aside and our fleet fund keep pace with with the costs of these vehicles. Next slide. Ordinance number 25-34 is before you tonight. Um, and it authorizes the city manager to enter into the joint purchase agreement which has already been agreed to by by all three parties and the lease purchase agreement with municipal asset management. With that, we'll uh stop sharing the deck. Thank you so much, Ally. And answer any questions.

Okay. Deputy Mayor Rosemont. What's the uh expected lifespan of the um enforcer? 20 years. Yeah. 15 front line and five reserve. Although it might be the city's practice to to put it on the front line, meaning it's the primary response vehicle for 10 years and then thereafter for the final 10 years, it becomes a reserve vehicle. But we will also heed the advice from our partners at Eastside. Great. Thanks, Council Member Androl. Yeah, thanks. Do we get any money for the equipment that's being retired? Yes, and I'll I'll hand it over to Chief Gary.

Uh, great question. So, uh, the, uh, surplusing market is volatile. It's hard to say what it will be, especially in three years, but our anticipation is a ceiling of about $50,000, uh, for the secondary market. Wow, those guys depreciate fast, don't they? They Well, they've been over a long uh served many years and do depreciate. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so just a smaller community that has little money would buy that and kind of try to get extra life out of it. That's correct. There are many rural departments in the United States that depend on the secondary market for fire apparatus. Thanks. Okay, Council Member Reynolds.

It only would fit in my garage. Perhaps I could bid on it, but uh um just just a quick question. The I believe you had stats up there that said it was a 750 gallon tank and you ran 1,500 gallons per minute of of water, which suggests the tank would run dry in about 30 seconds, which I'm not a firefighter. That seems pretty fast. So my my question is, how many presumably that's not really an issue because you'll be hooked up to a to a fire hydrant most of the time. How many homes on Mercer Island are not within reach of a fire hydrant?

I'm sorry I don't have that stat before me, but we can get that for you. And while the pump can uh is rated at 1500 gallons per minute with a 750galon tank, you are correct that generally that is not our first deployment of water flow prior to being hooked up to a water supply. So the maximum that we'd be flowing is a thousand gallons per minute out of a single device off the deck gun on the top. Um but usually uh it's a 150 gpm hose that we use for an initial attack which does buy us a few minutes and that is something that we train on uh diligently is water management but so I'm sorry I don't have the number of homes out outside of hydrant range but we can work on getting that for you.

Okay and I'll keep my hand up so I have more questions when it's my turn again. Council member Becker. Um yeah so we have four of these trucks. I'm just wondering when we expect the next one to come up that we would need to replace after this one. And I understand we have the smaller one that's going to be coming up shortly. So, the next one be slated for replacement in 20 2033. So, if you're looking at about a three-year delivery time, we won't know till we get closer. Something we'll be watching, but that' be for approaching request for purchase in about 2030. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Coun Reynolds.

Yeah. the if I recall correctly from the agenda materials the original offer they were working on was for a a fully custom as opposed to semi-custom truck. What have we given up by going from fully custom to semi-custom? What feature have we lost or features?

The primary features that we've lost is going from a 101inch wide cab down to a 98 or down to yeah 98 inch cab. Uh which means it's a little bit narrower inside uh for the folks that are sitting in there. Um the cabinets uh that were on the outside for storing tools aren't going to be quite as deep. Um and then the ability to store the ladders inside a compartment inside of the engines. So they'll be on a ladder rack. Uh but again the currently the the city's most recent purchase uh was the enforcer. Um so um while uh we're not able to gain some of those advantages of storing the ladders inside and um and the uh the the cabinets aren't or the compon the compartments aren't as deep. We are getting them about two years earlier which we consider to be a significant advantage.

Thank you. All right council any other questions. We still have one more if I may. Go for it. Um I I see from the press that there's a lot of litigation associated with the antitrust and other issues against the fire engine manufacturers. Um can somebody give us an update on where that stands and does the city have any involvement in that? I can speak to that. Council member Reynolds, we are tracking it. I'm not prepared to give you a briefing tonight and I prefer not to discuss um legal matters and open council meetings as it stands anyway. But we are not party to any of that.

Okay. Well, we'll just hope hope it's resolved in time for the next engine. We get a better price, but we'll see.

Yeah, the discussion, you know, importantly rests um partly with the federal government. And I think that's that's right. We are not the only uh city, county, state, uh federal, tribal uh entity struggling to replace our our fire equipment. And it's it's frustrating. Uh, and we are backed into a corner and we don't have many options. Uh, but I do want to commend the staff team for for getting this one resolved. It's, as you know, been a multi-year effort and this equipment needs to be replaced. So, we're on our way, but keeping an eye on the the broader climate to make equipment replacement like this uh more fair and easy going forward.

Thank you. Okay. Not sensing there's any other questions, council, there's two motions before us tonight. The first is a motion to suspend city council rules of procedure section 6.2 requiring a second reading of the ordinance. Anyone like to move that? So moved. Okay. Second. Moved by council member Weinberg. Seconded by deputy mayor Rosenbomb. Not seeing any discussion. Please call the role. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb. I. Council member Wer. I. Council member Becker. I. Council member Androl. I. Mayor Nice. Hi. Council member Reynolds. Hi. And council member Weinberg. I thank you, Mr. Mayor.

All right, with that waved, uh, council, is there a motion to adopt ordinance number 25-34 authorizing the purchase of one Pierce Enforcer pumper and authorizing a joint purchase agreement between the city, East Side Fire and Rescue, and Hughes Fire Equipment, Inc. and Master and a master tax exempt installment purchase agreement with Municipal Asset Management, Inc. to finance the city's apparatus substantially in the form of the drafts attached exhibit A and B to ordinance number 25-34. Yes. So moved. Okay. Second. Moved by council member Androl. Seconded by Deputy Member Rosenbomb. Again, not seeing any discussion. Say clerk, please call the role. Council member Androl. I. Council member Reynolds. Hi. Council member Weinberg. I. Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb. Hi.

Mayor Nice. Hi. Council member Becker. Hi. And council member Wer. I. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right. Motion passes. Again, thank you very much to the further and the finance team for all the hard work on that. is not your run-of-the-mill equipment purchase. Our next item of regular business is AB6817, adoption of the 2026 legislative priorities and welcome senior management analyst Robbie Cuttingham Adams.

Good evening, council. Um, it's that time of year again where you get to hear from me about the state legislative session. Give a chance get the slide deck going. Um, well, great. Again, Robbie Kennam Adams, senior analyst in C manner's office. Um, next slide, please. Um, the 2026 state legislative session is coming up soon. Um, and so we are here tonight to adopt our legislative priorities. First, a little logistics to kind of expect in this year's session. The 26th session is a short session, which means it's 60 days versus the 100 long 105day session we did last year. short sessions um really all they mean is that there is not the adoption of the bianual budget. Um because of that they have a compressed timeline. Um so 60 days means it's faster pace. There's quick there's less amount of time between kind of cut off deadlines of committees and both houses. Uh typically, you know, there's a because of there's less time and it's also an election year for uh most of the legislature. There's a faster pace, a focus on a smaller number of bills. They do do a mid-budget adjustment similar to like what we do. Um but there typically is not as many bills run typically. Uh while the exact dates of the session are not yet finalized, we do anticipate the session lasting from January 12th to March 12th of next year. Next slide, please. So council, when we come to you every year with a legislative priorities document, you know, the purpose of this document is for council to approve legislative priorities to allow the city and staff and uh others on council to engage on issues with legislators directly, quickly, and effectively. Um, you know, it is with the fast pace of the legislative session, especially in a short session, there's amendments, there's new bills coming up, there's committee hearings. um it's not really what I don't want to have to do is have

to come to you guys every meeting to get an opinion on a specific bill. And so what's helpful is to have this document that provides really highlevel goals of what are our values, what are we hoping for, what issues are important to us and if we can kind of agree on that high level stuff, you know, staff and we can use that to engage in the nitty-gritty details day-to-day during the session and engagement with specific language of legislation. Next slide, please. And so including your packet, exhibit one is the kind of draft state legislative priorities that we're going to review tonight. Um there's kind of there is six kind of highlevel categories that I'll go one by one in here. So go ahead and go next slide. The first one um in one of our bigger priorities this year is you support for the safe use of ebikes and e- motorcycles and e- dirt bikes. You know, this is an issue we've been discussing with you a lot on the local end. Um as we've discussed, we need some help from Olympia on this as well. And so our kind of primary priority for the 26th session is to have the state adopt a definition and a classification for what exactly e- motorcycles and e- dirt bikes are in state code. You know what's happening now is we as a city adopted a definition of e- motorcycle. Isqua adopted one. You know there's a increasing hodgepodge of different language used and having that uniform definition is going to be helpful to establish kind of one shared policy in the state. it's going to uh give us a little backup in our enforcement capabilities with it. Um, and the good news is city staff, we've already been engaging with AWC. We're in discussion of key stakeholders and the bike community and public safety community. There's legislators already interested in sponsoring and getting this legislation passed this year. Um, so it's really strong momentum and that is that is thanks to our leadership as a city. You know, we brought this up with AWC, we brought this up with our neighbors, we're bringing this up with our legislators. So, a lot of credit to Amelia especially for kind of getting this going. Um, and normally the rule of thumb is it takes three sessions to pass a bill. And I I do think there's some

reason for optimism we can get something done on the first go this session. But more to come on that. In addition to the e- motorcycle definition, we are also supportive of expanded state regulations and guidance on how do we balance um safety and responsible use of ebikes and new technology like that while also promoting it as a sustainable transportation option. I'm not sure at exactly at this point how much appetite there is for something beyond the definition of an e- motorcycle. I think that's going to be a really good first step that kind of builds momentum into future sessions, but we'll be we'll be engaging to see if there's opportunity for additional measures to be done and this this kind of bullet point in our priorities will allow us to do that. Next slide, please. Public safety, you know, we're we're interested in um state funding for and kind of partnerships from the state for us to help adopt some needed public safety technologies such as body warn cameras, ALPR readers, evidence processing software systems. I know police technology is going to be kind of a theme in the coming months and years here at the city and um it would really be great to get some support from the state on that. Um we're still you know advocating for support of how we can respond to the Washington supre Supreme Court ruling on indigent defense and public defenders. Uh, and you know, we're kind of joining with AWC and the legislature passed a a public safety kind of funding mechanism under HB1215 that some cities are considering using or the I know the county has already adopted this. Um, AWC has flagged that for smaller communities potentially like us, there might be some challenges and making sure that's accessible. Um, and so that's not uncommon Olympia for them to pass something then the next year they have to come back and do a few fixes on it. So, we're monitoring that. Next slide, please. Um, once again, you know, we are prioritizing getting any support we can from the state to support the great work that youth and family services does with um substance use, you

know, education and prevention, uh, school and community based mental health support, you know, co-response with East Side Fire and their fire department. Um, so we are we are continuing to support those priorities. Next slide, please. Um, affordable housing. And I know housing and land use is often one of the bigger um things we um get to engage with of Olympia. Um I suspect that will continue. I am a little bit hopeful that the volume of bills will decrease a little bit this session. Um, but you know, I know especially in response to the GMA ruling and you know what our partners at ARCH are asking for, like we're we're going to need continually going to need new tools and kind of incentives and um things in our tool belt to meet the needs for affordable housing production and implementing House Bill 1220. Um, to do that, as we know, you know, to expand housing opportunity, we're going to need continued investment and support for uh infrastructure to support that housing. Um, you know, we're continuing to support ARCH, um, and, you know, kind of trying to find that balance between what should be, um, the responsibility of local partnerships like ARCH versus kind of unilateral state mandates. And then finally, we're we're making some progress on this one with Olympia of we're already we have we need to implement the stuff they've already asked us to do in housing and if they're going to add new things for them to give long leadways so our planning department doesn't get more overwhelmed by the amount of work that the Olympia has us doing. Next slide, please. Council, you may remember in uh last council meetings packet uh we you gave um authorization for Mayor Niece to sign on to a letter from AWC related to uh wastewater management. Um I wanted to add this to our priorities as well. Um I think you know in joining with AWC and just in general like asking the state you know our we need to invest a lot in our water infrastructure already. You know, there's already a lot of pressure

on affordability and our utility rates and and we need to focus on rebuilding and maintaining what we have before the state can ask us to put more pressure on our system that will be further pressure on rate increases. So um I know city leadership was recently at a King County utility rate um conference and this was a big focus of that discussion. It's going to be a big topic in Olympia this year. Um so we added that to the priorities document. Next slide. um preserving and protecting the environment. You know, we have a really great uh council adopted climate action plan. We're always looking for ways the state can help us implement that, be it with funding or policy action. Um, next slide, please. Thanks to uh Council Member Reynolds. Uh I did I did realize there was an error made in the agenda bill and the text of this section, the text that's in exhibit one is I I copied it from the original version we sent to you all last year. Um, we did point out that we did modify that text during the meeting and so it's it's inconsistent with the final text from the 2025 legislative priorities and I do think that newer text is better and so I do recommend a motion to return to the final language to use from last year. So that's in the italics there. Um, I think we have a motion prepared for that. It's a more comprehensive, you know, the the one in your packet's a little narrowly focused on solar power and we're we're obviously interested in all sorts of clean energy wherever that may come from. Um, next slide, almost done here. Um, including your packet, um, you just for reference is some of our partners, AWC and ARCH, their legislative priorities. Um, happy to talk as best as I can about those if there's questions, but just want to include those for reference. Next slide. Um, you know, we have just kind of a basic word version in your packet now. Um, I'm we're interested in questions and if there's motions to change text, we can do that here. But whatever text is approved, I'm going to after it's approved by you all, I'll put it in a little glossier, nicer format, and that's what will be shared with our

community and shared with our legislators, AWC, put on the website, um, etc. Next slide. I think it's just a recommended motion. Um, we can, that's all I have. Happy to take questions. Okay. Thank you very much, council. Any questions? Okay, no questions. I'm going to ask for a motion to adopt the city of Mercer Island 2026 state legislative priorities substantially in the form attached to exhibit 1 to AB6817. So moved. Second. Okay. Moved by Dep Rosen, seconded by Council Member Weinberg. Uh Council Reynolds, you want me to you want to make that amendment to the motion?

Yes. Um, I move to amend the text to the preserving and protecting the environment section to the following. Quote, "The city supports legislative legislation, partnerships, and funding opportunities that advance the implementation of the city's adopted climate action plan. This includes initiatives for clean energy, emissions reduction, electrification of public assets, and innovative practices that promote resilience and protect natural resources." Close quote. And for avoidance of doubt, that's the language we used last year. Okay. Moved by councelor Reynolds, seconded by Mayor Nice. Any discussion? All right, city clerk, please call the role on the amendment to the motion. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mayor,

I. Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb, I. Council member Reynolds, I. Council member Becker, I. Council member Androl. I I believe council member Wer had to step away and council member Weinberg I thank you Mr. Mayor. Okay amend amendment to the motion passes. Any discussion on the amended motion? All right. Not seeing any. City clerk please call the role. Council member Reynolds. I. Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb. Hi. Council member Wer is absent. Council member Weinberg. I. Mayor Nice. Hi. Council member Androl. I And council member Becker. Hi.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Okay. Motion passes. Thank you, Robbie. Our next item of regular business is AB6818 Code Amendments Chapter 10.22 MICC impounding ordinance number 25 C-32. We welcome management analyst Amelia Chaden. Welcome.

Good evening, council. Thank you, Mayor. Amelia Chaden, management analyst, and I will be walking you through tonight's presentation regarding uh updates to the city in impound code. I will give a brief background and overview of our current impound procedures before work walking through what ordinance number 25-32 intends to do. To start, state law gives MIPD the authority to impound vehicles. Chapter 10.22 22 of the Mercer Island City Code provides the procedures and empoundment for recovery. Notably, this chapter was last amended in 1978 and requires updating to be consistent with state law and recent changes to the city code. As you may remember, in September, the city council adopted ordinance number 25c-24 establishing regulations for e- motorcycles. This ordinance created a definition for electric motorcycles or e- motorcycles and requires that these vehicles be subject to the same regulations as traditional motorcycles. This ordinance also established the ability for MIPD to impound an e- motorcycle. In 2024, MIPD impounded approximately 150 vehicles. There are many reasons a vehicle would be impounded, including criminal offenses like driving with license suspended or driving while other under the influence and also parking offenses like overstaying the 72-hour on street time limit. To impound a vehicle, an officer will contact dispatch and request that a tow company is called. The city uses a rotational tow list rather than an exclusive contract with a single vendor. In other words, when um dispatch is notified of an impound, the next tow operator on the list is called to retrieve the vehicle. The officer then documents the impoundment, issues any citations, and gives the owner information for retrieval.

Ordinance number 25 C-32 amends chapter 10.22 to make it consistent with state law and recent revisions to the city code, including the e- motorcycle regulations. This ordinance establishes an administrative fee that is used to recover the costs of staff time associated with an impound. In 2026, the fee will be $100, roughly the average cost for an hour of a police officer's time. The administrative fee will be established in the fee schedule and thus subject to annual review. Staff intend to adjust the administrative fee each year by the consumer price index for Seattle, Tacoma, and Belleview. If adopted, the ordinance will become effective January 1st of next year. Under the ordinance, impound procedures will only change slightly. An officer will request dispatch for a tow company to impound a vehicle. The owner will be notified and the impound is documented. To retrieve the vehicle, an owner will need to pay the administrative fee. Using existing technology, the city will collect payment through an online portal. The owner will receive proof proof of payment or a receipt for the administrative fee which they will present to the tow company at the time of retrieval. Importantly, a vehicle owner will not be able to retrieve the vehicle without proof of payment for this administrative fee. In regards to e- motorcycles, our partner towing companies have communicated that they will work with the city and the police department to impound e- motorcycles. E- motorcycles will be treated as any other vehicle under the ordinance. Police officers will use the same procedures and the owners and operators will be subject to the same administrative fee because the person riding the e- motorcycle may not being may not be the owner, meaning it's a child operating the vehicle while the parent is the owner. It will be the owner's responsibility to prove ownership to the tow company. And with that, I will turn it back to you for any questions.

Okay, council. Any questions? Council member Reynolds,

talk to me about how this happens logistically. Let's suppose that uh an e- motorcycle has been illegally operated. Either it doesn't have a state license or the operator doesn't have not have a license or something similar and they've stopped the driver of this and they've called for an impound. Does the police officer just have to stand there on the corner till the tow company comes and then they load it onto a truck or or what would happen? I don't imagine you can actually tow a motorcycle. Good evening, council. Mike Cipher at the operations commander with the police department here. And we don't know with the e- motorcycles yet because we haven't started doing that. But if we do things the same way we do with regular vehicles, there is a officer that usually stays on scene. Doesn't tend to take too long when the uh police request the tow as a as opposed to private toes, which sometime can take a while because they know there is an officer, you know, there to hand over control of the vehicle to the tow company. But it gives the officer time to do paperwork, finish whatever else needs to be done while on scene. But yes, an officer tends to stay on scene until the vehicle's picked up.

So there would never be a scenario where an officer would take it back to the police station to keep there or something like that. It goes directly from the incident to the tow company. The only time we would take a vehicle back to the police department is if we're holding on to it for evidence if it's if it has some sort of evidential value for a crime that's being investigated. Okay. Thank you. All right. There any other questions? All right. Not seeing any. Council, is there a motion to schedule ordinance number 25 C-32 for second reading and adoption? So moved. Second. Okay. Moved by councelor Weinberg, seconded by Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb. Not seeing any discussion. City clerk, please call the role. Council member Weinberg. I. Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb. Hi.

Council member Wer, are you back? It does not look like it. Mayor Nice. Hi. Council member Becker. Hi. Council member Reynolds. Hi. And council member Androl. I. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. All right. Nice job. Our next item of regular business is AB6816, the 2026 annual comprehensive plan and development code amendment docket. We welcome CPD director Jeff Thomas.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh, for the final time this evening here, um, Molly is going to join me here momentarily, I believe. There she is. Um, no PowerPoint this evening. I will give you a short verbal report and then turn it back over to the mayor. Um, this year we received nine um individual docket proposals for the 2026 docket. Uh, the planning commission held a meeting in October to review the proposals and to make uh their recommendations to the city council. Uh this year um the planning commission is not recommending any uh proposals be docketed for 2026. So there would be no new items added to the work program. I can tell you uh staff wholeheartedly um concurs and supports this plan commission recommendation. Um Molly did an excellent job in your agenda bill for this item AB6818 I believe. of uh giving you an overview of the current um work program in CPD and specifically with the planning division. Um we are buried for various reasons. Um one of them Robbie hit on uh there a few moments ago with the um the GMA compliance effort that we're undertaking. Uh the reality is any of the nine items uh in this year's uh docket proposals uh most likely would not see a legislative review uh by my math probably until the year 2029. So um it would be uh definitely a few years out. the um the recommendations are included as exhibit 2 in uh your agenda bill materials

and um we do we started doing this a few years ago. Um the docket tracker it's called that's included as exhibit three in your agenda materials. Hopefully you had a chance to look at that. That shows you we have closed out a lot of things over the years since uh data back to 2020. Um, but there are still some matters that we need to um get to after our GMA compliance efforts uh wrap up hopefully next fall. And um to before I turn it back over to the mayor, um we do have a motion that was part of the agenda bill. I believe Andrea is going to maybe pop it up here on the screen. Here we go. Um even though uh the recommendation is to not docket anything just to bring official closure to the docket for uh this year, there is a motion that would uh have the council accept the planning commission's recommendation to docket no comprehensive plan or development code amendment proposals for 2026 and that would bring official closure to it. So that mayor, we're happy to answer any questions you may have and um can leave this motion up or take it down and pop it back up if necessary.

Okay. Council member Reynolds. Yes, Mr. Thomas. I'm just a little concerned by your 2029 estimate. Certain I certainly I'm not saying it should be faster. I understand everything that's been dumped on you, but if it certainly limits our ability to be very nimble as a city to respond to new developments. If we wanted to to shrink the wait time, what's the constraining factor now? Is it staff resources? Is it planning commission resources? If the planning commission met twice a month rather than once a month, could we be faster? What what would we have to do?

Not necessarily. Um we um so for 20 we're going to lose a year essentially in 2026 because of the GMA compliance efforts. Um, we have a statemandated update to our shoreline master program and shoreline regulations that we'll need to start almost um in 2027 to be able to get that done in a timely fashion. We have uh additional docket items from previous years that need to get mocked up. Um, so it's really a combination of things. Um, Council Member Reynolds, there's no there's no magic bullet to to eliminate the work that's in front of us. Um, the city council and the planning commission do meet a limited number of times a year. Um, adding more planning commission meetings, it it moves a bottleneck from one place to another. Um, adding more staff, it's the same thing. It moves it to the planning commission. the the reality is is that um we have a good strategy for the next couple of years out in how to go about uh the work that's in front of us. Um and I I would urge the council to stay the course with our current resources, our our current meeting efforts, and um focus on, you know, immediately what's in front of us, which is the GMA compliance. and then um we'll go about u the business that uh we were going to do in 2026 uh as soon as that wraps up. And it's um it's a marathon. It's not a sprint that we're doing here with this work.

Jeff, may I Oh, go ahead.

May I also just chime in? Uh this discussion is limited right now to the body of work in front of basically the planning department. And I'll just uh friendly reminder that we have other plans and other work happening in other departments and it's not just a council staff horsepower issue, but there's also a an upper limit in my opinion on how much we can thrust in front of the community and ask for meaningful engagement. And so keep an eye on that meter as well. We get kind of death by meetings, death by plan, and then we have no engagement. Um, so looking ahead, we have some really important topics to engage with the community on, including um, what we're going to do about our public facilities. So, don't forget the rest of that body of work. Speeding up in one area may have an impact on another.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other questions? Nope. All right. All right, council. Is there a motion to accept and adopt the planning commission's recommendation to docket no comprehensive plan or development code amendment propo amendment proposal received for 2026? So moved. Second. Okay. Moved by council member Weinberg, seconded by council member Reynolds. Not sensing any discussions. Clerk, please call the role. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council member Androl. I. Mayor Nice. I. Council member Weinberg. I. Council member Becker. I. I'll note for the record, Council Member Wer is back and call Council Member Wer's vote. Hi. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb.

Hi. And Council Member Reynolds. I Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right, motion passes, which brings us to uh other business in the planning schedule. We welcome City Manager Jesse Bond. Uh Mr. Mr. Mayor, just to follow up on my earlier comment, council, I will be in touch with you by the end of the week to let you know what I anticipate the December calendar will look like for the council. Uh, for sure meeting on December 2nd. As of right now, I do not think we'll need that second meeting, but I'll know for sure by the end of the month, by the end of the week, excuse me. Okay, that takes us to council member absences. Any upcoming council member absences?

No. All right, council member reports. Deputy Mayor Rosenbomb, anything to report? Um, I'll just note that there's a special uh edition of the farmers market on Sunday as well with I think is a a holiday market. Hopefully it won't rain.

Bring your scarf farmers market. I have nothing to report. C Wer. Yeah, I attended the King County Utilities Summit last Friday with Jesse and Jason and we learned that utilities everywhere have more need than resources and really appreciate staff keeping track of that uh for our residents and working with the county and jurisdictions and PSSE to try to make sure we have reliability all around as well as cost effectiveness. It's it's a heavy lift and a lot of intergovernmental coordination is going to be required beyond electeds trying to keep up. Staff is doing yman's work on this front. Okay. Councelor Weinberg.

Yes. So, the East Side Transportation Partnership met last Friday. Michelle Hyun from uh Wash Dots uh strategic communications uh manager of their strategic communications gave a detailed presentation on the revive I5 project. The ship canal bridge of I5 specifically, which is northeast of the northeast corner of Lake Union, carries over 240,000 vehicles a day and is now 60 years old. and hasn't had major res restoration work in 40 years. So over the next two years they're going to be modernizing the drains and piping and resurfacing the deck two lanes at a time. Um and they're going to be taking a two-month break uh for the World Cup. We also discussed uh the legislative agenda uh uh for the ETP. There's particular discussion about the e-mobility language of the agenda and the requested modifications specific to e- motorcycles and e dirt bike definitions and there were some tough questions that were asked from council members from both and isqua which risked sidelining the proposed changes. Our very own Amelia Shaden was uh there and saved the day. uh she gave very professional, succinct and fact-based responses to each question and described both the problem and the reasons uh behind the incremental approach uh towards uh filling this gap between the definitions of ebikes and motorcycles. And in the end, all the ET ETP members voted uh unanimously in support of these proposed language. So, thank you again to Amelia for that. My uh next open monthly lunch will be at 12 PM on Saturday, December 20th at the Riviera Maya restaurant. Uh the address 8451 Southeast 68th Street. As always, everyone is welcome. It's an open agenda, news, sports, weather, humor,

anything about city business. All I ask is that uh any everyone uh show their respects to the chef by ordering some food and or beverage and let me know if you're coming so I can reserve a large enough table.

Okay. Thank you, Customer Reynolds. Yeah, we had a lot of activity in the parks commission recently, most recently with a a joint meeting with the parks commission, the open space conservancy trust to start the discussion of uh uh what the rules should be on ebikes in parks and open spaces. Um we're going to be coming back to the next meeting with some possible draft revisions to the code provided by staff for the parks commission and the and the OCSD to consider. Uh it's been an interesting meeting so far. get a lot of passionate community input and some community testimony the meetings as well. Uh this is going to create some not easy decisions for them or for us when it comes to the council. Um secondly, there was another meeting which was just the parks board to talk about some preliminary design ideas for um Dean's children's park aka Dragon Park. Um there were some design ideas presented to the parks board which were uh no other word for it other than fabulous. uh if we could build something like what was designed it would be incredible. Unfortunately, the design ideas were well beyond the budget of what uh we had available from the parks levy. So, some tough discussions uh no doubt remain ahead in which might involve finding ways to raise money from the public uh you know in charitable donations or otherwise but or else alternatively finding way to cut back the cost of the project in some material ways.

Okay. Council member Androl. Nothing to report. Council member Becker. Um I do have some brief remarks today. Uh I was appointed to the seat in June on an interim basis and Julie Shay will be sworn sworn in before the next meeting. So this is my last meeting of the year before I rejoin in January. Um I just wanted to take this chance to thank all of you for uh the opportunity over the last six months. I gave it my best. I hope my contributions uh were a benefit to the city and I wish Julie the best of luck. Also, I think there may be more discussion about Mayor Niece in December, but I didn't want to leave without saying publicly uh that it's obvious how hard you've worked for the city um as mayor these last four years, whether council meetings, behind the scenes, at public events, and so much more. Thank you for everything you've done, and I wish you the best of luck in whatever you do going forward.

Well, I appreciate that. I look forward to your second term starting in January. All right. The next regularly scheduled hybrid city council meeting will be on Tuesday, December 2nd, beginning at 5:00 pm. The city council will now go into executive session until um I don't know 15 minutes from now. So 7:45

um for planning and adoption adopting a strategy or position to be taken by city council during the course of any collective bargaining professional negotiations or grievance or mediation proceedings or reviewing the proposal made in negotiations or proceedings while in progress pursuant to RCW4230404B. Time is now 7:23 p.m. As a reminder to city council, please stay seated till the city staff is terminated broadcast. Thank you for joining us tonight.