Metropolitan King County Council - Regular Meeting

8th, 2026 meeting of the King County Council. I'm Sarah Perry, chair of the council this year, joined by vice chairs Jorge Barone and Reagan Dunn and our council colleagues today. And this meeting is called to order. Before we begin, please join me in acknowledging that we are on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish peoples past and present. We thank these caretakers of this land who've lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial, bringing their cultural ways of life and greatly enriching our lives. With that, Clerk Hayley, please call the roll.

Thank you. Council Member Balducci. Council Member Barone.

Here.

Council Member Domboski. Here. Council Member Dunn. Here. Council Member Fain. Here. Council Member Lewis. Here. Council Member Mosqueda. Here. Council Member Von Reichbauer. Chair Perry.

Here. You have a quorum. Thank you. Next, would you please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance led by Vice Chair Dunn.

Please stand and join me in pledging allegiance to our nation's flag.

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

Thank you.

That's one notice, Mr. Zimmerman. That's not permitted, and you know that. Thank you. Vice Chair Barone, may I please have a motion to approve the minutes of the September 1st, 2026 council meeting?

I move approvals of the minutes of September 1st.

Thank you. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Minutes are approved. Clerk K, are there any other additions to the council agenda? There are no additions. Thank you. Turning now to our special items, the first of which is a recognition of Johnny Oda as the 2026 King County Recovery Champion, led by Council Members Dunn and myself. I am pleased we're all here today to recognize September as recovery month in King County. This month celebrates the amazing and difficult progress of recovery that people in our communities are working through every single day. Recognizes the people who make recovery possible and provides an opportunity for us to renew our commitment as a county to building communities where everyone can thrive. Council member Dunn will present the proclamation in community recognizing recovery month. Today though, we're here to honor our 2026 King County recovery champion. As part of Recovery Month, the King County Council selects an individual or organization to honor as the King County Recovery Champion. The Council created this award in 2022 to honor the unsung heroes that are working behind the scenes to help folks fight for recovery from substance use disorder. It's important that we as a Council take an opportunity to highlight those in our community who invest so much in helping others. I'll now turn it over to my council colleague, Councilmember Dunn, to recognize this year's recovery champion.

Thank you, Chair Perry.

Can you hear me okay?

There we go. No, you can't? Great.

Thanks for everyone.

There we are. Forgive me. Today, I am honored to present the King County Council Recovery Champion Award to Johnny Ota. Johnny, please come on up to the podium my friend, be recognized. Bring it in, bring it in baby, bring it in. You're doing good, you're doing good man. Johnny is not just a youth substance use disorder professional, he is a lifeline. He embodies a rare kind of relational case management, one built on profound earned trust that refuses to give up on anyone, no matter how many times they stumble. His approach often extends beyond early recovery and into a lasting committed mentorship. As someone who has personally gone through my own recovery journey, and who relied on people a lot like johnny along the way i'm honored to recognize his commitment to changing lives and helping people recover for over 25 years johnny has been with right through a non-profit that provides youth mental health services to kids teens and young adults and he has personally focused extensively on providing intensive care management and addiction counseling for vulnerable, at-risk, and homeless youth navigating substance use and mental health crisis. He's known to stick with those he works with for many years. Through his many years of service, helping numerous youth suffering from substance disorder and helping them find recovery, his contributions are heartfelt all throughout our region. He's been recognized by the Seattle Kraken, being named hero of the deep, unquote. And he's also been spotlighted by the Seattle Times. I couldn't be more proud to recognize Johnny today for all his commitments to our community to helping so many people recover in King County. And it's not a job where you make a lot of money. The wealth in this job is making a difference in people's lives. And in my view, that's really where the rubber meets the road, to be able to give back to others and change lives. You're not just changing the life of somebody who is addicted, you're changing their family, their coworkers, and everybody around them, and maybe more in generations to come. So now, let's honor, I'll read the proclamation for recovery champion here for For Johnny and Sarah is going to read it along with me. Okay, you ready Sarah? All right, so I'll start. Whereas the King County Recovery Champion Award established by the King County Council in September 27, 2022 recognizes a resident or employee of King County or an organization located in King County that has demonstrated diligence and passion in helping those with substance use disorders and

Whereas the King County Recovery Champion Award is given by the King County Council during National Recovery Month and presented in partnership with the King County Recovery Coalition and.

Whereas the King County Council recognizes that recovery is made possible by extraordinary individuals and organizations that put in the hard work and perseverance that it takes to support people in achieving and maintaining recovery and.

Whereas recovery from substance use disorder is possible and a large number of those with substance use disorder who seek recovery rely on many people and organizations for help along their journey and.

Whereas Johnny Ota has dedicated himself to the field of substance use recovery and mental health wellness. Demonstrating a profound commitment to supporting teens and young people in recovery across King County and

Whereas through Johnny's tireless advocacy and leadership, he's consistently worked to shift public perceptions of behavioral health conditions and champion pro-recovery policies and.

Whereas under Johnny's guidance, Ryther and other community organizations have been empowered to create meaningful, lasting change in behavioral health policy and support systems and.

Through his over 30 years of dedicated service, countless individuals navigating substance use disorder have found a pathway to recovery, and his ongoing contributions continue to foster care, healing, and community resilience.

Now, therefore, we, the Metropolitan King County Council, recognize Johnny Ota as the 2026 King County Recovery Champion and commend him sincerely for his dedication to helping people in King County recover from substance use disorders dated this eighth day of September 2026 and signed by all members of the King County Council. Let's give him a round of applause. And then, this is This is the actual award. I don't want to drop it. This is pretty cool. And we're going to hand this over to Johnny for his great work. And come on up. Give us your thoughts, my friend. You've got a couple minutes. Go for it.

Oh no, I have a couple minutes.

Do your thing. I'm going to do my thing.

Wow, that was actually pretty good and on point and I appreciate it very much. Because this work encompasses a lot of things in my life, encompasses a lot of things. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here. Thank you for this award. Thank you for uh honoring recovery month honor paying attention focusing on this paying attention to this it's obviously a really extremely serious thing i actually take recovery really seriously like really seriously on a high level both for myself for my community for my friends and my friends and family actually take my recovery very seriously too and my daughter does um Yeah, every year when I celebrate another year of recovery, you know, my daughter and I, you know, I always try to make a little amends and stuff, and she's like, Dad, it's okay.

We're good.

So that's it, I had a very serious addiction for a very long time. And I finally went to treatment, went to Seattle Central, got a job at the Black and Latino Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Endeavor Blade Treatment Center. It was my first job. And from then on, I went and worked at Spruce Street Secure CRC. Margaret, why are you? the residential recovery houses, and then one day somebody said to me, hey, do you want to come work at this place called UDYC, the University District Youth Center with homeless youth? And I was like, I don't know, I'm kind of good. And I got these kids here, they like to iron their clothes and stuff, and I walked into the drop-in center. And it was messy, Yuka, yeah, kind of messy. And I was like, no, I'm good. I don't think I, I'm fine where I am. And then I said, okay, we'll go for it. And then I worked there in the Orion Center and I've been immersed in working with homeless youth and young adults and In trying to figure out how to brainstorm and be creative and how to do things differently and how to utilize services and utilize every single possible thing that we could think of all the time. And in 2008 I was pretty busy and in 2013 I was pretty busy and in 2019 I was pretty busy. But I was also doing stuff like taking people sailing and playing morning wide basketball and doing these creative things. And in 2021, you said it today, 22, 23, till right now, Dr. Tarrant, all the people, there's a bunch of people here supporting this right now. The game changed completely. Everybody in this room knows that. And I wasn't really taking kids sailing and playing much basketball. And that's where we're in right now. That's where we're still in that right now. And it was really about overdose prevention and saving lives. And then recovery, to be honest, at that point you lose sight. A little bit of recovery because of the severity of this issue, people are dying, so we're not walking down the path. We're going to treatment outpatient inpatient, sober housing. We'll start doing that stuff. We're still doing it now, but that shifted us. And Brad and everybody else that's here, I had to shift with them. I wasn't really rolling with them right away. I was like, mm, a little resistant, a few things that I couldn't roll with. But I had to, because the severity of this, what's happening right now, the fentanyl crisis, the current crisis with our young people on the street and everybody else that is suffering some substance use. We were able to, Robin Smith is here, all these people are here, these people have been very supportive of us. This King County has been extremely supportive of the stuff that we've been able to just try to cobble together. We're just trying to be like, can we do this? And I was down underneath the Spokane Street Bridge today taking these two kids to get medication and I'm working with them and I needed to do that just before I came here. But we're also trying to do more creative and innovative things. And when I'm grinding and I'm working hard and I'm going hard with my people, every now and then I need to go up to the recovery high school and just sit with a bunch of teenagers who are in recovery, counting days, and it's refreshing. I'm just like, yeah, let me just sit with these teenagers in recovery and they'll have their little drama about their vape pen and stuff. Cuz that's refreshing. I'll take that any day. And we'll take this other stuff any day, right? It's serious stuff. But we can't lose sight of recovery on this path. And we get on trajectories, and I see people going like this, and then we gotta go up and down and up, and all these things happen. And I have a mental health team with me now, and we're seriously, again, cobbling things together. But that's okay right now, because this is what we're going to do to just keep on kind of joining with young people. And definitely, I did get this from Megan Murphy, but we do meet you where you're at, but we don't leave you where you're at. And it's 99% consensual, but every now and then we just say, no, you're coming with me. you know you're coming um and and that's it and abigail woods is here and and people that we're grinding now with and we call it grinding because we go out super hard and we work with young people and we walk them up to my guy gilbert's here and and he was able to speak earlier but My guy's here, man, and he graduated from drug court in 2014, right? And then we're just on this journey with him, and it's a journey of beauty and giving back and celebration. So we want to become cheerleaders along the way too, so I want to thank you very much for this.

All right brother, congratulations. Let's do a picture.

Yeah. Will the council members please join us? I do want to thank Council Member Jorge Baron for bringing Johnny's name forward in the first place for this. And all of those who are here with Johnny, would you please join us and show us support by joining us in this photo as well? That's Eladio. Yeah, let's do it. You know what? We're going to go right back up on to the dais because there's so many and we're just going to line it and Johnny's going to have the gavel for the moment.

How are you?

Let's keep moving down that way, folks.

A little bit more, just a little bit more. Okay, and then everybody get nice and close together. Shoulder up, please.

You just tell us what to do.

Yep, you're looking right here into this camera. Okay, everybody look right this way. Big smiles, one, two, three.

Excellent.

One more, one, two, three.

Thank you.

okay thank you very much uh everybody for that wonderful opportunity next we have a recognition of the ruth wu emerging leaders 2025-2026 fellows led by council member dembowski please begin whenever you're ready it's hard to hear you let's see

I think this mic there, the other reason it's hard here is we have a distraction here. Maybe we could bring order to chambers chair.

Let's make sure everyone's seated in the chambers.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Let's wait one moment. The door is opening. There we go, go right ahead whenever you're ready.

Thank you so much. Well, today we are really honored to be joined by a number, I think four of our 2025-2026 Ruth Wu Fellows. As folks know, our Ruth Wu Emerging Leaders Fellowship Program was started in 2017. The idea was brought forward to council by two tremendous community leaders, Joan Yoshitomi and former Seattle City Council member Dolores Sabanga to honor a true community legend, Ruth Wu. Ruth never was in elected office, but she knew many elected leaders. She helped get folks elected. And then perhaps more importantly, she helped connect young people, particularly young people who maybe didn't have all of the opportunities and access of some, to a chance to come into government and serve and really get a career going and participate in civic life. Then Councilmember Joe McDermott and I sponsored legislation to create this fellowship and it has been, I think, a tremendous success. We now have, I think, over 30 Ruth Wu graduates and we're going to honor our class here today. The stories you hear and the folks you meet are just incredibly inspiring and we are very, very grateful here at King County for your service to our government. I often say we get more out of this than you get out of this because you're bringing a contemporary understanding of You're bringing forward the diversity that is today's King County and breaking down what sometimes can be a calcified or ossified King County government. Not that we don't try our best, but we've got to be connected to community and to young folks who are more representative of today's King County. And that is one of the great things that the Ruth Wu Fellowship does. So I think we do have a little video, a little introductory video that I've been asked to introduce and cue KCTV to start to introduce the program.

I heard about this fellowship and I applied for it because I thought it really resonated with me and what I want to continue doing in my life. I am from the Northern Mariana Islands. Micronesians are some of the most skilled sailors and voyagers in the world. And that's a little bit of how I see myself and in my journey that I have voyaged very far from home to be able to find and fulfill kind of my purpose and what I want to be able to bring back to my homeland.

I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. Hey, Ma. I do a lot of community work, and a lot of the funding, a lot of policies are regulated, I guess, by state entities.

I've been a public service since I was 17. I was in the military for 10 years.

When I lived back home in Lebanon, I worked at an NGO teaching refugees English as a second language.

When I think about public service, it's what my life has always been dedicated to.

I want to understand more about policy and that's the reason why I want to get into the Roof Hoop Fellowship. One of the projects that I wanted to develop does help advance a lot of the policies that support community.

I've worked on the Youth Works app with the Youth Initiatives team and launching the application for jobs and internships.

for our youth. A lot of my work involves outreach, informing the community about what's going on at the airport. If there's any new projects going on, I am the mediator between the airport and the community. And if there's any concerns that come from the community, I would relay that back to the team and management.

It's important that community members have a say so in what governs them or at least have there being some cooperation in how government affects the community?

I knew before that the county network is big. I didn't know how big. There's so many people from all different backgrounds, all different walks of life, so many interesting people to talk to and connect with. We still all have, you know, a kind of a common goal, a common interest to serve the community.

Ruth Wu and her history, she really reminded me of my grandma. My grandma was always taking care of her community, doing what she could to, you know, just help others. And I think that kind of spirit lives within all of us.

Everyone has a little piece to play, doing our part to make our country a better place overall.

All right, colleagues, this year we have something very special and new to the program. Dolores Sabanga, who I mentioned, has just completed her autobiography. And every one of our graduates is going to get a copy of her autobiography, The Best Adobo in Town. Yes. And she has some very straightforward but powerful lessons, and there aren't that many of them, but I think they're very representative of the program. Number one, you need a seat at the table. If you or someone who shares your values isn't there, your message is blowing in the wind. Learn who makes decisions, then persuade them. The Ruth Wu Emerging Leaders Fellowship Program is making sure you have a seat at the table. Use the tools you have and then develop new ones. Again, the program is about developing those tools. Number three, follow the money. That's true about politics. My dad used to say, if they say it's not about the money, it's about the money. Be sure to take others with you. Again, that's what this program is about, bringing folks along. And finally, give credit to others. Great Life Lessons. This is a terrific read. I commend it to you. So now let's turn, colleagues, to recognizing each of the four participants who are here today. And we'll start. We'll go in alphabetical order with Jalon Baker. Come on up, Jalon. As a fellow of the program, Jaylon was placed with the Department of Community and Human Services as a member of the Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging team. You focused on projects that brought people together to further their understanding and application of equity in their own work. You led the ASL lunch. and lunch and learn space. You organized the department book club. Maybe we'll add this to the book club reading list. And helped co-lead the ERSJ employee work group for leadership operations and services, bringing forward the recommendations from the Sista Let's Talk report. Sounds like good reading. Jaylon has supported the EIB team in discovery meetings on department and division ERSJ priorities and needs. The Metropolitan King County Council recognizes you, Jaylon Baker, as a Ruth Wu Emerging Leaders Fellow for 2526 and hopes that the experience in the program will inform and enrich your future work both professionally and personally. Congratulations. Okay, we'll give you a Metropolitan County Council lapel pin. I'm sure you've got your handbook in one. We'll give you the book, and would you just like to say a few words?

You don't have to, but...

I really am excited to be here, and I'm excited to see where my life is going next as far as my career is going. I really do enjoy the program, and I remember when I first started, I thought that this was going to be something like a real hard thing, and it was a very hard thing. But I had a very supportive team that helped me get through it. So thank you.

Okay, our next graduate is Abby Bronson. Abby, come on up. Abby has played a key role in the program, in part in refining the youth works experience, enhancing communication workflows, and helping young interns navigate the complexity of entering the workforce. Your steady presence and sincere encouragement created a safe and welcoming environment for participants. Your contributions are embedded in the first KCYW cohort that you supported, leaving a legacy of trust, guidance, and connection. You also supported the executive office budget team, providing a key role in process managing the quarterly report for the omnibus. We thank you very much for that. It was a big job. And your lasting contribution to the budget team is laying the foundation for an agency finance manager training hub that will be a key training resource. Abby, the Metropolitan King County Council recognizes you as a Ruth Wu Emerging Leaders Fellow for 2025-26. and hope that your experience in the program will inform and enrich your future work, both professionally and personally. Thank you so much and congratulations. And would you like to say a few words?

I just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to work in the King County Executive Office on the budget team and with the youth initiatives. Ruth Wu was able to open doors for a lot of people and being in the King County Executive Office working on the youth initiatives team, I had the opportunity to do the same for our youth. So I'm really grateful for the opportunity and for helping me find my purpose. Thank you.

Our next graduate is Nada Ramadan. As a fellow in the program, you were placed with the Department of Executive Services at the airport, like we saw in the video. What a fun assignment. I'm kind of jealous, actually. You focused on extending the outreach programs to underserved communities around the airport, and you developed relationships with many neighbors living in the area. This is one of our biggest challenges here at King County. Council Member Mosqueda and Council Member Lewis recently held a proclamation just last week here with airport communities, so we know the importance of the work you've been doing. You facilitated a survey of community members to help airport leadership understand how the airport can stay more engaged with our neighbors. We recognize you. The Metropolitan King County Council recognizes you as a Ruth Wu Emerging Leaders Fellow for 2025-26 and hope that your experience in the program will inform and enrich your future work both personally and professionally. Congratulations. Say a few words.

Thank you so much for this opportunity. I definitely think the Rutu Fellowship is a great experience for anyone who wants to get into local government. It's been a great experience, and I'm excited to see where I go from here. Thank you so much.

Thank you. There you go. OK, our fourth and final recipient today is Analei Andrea Hofschneider-Santos. Analei?

Yeah. All right.

As a fellow in the program, Ana Ley was placed with the Director's Office within the Department of Human Services, where you supported enterprise-wide initiatives through cross-departmental coordination and project management. You helped to keep complex countywide work moving and also contributed to facilitation and leadership development, bringing care, cultural humanity, and a steady collaborative presence to every group. You brought your Chamorro heritage, is that right? Chamorro, okay, heritage, and your upbringing in the Northern Mariana Islands into your service, reminding colleagues that a workforce reflects its region only when every community in it is seen. The Metropolitan King County Council recognizes you as a Ruth Wu Emerging Leaders Fellow for 25 and 26, and we hope that your experience in the program will inform and enrich your future work, both professionally and personally. Congratulations.

25 years, there will be a program called the Annalise Santos Leadership Fellowship in the Northern Marriott Isles.

Thank you, everyone. Council Member Dembowski, would it be okay when you're done to have the Ruth Wu scholars come and stand behind us?

Sure, that would be great. I think Andrew is, what do you prefer, Andrew, down here or up on the... I think we might be able to squeeze it in down there.

Okay, okay. We'll go down. Is it time now or would you like to?

I won't read the whole recognition, but as you know, we are presenting a formal recognition signed by all members of the county council and naming all of the participants in the program. I also want to just take a moment. I know with a number of our fellows, your colleagues here from the department who helped partner with you and oversee the program have joined us. Would you all stand up if you were involved in the program today? We want to just thank you for helping it be successful. It just doesn't work without the mentors taking the time to invest in these folks. So thank you all for joining us. And if we could have the four recipients come forward, our colleagues will come down.

Did you want to read the proclamation?

I think we got it.

Okay, let's come on down.

Thank you.

No, no, no.

Okay, everybody look right here at this camera.

One, two, three. Right here at this camera. Okay, one, two, three.

One, two, three, one more. One, two, three. Great, and then look at these people.

Thank you so much.

Well, I want to thank Councilmember Domboski for leading us in that special recognition, and congratulations and thank you, the 2526 Ruth Boo cohort, for your outstanding achievement in public service. We are served well. We'll now turn to the reading of items into the record and the hearing of public comments. First, Vice Chair Barone, would you please make a motion to suspend the rules to hold a public hearing less than seven days after first reading and to take action without referral to committee on item 11, proposed emergency ordinance 2026-0249? So moved. Thank you. The motion is before us. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay. The motion carries. Next, Vice Chair Bowen, will you please make a motion to suspend the rules to hold a public hearing less than seven days after first reading and to take action without referral to committee on item 12, proposed emergency ordinance 2026-0256. So moved. Thank you. The motion is before us. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay. Motion carries. With that, Clerk Hay, will you please read the items into the record?

Thank you, Chair Perry. Item 6 is recognition of Johnny Ota as the 2026 King County Recovery Champion and recognition of the Ruth Wu Emerging Leaders Fellowship Programs 2025-26 Fellows. Item 7 is... Proposed substitute ordinance number 2026-0160 relating to solid waste fees charged at recycling and transfer facilities at the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill. Item 8 is proposed ordinance number 2026-0243, approving and adopting the memorandum of agreement negotiated by and between King County and Joint Crafts Council Construction Crafts, North Coast States Carpenter Union, representing Carpenter 2 employees in the Department of Local Services and the Department of Executive Services, and establishing the effective date of said agreement. Item 9 is proposed ordinance number 2026-0244, approving and adopting the collective bargaining agreement. negotiated by and between King County and the Washington State Nurses Association representing nurse supervisors and managers in the Department of Public Health and the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention and establishing the effective date of set agreement. Item 10 is proposed ordinance number 2026-0245, approving and adopting the collective bargaining agreement negotiated by and between King County and the Washington State Nurses Association representing nurse staff and the Department of Public Health and the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention and establishing the effective date of set agreement. Item 11 is proposed ordinance number 2026-0249, an ordinance relating to council rules and order of business and declaring an emergency. Item 12 is proposed ordinance number 2026-0256, an ordinance to temporarily suspend the operations of drainage district 5 and 5A in accordance with state law, so as to authorize the executive to execute on behalf of the drainage district any agreements necessary for the repair, maintenance, and operation of drainage district 5 and 5A infrastructure, located within the boundaries of Drainage District 5 and Council District 9, and declaring an emergency. Item 13 is proposed motion number 2026-0185, confirming the executive's appointment of Colin Carter, who resides in Council District 1 to the King County Landmarks. Commission. Item 14 is proposed motion number 2026-0233, requesting that the executive transmit two reports relating to solid waste division financial planning and rate increase implementation. Item 15 is proposed motion number 2026-0209, confirming the executive's reappointment of Robin Strom, who resides in Council District 5, to the King County Priority Hire Advisory Committee. And item 24 is proclamation of September 2026 as National Recovery Month in King County.

Thank you very much. Okay. The council will now take public comment on those ordinances, motions, proclamations and recognitions on today's agenda for action. Comments will not be taken on those items on the agenda for referral. However, comments on any item related to King County can be taken on the fourth Tuesday of every month. So I invite those back for the fourth Tuesday if you would like to speak to things not on today's agenda. Listening to the public and taking into consideration the public's thoughts is an important part of our process and one that greatly enhances our deliberations. In order to allow everyone equal time to comment, please recognize the following ground rules for chamber, comments, limit your comments to two minutes, remain seated until time for public comment, and do not make audible noise during the meeting without being recognized. it's also a reminder that public comment may not be used for the purpose of assisting a campaign for election of any person to any office or for the promotion of or opposition to any ballot proposition speakers should address their comments directly to the chair not to the audience or council per council rules destructive behavior can or may lead to an audience member being asked to leave the meeting In addition to behaviors already mentioned, this includes no holding signs at the podium while providing comment or holding signs that obstruct the free passage review of others while attending the meeting. For online comment, press star 9 on the phone or click the. Raise hand icon on the Zoom toolbar located at the bottom of the screen to notify the clerk. Clerk will call the names for the last three digits of the phone numbers in order and will then unmute each line. At the end of the comment, the clerk will lower the hands. With that, Clerk Foss, please begin calling the names here in person, followed by those hands raised online for public comment.

Thank you, Chair Perry. First name on the list is Kevin Altimer. Mm-hm.

Chair Perry, Council, I'm here to speak on Ordinance 0250.

Yes, it's important to have- Sorry, Mr. Altamira, that one is first reading and referral of ordinances and motions. It's not on the agenda, it's on the agenda for referral, and as I mentioned at the start,

I didn't hear you.

Oh, the items that are on the agenda for comment today include... Just one moment. I just want to make sure that I am... Are you sure? They are... Council takes comments on ordinances, motions, and proclamations and recognitions on today's agenda, not comment on those... This is for referral. So those that are for referral are not, we don't take comment on those items for referral. But please do comment on the fourth Tuesday unless you have something else.

No, I can talk about, since you did mention we could talk about, since Reagan talked about drugs and those type of things, we could talk about that, right?

Proclamations.

Proclamations. Oh, great.

That's right.

Okay, great. So I'll switch to a proclamation. Yes, it's very important to talk about proclamations, especially about drugs and rehabs because see a lot of times what happens when people who get off drugs or alcohol they actually still bring some of those bad behaviors and those type of things that are consistent with still being on drugs and alcohol case in point you can find some of the stuff that has happened in this county you would think that some of the people are still on drugs and alcohol when they do certain things such as On March the 18th, I met with Reagan Dunn, and I talked to him about an issue with the auditorium. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Excuse me? You just said I can talk about it.

I'm sorry. Did you want to speak to the proclamation itself?

Hold on. You're now dictating. You're making rules as you go. You said you can speak about it. So I can talk about drugs. and talk about some of the stuff and behaviors that happened even after. How is that a problem, Chair? Please give me the code, the regulation.

You're speaking to the proclamation itself, are you?

You just said I can speak regarding proclamations and about stuff. So if I sit here and only talk about how great it is to be off drugs, you're not going to interrupt me. As soon as I talk about people who get off drugs and they basically still have behaviors, you want to interrupt me.

Just want to be sure you stay with the agenda.

I'm still talking about behavior related to drugs or non-drugs, okay? So all I'm saying is that there is a behavior that persons off drugs have to basically, or off alcohol, have to basically change because you can still have a behavior that follows you afterwards. For instance, you interrupted me, so I know my time ain't up. You interrupted me. Now the whole world is seeing you.

Yes, I do understand that, but I want to make sure that you're staying with the proclamation.

I'm staying on point. You keep interrupting me. I'm talking about two sides of it. Okay, see, I can go all the way back. I was 12 years old and caught my dad shooting dope. But see, you guys want to sit up and control stuff. You don't want to hear what a person has to say.

Thank you for your comment, Mr. Alzheimer. Thank you.

Yes, I am you have you you have 30 seconds sir A person who could have been on alcohol and drugs. You know what happened? On May 14th, on May, March 18th, I met with Reagan Dunn. Reagan Dunn was talking, he used to be on drugs or alcohol. He was talking about the auditor, the auditor who went outside of the scope, who went in, got a manager's birth certificate, created this investigation. Then I just got all the records out. I have an anthology report coming out tomorrow. And it's going to show that that Kimber

We have gone far off of the agenda item. Please, can you mute him? Thank you. We have gone far beyond proclamation in your topic.

Thank you very much.

You have gone far off of the record. Thank you, Mr. Altimer. You can step down now.

Kirk Voss, can you call the next name, please? Yes, I can. Next on the list is Alex Zimmerman.

There's an important point for folks to remember, and that is for anyone here who has endured any kind of substance use disorder, in my case, alcohol use disorder, nine years without a drink, 90% of the public who have an alcohol use disorder won't seek treatment because they're afraid of the stigma associated with the disease. And that's one of the great problems we have. It's really important to give people grace, dignity, and space so that they can recover. And it's one of the great challenges we have in our society, and we all need to work towards that. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Dunn. Thank you very much. Mr. Zimmerman, go ahead.

Yeah, thank you very much. My name is Alex Zimmerman. I'm president of Stand Up America Party. It's very important. I will speak about agenda number four, about recovery months. It's very important. This is very good. This comes from Consul Dunn. You know what it means? Because it's exactly what we need right now. We need a recovery month. Yes, it's exactly what is needed. We need to bring in country. Consul, you know what it means in country? fascism to back to normal, to America. Recovery very important. I'm totally support Consul Dunn and President Trump for make America great again. This exactly what is we need doing right now. It's absolutely critical right now because King Country right now Two and a half million people look at number one fascist county in America. When policemen acting like Gestapo, and I don't want to talk about how many time I'm arrested or trespassing. This exactly what's happened. So recovery very important for America. Recovery very important for state Washington. A recovery very important for king country. This exactly what is we need stopping. We need stopping Democrat, Nazi, Gestapo, fascist, pig, you know what I mean, who make us life miserable. We right now looking more dangerous than Hitler Nazi. It's my opinion, professional opinion. I have experience with similar situation before my half life. Viva Trump, viva new American revolution. Stand up, slap happy cow. Stand up, Donald Trump.

Next on the list is Yvette Dynish. Thank you very much, Mr. Zimmerman. Welcome.

Well, good afternoon, council members. I was glad I was able to witness the ceremony regarding the... Ruthful Emerging Leadership Fellowship Program. It demonstrates the importance of opportunities offered and opportunities taken by our youth. It was just really hella cool. Of course, anything that makes our youth more engaged in our community, benefit the community at whole. So for one, I'm excited to see where this opportunity takes them. And thank you for whatever the council had to do with making this happen. And I hope this is a program that will continue from this time forward. And council member, hello, Jorge Baron. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, is there anyone else in chambers that would like to speak that hasn't had a chance to sign up to speak? Anyone else who would like to speak today? Okay, let's move online.

First name online is Tara Barnes.

Hello, I'm not sure why my video isn't working, but I am Tara Barnes. I am a nurse and a nurse representative for the Seattle King County nurses and the Department of public health and for the staff nurses. And I entered to the clerk, the recommendation on the agenda item regarding. the council adopting the collective bargaining agreement for the WS&A staff nurses that we negotiated in collaboration with the Office of Labor Relations. And our recommendation is do pass. Thank you.

Thank you. Linda, you wanted to speak?

Yeah, good afternoon, council members. My name is Linda Burbank, and I am the WSNA nurse representative for Seattle King County Public Health Nurse Supervisors and Managers. And just here today also to recommend passage of the proposed ordinance for the CBA. I appreciate your review and your time. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there anyone else online that did not have a chance to speak who would like to raise their hand now to speak? Anyone else who'd like the opportunity to provide testimony? okay seeing none we are closing testimony i want to thank everyone who took the time to be with us today and to provide your comments it's a very important part of our deliberations turning to the actions items on today's agenda we will now close public hearing turning to the action item items on today's agenda beginning with item 7 proposed ordinance 2026-0160 which concerns the county's solid waste fees Council Member Dembowski, will you please move proposed substitute ordinance 2026-0160? So moved. Thank you. Proposed ordinance 2026-0160 is before us. Before we proceed, I'll note that we have Jake Tracy from Council Central staff along with Director Rebecca Singer and David Pierce from the Solid Waste Division available to answer any questions colleagues may have. First, I'd like to call on the sponsor, Council Member Lewis, for any opening remarks.

Thank you, Chair Perry. In budget committee, I spoke to why I sponsored this legislation at a time when many people in King County are concerned about affordability. I want to do so again at this point when the council is considering potential final passage of this rate. Our constituents are right. Affordability is an issue affecting their family budgets. And this rate change is an increase at a time when costs seem to be going up everywhere. Why can't government keep costs the same this year as last year is a reasonable question. Solid Waste Division made it clear that it heard public concern about affordability, including concerns from our partners, cities and haulers, about the compounding impact of utility rate increases that affect daily lives and finances. The Solid Waste Division worked with cities and solid waste providers to reduce the initial anticipated rate increase of over 12% down to 8.5%. My understanding is that this effort was made to respond to public concern and to lessen the impact on rate payers. To do that, the Solid Waste Division reported that they took a deep dive into their operations, their capital programs, financial and environmental reserve requirements. Solid waste took a hard look at the capital projects plan for this rate period and narrowed its list to include only the most essential projects in 2027. It also worked to ensure that service levels remain steady. That it can continue to provide customer support and importantly, ensure the safety of division employees while meeting all of the regulatory requirements. Their goal was to find a way to fund reliable, trusted service to the residents of King County long into the future. I would also like to mention, Madam Chair, that with the purchase of the Cedar Hills Renewable Gas to Energy Facility, the Solid Waste Division is working to leverage new revenue from strategic business practices that will help keep rates down in the long term. With regard to those households with the lowest incomes and therefore tightest budgets, the solid waste division under the leadership of Rebecca Singer has taken additional steps to reduce cost and to maintain reliable necessary services. It is working to launch a new curbside discount program targeting low income households. It is continuing not dismantling the clean up lift discount program at transfer stations and drop boxes to keep service accessible to our lower income customers. It is working to ensure fair solid waste rates through active engagement with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission. The Solid Waste Division has worked to improve efficiencies without compromising service, keeping an eye on the bottom line. This is a commitment I like to see and I hope my colleagues do as well. There's still much work to do, but I am pleased with the Solid Waste Division's effort to keep their eye on affordability while meeting the obligations of their business. I look forward to seeing more good work in the future. So that is why I'm sponsoring this proposed legislation, knowing that there is an affordability crisis, but also knowing that people need reliable service they can trust. This proposal will enable the Solid Waste Division to keep up its obligation to provide cost effective, reliable solid waste services to 37 ILA city partners while ensuring that public health and the health of the environment is protected. All of our communities, including our lowest income communities, need and deserve reliable service that will protect public health. Allowing a system to falter, or worse, to fail, risks public trust and makes vulnerable communities more vulnerable, not less. Thank you, Solid Waste Division, for taking deep care with this rate process. I encourage my colleagues to support.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis. Do any other colleagues have questions or comments for discussion? Council Member Dembowski.

Thank you. I think this is for division staff.

Jake, Tracy, would you like to come to the...

This is for division staff.

Division staff. Yeah. Okay.

There's an adjust... A year or two ago, the county solid waste division negotiated with the Teamsters to change some scheduling issues. The Teamsters warned us that it wasn't going to go well. It didn't go well through work slowdowns and things like that. That triggered a lot of problems for the haulers. And we came forward at the time I was involved with providing some relief. If there's something basically that we do that causes the haulers to maybe not be able to go to a station or whatever drives the cost, we would give some kind of a financial accommodation. This legislation on page 26 of the materials, page six, lines 114 through 133 restructures that. One of the things it says is that The credit, it gives a credit. They gotta apply within five days. It seems quite restrictive to me, but it says basically, if a closure of a transfer station is from a cause beyond the control of the division, quote, such as severe weather, acts of God, natural disaster, strikes, or solid waste collection in a search that doesn't, you don't get a credit. Now, that's a such as list. That's not an exhaustive list, according to the plain language of the ordinance. If we have engaged in a, some sort of managerial action that our workforce doesn't like that leads to the closure of the station, which was the whole purpose of this rate credit. I'm reading that to say perhaps that we wouldn't grant the credit. You've got strikes in there, which is a very adjacent kind of trigger.

We have Director Singer and David Pierce here to speak to that.

Rebecca Singer, Solid Waste Division Director. So what we are proposing actually solves that problem. Previously, the haulers would receive a credit if more than one of our facilities, we had to have, it was a varying tier. So several of our facilities had to be down and they had to be down for an extensive period of time. What that didn't recognize was that if one facility goes down and our haulers have to be diverted to another facility, it takes time away from their business. It takes time away from their haulers. getting to their routes in a timely manner and then back to the stations. So we wanted to take that into consideration. So if by chance one of our facilities, just one of them, is down and it is affecting their ability to haul in a timely manner, then we are paying the consequence for that. So it is a way for us to keep our obligation to keep our doors open, lights on, and staff in place. If by chance there is a strike or something where it is on our end, where we have mismanaged our labor in some way that creates this backlog, then we, again, that's a disruption of service to them, and we will provide the credit to them.

With all due respect, Director, the legislation says exactly the opposite. It says a closure resulting from causes beyond the control of the division, dot, dot, dot, strike, SHALL NOT TRIGGER A CREDIT.

I APOLOGIZE. THERE SHOULDN'T BE, LIKE, OUR WHOLE INTENT OF THIS WAS TO MAKE SURE THAT THE HALLERS WOULD GET THE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE. RIGHT.

THAT'S WHY I WORKED ON THE POLICY BECAUSE A HALLER BIDS A CITY CONTRACT BASED ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT FACTORIAL WILL BE OPEN AND THAT THE KIRKLAND ONE WILL BE OPEN. SO THEY, YOU KNOW. RIGHT. YEAH. I get the general notion of, hey, if something like an act of God is beyond our control, but it seems like... Yeah, the intent was if it's within our control, that those haulers would be compensated for that.

So if there has been a change, I was not aware of that specific language.

This just feels like a tightening of the policy that we adopted here in the last year or two.

Does this put us in a position of an amendment, a friendly amendment, a correction? What would you like to...

I wouldn't want to try and legislate this. This seems like this is quite an unusual event, and I would suggest, colleagues, it's probably not worth holding up this... legislation I think there's some timeliness to it if I sense that this could be worked on and refined later because it's it doesn't happen very often so if it needs some further that would just be my suggestion but I just my observation is this feels like quite a narrowing we were trying to be a responsible partner with our haulers that to say if there's some change in the assumption upon which they bid their city contract that we wouldn't basically impose the cost on them so

We worked with in collaboration with them on this our whole goal was to make it Be responsible to them. Yeah.

Yeah Councilmember Lewis as the sponsor. Would you like to work on this then in the interim time? And we'll continue with the vote as is

And just while I have the floor, if I might, I'm probably a reluctant no on this today for the reasons I've stated in committee. It's really around an asset management issue in Harbor Island. This entire replenishing of the reserves and increasing costs for the entire year, this whole rate increase, wouldn't have been necessary if we had surplused that parcel and sold it and received the revenues I'm appreciative that the department I think now is headed in that direction as I understand it and when we get there and get that revenue in I'll look forward to being more supportive so hopefully there's five votes I told the executive if there aren't I wouldn't let it die So I'm not sure where folks are today, but I'm just being very candid. That's where I'm at, and I see we have some attendance issues here. I'll put it this way. If I had the chance to vote, no, I would on that reason, but I will also not let this right fail today.

Thank you, Council Member Dembowski.

Council Member Mosqueda? Thanks. I think this might be a question for our legal team or perhaps central staff. But does the conversation that just occurred between the council member and the director suffice for a colloquy on this issue if the intent is to make sure that in the event of an act of God or closure beyond the control of the solid waste division, such as severe weather, acts of God, natural disasters, strikes, or solid waste collection entity service disruptions, shall trigger a credit. Is that the intent? Yes. Okay. And I'm just hoping that this can serve as a colloquy on that issue in case there's ever any question about what the intent of the county is in relation to providing credits to our partners. I'm looking at the legal team.

Well, we have, and we also have Kendall here to speak to something around this. If I may.

Please. Kindle more legal counsel. I'm not sure if there is time, but you could take a 1 week courtesy delay. And we could explore the concern of both council member and the divisions work on this language with the haulers. And that way, if there's any need to amend it, do it.

Then we have Jeff mom here to speak to the delay consequence.

Jeff Mumm, Special Advisor to the Executive's Office. It would be our preferred path forward to vote on the legislation today and then fix the issue in standalone legislation so that we can make sure that it is done in a way that works for everyone. It's my understanding, and I'll defer to the division on this, That further delay would complicate things as far as working with the cities, but I'll let them speak to the implications of not further delay but of a courtesy delay on the legislation.

Thank you. Yeah, so moving this forward today would be helpful because our haulers do set their rate based on the rate that we are approved for. And so they set their rate and then work directly with the cities to determine what their fees will be. And they do want to make a correction for the strike. It has to do with if the haulers go on strike. So if one of the hauling companies were to go on strike, then we are not obligated to pay them for their strike.

Well, it may need some more work because strike says standalone, and then it says or solid waste collection entity service disruptions, which might be inclusive of strike on their side. Anyway, I think there's some maybe work to do. I've heard the opposite answer now given a couple of times, and so I would just respectfully suggest that folks that have an interest in that piece of the puzzle work on it but again i don't think it needs to be solved today and i think it would benefit from some non-spur of the moment engaged legislating thank you

I will note in the solid waste division. Jake Tracy. Yes, Jake Tracy, council staff. I will note in solid waste division can confirm that I believe that they are working on a Title 10 omnibus that deals with a lot of changes to Title 10. And that change could potentially be folded into that legislation that is expected to come over in the coming months.

Thank you. OK, well, I want to thank the team from solid waste for all your work on the proposal. During last year we had robust conversations about a different set of fee increases weighing the needed capital investments with the impacts the fee increases have on households across our region. Like so many of our residents, we are all feeling the effects of inflation. The cost of delivering projects continues to rise, making long-term planning more challenging and more expensive for everybody. I really appreciate the work the Executive and the Solid Waste Division has done since this conversation last year to work collaboratively with our two regional advisory boards to really evaluate cost-saving opportunities and investments and access through the cleanup lift program to bring us a rate that is lower than originally projected for 2027, down from the 12%, as Council Member Lewis said, to 8.5%. I also want to highlight my appreciation for the continued focus on the RE Plus program to achieve our environmental goals and extend the life of the landfill. I am a big supporter of that, though I know there are some questions around that. I'm a big supporter of our E-plus program. Recognize that Solid Waste Division is continuing to do the important work of reevaluating the capital program to focus on the right dollar at the right time. At the same time, I'm cognizant of the real cost of delaying or slowing projects that are needed to meet the basic needs of our growing region. For these reasons, I'll be supporting the legislation today. However, this vote is still a challenging one. Our region is experiencing an affordability crisis. Our residents continue to feel the pinch of increasing grocery, housing, and utility costs. So while I am a yes vote today, moving forward, I will be carefully evaluating future rate and tax proposals in the broader affordability context, and in particular, looking at the cumulative impact to households across King County. Thank you. Council Member Lewis, would you like to close? Council Member Mosqueda.

Sorry, just a few more comments. Thank you to the sponsor. I want to just thank Council Member Domboski for raising that issue. I do hope that today's deliberations at least allow for the legislative intent to be clear should some of these issues come up prior to that clarifying effort that... uh director mum noted and appreciate the collaboration with the haulers teamsters 174 and so many other partners so i do hope that the legislative intent is clear as we pass this colleagues i want to first thank the sponsor thank you very much to councilmember lewis this is a big undertaking and you and your team were tremendous to work with so thanks to you for shepherding this through the council and as our colleagues have said and i know this is true for the executive as well No one is ever excited to be voting on increased rates for constituents, but I think we recognize that these rates don't exist in a vacuum. And we need to be cognizant of the fact that we need to continue to be able to deliver for residents across this county. This county is offering a critical service and an increasingly inexpensive and expensive service in a market that has other factors that are compounding the cost and affordability issues. So we are doing everything that we can within this ordinance in front of us to move the levers to reduce the financial strain on households and make sure that our county can continue to provide a critical service i'm very pleased to actually see where we ended up and the number of efforts that have been put into place here to control the cost i want to thank the solid waste division for those efforts to put in such measures and I think that this has resulted in a really positive outcome from last year's utility rate affordability summit. It is not often that our utility providers come back to us with a lower rate than they originally forecasted, and I know that a lot of work went into this. I want to note some of the efforts that have been included in this legislation to drive down the suggested rate increase here. They are prioritizing capital projects that are necessary to maintain essential services. safety for staff and customers, and meeting regulatory requirements. They are limiting additional operating expenses to anything beyond inflation, and they are using new revenue sources like the proceeds from the Cedar Hills Renewable Gas to Energy Facility to help draw down the costs as well. I understand from my briefing with the department that the Sound Cities Association and the Metropolitan Waste Advisory Committee, along with the Solid Waste Advisory Committee, have been briefed on this and have all expressed support. So that's a notable achievement as well. And I appreciate the work of the Solid Waste Division staff, the leadership and DNRP. for the leadership that they put into this to bring this rate under 10%. I wanna thank Melanie Cray who was leading on this work with our office and really tracking the various iterations of the proposal and participated in the rate summit last year. And I think it's important for us to recognize in order to deliver quality services to residents, we have to make sure that there's necessary resources to make sure our communities well serve. So with that, I appreciate the thoughtful approach that's gone into this. And we'll be supporting the effort in front of us today.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda. We're going to go to Council Member Fain, then Council Member Dembowski, and then close it with Council Member Lewis.

Thank you so much, Chair. Apologies that I can't be there in chambers or on camera, but I'm feeling under the weather today. I understand that we need to fund a safe and reliable solid waste system, and I do appreciate the work the solid waste division has done to bring this increase down from earlier projections, but Almost every month, this body is considering another cost increase for residents. And as my colleagues have noted, while a 73 cent a month increase for solid waste fees may sound small on its own, our working families and seniors aren't paying these increases one at a time. for a typical household in kent in 2027 expected increases in wastewater solid waste electric electricity or natural gas and the new county roads sales tax could add roughly 27 to 41 a month next year which is about $320 to $490 a year. And this isn't just a one-year concern. The Solid Waste Division's forecast projects another 8.5% increase next year with additional 8.5% increases each year through 2032. So if that forecast holds, that's roughly a 63% increase over six years. I do appreciate the Division's efforts to control costs, like I said, but we don't have a clear specific accounting of the savings that those efforts have produced. And with significant capital and long-term disposal costs ahead, I'd like a clearer picture where these additional dollars are going, our debt and capital needs, and whether this great path is sustainable for our communities. And so I did sponsor a motion that we will take up later requiring additional financial and cost control reporting before we are presented with the next rate proposal. So at this point, I don't have enough information to justify asking residents to pay more and we'll be voting no. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Dembaski.

Thanks so much. Well, we have a little civics lesson here today. It doesn't take a simple majority of this council to adopt an ordinance because our charter requires a minimum of five affirmative votes. And we have some attendance issues and some no issues. So my commitment to the executive is going to put me in the end. tenable unfortunate position of keeping my word to him even though it isn't really how i would like to vote uh... but there's an issue i care about i want to get a little bit more uh... understanding of it from you director singer and that's the harbor island facility I understand we've got a one year additional lease with the operator there. But let me just very clearly ask you, is the solid waste division committed to surplusing and disposing of that property at fair market value within the next year?

That's my goal.

Mr. Mumb, where's the executive office on that question?

I'm just trying to think. And I'm not trying to be cute.

I wouldn't shorten. I put a year on there, but let's.

FND is managing the surplusing of it.

That's why I'm asking you to.

Yeah, I'll have to get back to you on the precise time frame. But our intent is to surplus that property as soon as possible.

Within 18 months?

I don't know the schedule. I would answer it if I knew it. I don't know the schedule.

I'll just say again, when I came here 13 years ago, it was listed for sale, listed with Kidder Matthews. We've sat on it now for 13 and a half years. I know we have some revenue from it, but we put millions of general fund dollars into it. It is at this point a mismanagement of solid waste division assets, and it's going to affect every rate payer outside of the city of Seattle with today's vote. Okay, I'm sorry to be a broken record on this, but this is poor management of county assets directly impacting our rate payers. On August 19th, I received this email from constituent Dale L. from Lake Forest Park. Hi Rod, I lost my sewer bill. And in the search on how to pay for it, I saw there's a proposed rate increase of 17% for 2027. Since leaving my septic system and moving a block 25 years ago, I have been amazed at the continued increases in cost. I know there's an increase in population, but I would think that that would spread the cost out, especially if apartments and condos pay their fair share. Where do you stand on this issue? I haven't written Dale Ill back yet because my answer to him isn't great. I just voted for a 12.5% increase on the sewer rate. I didn't like it. In fact, Reagan made us vote twice on it. And I bring this forward now because this is not a made-up concern that you're hearing from colleagues here. This is real, affecting constituents who are on limited budgets and it does impact them. So I want the division and the executive branch to be serious about managing our portfolio of assets when we don't need something rather than come here and ask us to raise rates at twice the rate of inflation, triple the core rate of inflation. we manage our our business better okay it's a very difficult i don't like it i don't like it but the county executive asked me to support this and i'm going to do it today but i really don't like it and i'm asking you to manage our assets better i know you're new on the job so it's not personal but we we've got to take it seriously We've got to take it seriously. I'm just asking that we do that here. All right. Thank you for letting me share a few more perspectives there as I vote the way I really don't want to.

Thank you, Council Member Dumas.

I appreciate that.

Thank you, Chair. To my colleagues, I hear you. We're all concerned about increased costs. What we're talking about here is a required service and we have to do, it's not optional, something that we have to do. I feel confident in working with the Solid Waste Division that they've pulled out the green eye shades, those of you who know what that means, pulled out the green eye shades and have sharpened their pencils and done what they can to create a lower rate increase. I think that's all I need to say right now. I urge your support.

Thank you, Council Member Lewis. Thank you for providing the information today to our team also. If there's no further discussion, then let's proceed with the vote. Clerk K, will you please call the roll?

Thank you, Chair Perry. Council Member Balducci. Council Member Barone.

Aye. Aye.

Council Member Naboski.

That's four times.

You said aye.

Aye.

Councilmember Dunn. For the record, it was an aye. Four. Yeah, thank you. Councilmember Dunn.

Councilmember Dunn votes no.

Councilmember Fain. No. Councilmember Lewis. Aye. Councilmember Mosqueda. Aye. Councilmember Von Reichbauer. Chair Perry.

Aye.

The vote is five ayes, and Councilmembers Dunn and Fain voting no. Councilmembers Balducci and Von Reichbauer excused.

By our vote, we've adopted proposed substitute ordinance 2026-0160. Thank you all. Turning next to item 8 proposed ordinance 2026-0243, which concerns a memorandum of agreement with the Joint Crafts Council North Coast States Carpenters Union. Vice Chairman, will you please move proposed ordinance 2026-0243?

I move that we adopt proposed ordinance 2026-0243.

Thank you. Proposed ordinance 2026-0243 is before us. Before we proceed, I'll note that we have Erica Newman from Council Central staff with us to provide a briefing. In addition, James Crowe, King County Senior Labor Relations Negotiator, and Ryan Heike from the Joint Crafts Council, North Coast States Carpenters Union, are available to answer any questions. With that, I'd like to ask Erica to provide a briefing on the item. Please begin when you're ready, Erica. You can just move that right on up close to you, and I know it's finicky. Just wait just a minute. There you go. You can bring it closer if that helps. Yeah.

Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. Erica Newman, Council Central staff. The items for proposed ordinance 2026-0243 begin on page 66 of your packet. The proposed ordinance would adopt a ratified memorandum of agreement between King County Crafts Council, Construction Crafts, North Coast States Carpenter Union, which represents Carpenter Ones, Carpenter One Leeds, and Carpenter Two within the Department of Local Services and the Department of Executive Services. During the 2025 negotiations, both parties agreed to a wage re-opener. And sometime before summer, recent agreement for a two range market adjustment for the carpenter to classification. If the proposed ordinance is adopted, there's four employees with the job titles of carpenter two and they'll go from a salary range 54 to 56. And the agreement will be effective the first day of the first full pay period following the effective date of the ordinance through December 31st of 2028. The fiscal note notes that this would be about $82,000 to be expended from the Facilities Management and County Roads Fund. And executive staff said that they will not need a supplemental budget authority to implement the agreement. The changes appear to be consistent with consistent with King County Labor policies. To my right, I have James Crow, who you introduced in the beginning, who's available for questions. Madam Chair, that concludes my remarks.

Thank you very much. Do any of my colleagues have questions or comments for discussion? Wow. Okay. Apparently, there's no further discussion from my colleagues. Then let's proceed with the vote. Clerk K, will you please call the roll?

Thank you, Council Member Balducci. Council Member Barone.

Aye.

Council Member Demboski. Aye. Council Member Dunn. Aye. Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda. Aye. Council Member Von Reichbauer. Chair Perry. Aye. The vote is seven ayes and Council Members Balducci and Von Reichbauer excused.

Thank you. By our vote, we've adopted Proposed Ordinance 2026-0243. Thank you very much. Turning to item 9, proposed ordinance 2026-0244, which concerns collective bargaining agreement between King County and the Washington State Nurses Association, representing nurse supervisors and managers. Vice Chair Barone, will you please move proposed ordinance 2026-0244?

I move that we adopt proposed ordinance 2026-0244.

Thank you. A proposed ordinance 2026-0244 is before us. Again, we have Erica Newman from Council Central staff with us to provide a briefing for this item. In addition, James Crow, King County Senior Labor Relations Negotiator, and Linda Burbank, Nurse Representative with Washington State Nurses Association. We're available to answer any questions. With that, Erica, please begin your briefing when you're ready.

Okay. Erica Newman, Council Central Staff. The items for proposed ordinance 2026-0244 begin on page 70 of your packet. The proposed ordinance would adopt a collective bargaining agreement between Washington State Nurses Association and King County. This unit represents nurse supervisors or managers within public health and Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. They began bargaining way back in January 2025 and came to agreement late spring of 2026. If adopted, the agreement will be effective January 1st, 2026 through December of 2029. There's about 27 employees in roles such as nurse manager, personal health services supervisor, assistant personal health services supervisor, occupational health program manager, and nurse recruiter jobs classifications. Employees in these positions typically oversee the daily operations and supervise medical and administrative staff at the public health service locations and in the Department of Juvenile Detention. Some of the changes that are included in the collective bargaining were some wage increases, a new wage scale for nurses and bilingual. countywide bilingual premiums and nurses who obtain advanced degrees can earn up to two steps, but one step per degree. The cumulative total for the proposed agreement is about $2 million to be expended from the general and public health funds. executive staff say that they do they will not need a supplemental budget authority to implement the agreement we do again have james crowe to my right and we have linda burbank on on zoom that can answer questions madam chair that concludes mama remarks thank you erica do any of my colleagues have comments or questions for discussion

OK, if there's no further discussion, let's proceed to a vote. Claire Kay, will you please call the roll?

Thank you. Council Member Balducci. Council Member Barone.

Aye.

Council Member Dembowski.

Aye.

Council Member Dunn.

Aye.

Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda. Aye. Council Member Von Reichbauer. Chair Perry.

Aye.

The vote is 7 ayes and Council Members Balducci and Von Reichbauer excused.

uh thank you by our vote we've adopted proposed ordinance 2026-0244 i did not see council member mosqueda's hand would you like to make a comment before we move on thank you chair i'm glad to have seen that pass with such support but i would like to make some comments on uh 2026-0244 regarding the contract the collective bargaining agreement with the king county nurses excuse me with the washington state nurses association and our friends at public health seattle king county these two contracts in front of us represent nursing supervisors and managers at public health and i just want to take a minute to thank them i know some folks um have presented on this topic already as part of our public comment but this is really an important opportunity for us in king county to show how we're stepping up in this moment first of all there's a nationwide nurses shortage and registered nurses are in high demand and so what we can do within our king county Family here is do everything that we can to secure public health nurses are being plugged into communities that are at highest risk of need, especially when we see the public health infrastructure being so compromised by HR1, the big bad bill that passed from the federal administration. some of the additional funding restrictions that are being imposed with the foundational public health dollars being restricted in last year's legislative session in our state. I am thankful that this contract helps to invest in our public health nurses so that they can do their work of serving our most vulnerable community members. I want to thank the members of the Nurses Association that are really building trust and community that allow for our public health system to be so efficient. I've said it before, but I think it bears saying again, our community here in King County was constantly looked at across the nation as one of the best response networks that we had during the COVID crisis. Despite a region being hit first, our public health system and the frontline workers had earned the trust within community to be able to quickly pivot and help get people into isolation, into treatment, and then ultimately vaccinated. These frontline workers have been at the forefront of responding to many compounding public health crises, Public health dollars dramatically cut year over year, and they are absolutely doing more with less. So I want to take a moment to thank them for all of the work that they've done and for continuing to serve so many of our community members who see compounding housing crises, economic crises, and health complications in our community right now. They will also be absorbing additional pressures as we see cuts imposed from HR1, which is again the big bad bill from the federal level. We'll talk about some of these HR1 complications yet again in the Board of Health meeting coming up next week. We've now had two briefings in Housing Health and Human Services Committee, and next week that will be the second briefing in Board of Health. And we are trying to do everything we can to really paint a picture of how critical it is for us to provide stability for our public health and county hospital systems while we respond here locally to the federal attacks and compounding pressures. So just a huge note of appreciation for the work that went into finalizing this contract. We had heard a lot about it over the last I don't know, year or so, and appreciate that a final agreement was reached, but really wanted to take a moment to put their work into focus and say how critical it is for us to provide stabilities to patients is coming directly from providing stability and support to those frontline workers. And that's why I'm thankful for this contract in front of us today.

Thank you very much, Council Member Mosqueda. Turning to item 10, proposed ordinance 2026-0245, which concerns a collective bargaining agreement between King County and the Washington State Nurses Association representing nurse staff. Vice Chairman, will you please move proposed ordinance 2026-0245?

I move that we adopt proposed ordinance 2026-0245.

Thank you. Proposed Ordinance 2026-0245 is before us. Again, we have Erica Newman, Council Central staff with us to provide a briefing for this item. And again, we have James Crow, King County Senior Labor Relations Negotiator. And now we have Tara Barnes, Nurse Representative with the Washington State Nurses Association, all available to answer any questions. With that, Erica, please begin when you're ready.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Erica Newman, Council Central Staff. The items for proposed ordinance 2026-0245 begin on page 137 of your package. The proposed ordinance would adopt a collective bargaining agreement between King County and the Washington State Nurses Association, which represents nurse staff in public health and the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention. The parties, again, begin bargaining back in January 2025 and agreement. If adopted, it would cover the period of January 1st, 2026 through the end of December 2029. There's about 219 nurse staff employees within public health in the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detentions, and those include staff nurses in Classifications such as public health nurse, registered nurse, advanced nurse practitioner, advanced practice nurse specialist, licensed practical nurse, and psychiatric advanced registered nurse practitioner. some of the changes in their agreement are obviously the wage increases similar to the previous one a new wage scale and the bilingual premium and the opportunity to earn an increase of one step per advanced degree that is earned but up to two maximum The total for the duration of this proposed agreement is about $12 million to be expended from the general fund, the public health fund, and public health administrative funds. Executive staff said they do not need a supplemental budget authority to implement the agreement. Again, we have James Crow to my right and Tara Barnes. from the Washington State Nurse Association available to answer any questions. Madam Chair, that concludes my remarks.

Thank you very much, Erica. Do my colleagues have any questions? Council Member Barron.

Thank you very much, Chair. First of all, I want to echo the comments from customer Muscada earlier about the work that we are helping to continue here through this collective bargaining agreement. So thank you to our staff at the public health. I appreciate and be supportive of this. I did want to ask James, since you're here, I know we're just approving three contracts today that are in this period, right? And I appreciate that there's a lot of work to do most of these before the beginning of the year. Now we're into this period. Can you give us an update of how many are still remaining that we're still working on, if you have a quick sense of how many are still forthcoming?

I can get you that number. I don't want to guess at it right here.

That's fine. Thank you. We'd love an update on that. Thank you very much. A handful, but I'll get you the exact number. Thank you very much.

Council Member Lewis. Thanks, Chair. I just have a curiosity question. I'm noticing a 21 step wage scale in these agreements. Is that the new norm or I'm just not accustomed to seeing that?

yeah that that that is uh a different scale than than our um uh regular scale we called our squared table um the 21 step wage scale we arrived at that it's intended to deal with ongoing recruitment issues In the community, it is more typical to see nurse wage scales in the range of 25 to 35 steps. And we were finding that the 11 step scale presented recruitment challenges. uh in creating the 21 step scale what we did was we took a longevity premium that was included in each of those contracts and utilized that to spread money across the additional steps the idea being some of that will pay for itself and we'll have a scale that is more in line with what we see at other hospitals and and in the in the area so

I see Tara Barnes also has her hand up. Would you like to respond to that as well?

Yes, thank you. And I just like to echo what James said. Don't disagree with anything that he said and. The combined efforts that took just about 16 months to come to this agreement really succeeded in. not only a wage scale that is extended that the nurses can rely upon, but also that we are very hopeful that it will be more recognizable to people who are applying or thinking about applying to become a nurse at Seattle King County. So we like to think of it as a win-win. Thank you very much.

Other questions or follow-up?

Madam Chair, I just wanted to answer Council Member Barone's question about how many more labor agreements we may have. As of right now, I count there's about 11 more that we know of, but we don't have a date on when they'll be transmitted.

Thanks. I had a question. Can you help me understand how 12 million more does not have an impact on the omnibus? Just, do you, does anybody have a response to that?

I don't have the answer to that question.

Council Member Muscad.

I'm looking at the budget, Chair. I mean, usually they put below the line numbers.

It's one of the great mysteries of council service. How we balance a budget and nine months later there's tens of millions more. Just wondering. I'm just asking the question. Adjustments change, there's underspend. It's a big denominator.

Yeah, and I think usually when it comes to collective bargaining agreements, there's an allotment that they put as a hold. The total amount for that specific allotment as it relates to bargaining is usually not disclosed so that it's not something that becomes a high watermark per se. But my understanding would be that the executive does not transmit a proposed contract if it surpassed that hold amount. And so this is something that's budgeted for in the appropriate budget. And so it is fair to assume that we're below the line of what was held in the specific account for the negotiations. That's a great answer. That's the correct answer.

Okay. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. I've learned something here today. Thank you very much. Any other comments or questions? Okay. Seeing none, let's move forward with a vote.

Thank you. Council Member Balducci. Council Member Barone.

Aye.

Council Member Demboski. Aye. Council Member Dunn. Aye. Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda. Aye. Council Member Von Reichbauer. Chair Perry. Aye. The vote is seven ayes and Council Members Balducci and Von Reichbauer excused.

Thank you very much. Thanks to our panel. Appreciate you being here. Thank you. Turning next to item 11, proposed ordinance 2020. Oh, by our vote, we have adopted proposed ordinance 2026-0245. Turning next to item 11, proposed ordinance 2026-0249, which relates to council rules and order of business. Vice Chairman, will you please move proposed ordinance 2026-0249?

I move that we adopt proposed ordinance 2026-0249.

Thank you. Proposed Ordinance 2026-0249 is before us. Colleagues, as you may recall, this ordinance would effectuate changes to the regular meeting time for the Employment and Administration Committee, EAC, moving the meeting to the fourth Wednesday of each month at 1.30 p.m. This change is intended to address scheduling concerns that have arisen with the current calendar where EAC meets directly after Council. After consulting with other members, the fourth Wednesday of the month was the option that had consensus from majority committee members Approving this change will provide certainty to the start time of EAC as the meeting will no longer be subject to the unpredictable nature of the Council agenda, and I urge your support today. With that, I'll note that Stephanie Serkovich, Chief of Staff of the Council, is available if members have questions. Do any of my colleagues have questions or comments for discussion?

Okay, seeing no further... Council Member Mosqueda. Thank you so much. I think as the council considers items for the Employment Advisory Committee, it'd be helpful to have clarification on which items are being sent to the EAC versus this newly convened council work session, which is a quasi-public meeting that is posted via email. An agenda is sent around on the Friday before, and there is a recording, but there's no opportunity for public discussion engagement in those discussions. So since there are items that had previously gone to EAC that appear to be going to the work session going forward, it would be helpful to have a better clarification on which items will remain in EAC and which items go to the work session in the future. Thank you.

Any further comments or questions?

Parliamentary inquiry.

Council Member Dombaski.

How many votes does this take as an emergency?

Six votes to pass, sir. It takes six aye votes to pass. Okay.

And what this does is change the EAC meeting time to the fourth Wednesday?

That's all it does. So that it's not directly after the council meeting, which was the recommendation of the majority of the council members. Okay. No more questions or comments? Did you have more comments, Council Member Domboski?

Don't do it. Don't do it.

Not today.

All right. Okay. All right. Okay. Let's proceed with the vote. Clerk, hey, will you please call the roll?

Thank you. Council Member Balducci. Council Member Barone.

Aye.

Council Member Domboski. No.

Yeah.

Council Member Dunn.

Dunn votes aye.

Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda. No. Council Member Von Reichbauer. Chair Perry. Aye. Vote is five ayes, two nos. Council members Dembowski and Mosqueda. Wait a second.

Madam Chair, may I please change my vote to an aye? Why, yes.

That would be most appreciated.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda. Can we have a recount, please? Yes, the final vote is six ayes, Council Member Dembowski voting no, and Council Members Balducci and Von Reichbauer excused.

Thank you very much, Clerk. Okay, moving.

I haven't voted on the surveilling side.

By our vote, we've adopted Proposed Ordinance 2026-0249. Thank you. Turning to Item 12, Proposed Ordinance 2026-0256, which concerns Drainage District 5. Vice Chair Dunn, will you please move Proposed Ordinance 2026-0256?

Move Proposed Ordinance 2026-0256 and speak to it.

Proposed ordinance 2026-0256 is before us. Before we proceed with the briefing and discussion, I'd like to invite the sponsor of the ordinance, Vice Chair Dunn, to offer any opening remarks.

Are we going to have a briefing on this?

If you'd like.

You ready to brief? All right, well, we're going to get a briefing on this. This thing is a unmitigated disaster.

We have Doug Hodson, Director of Road Services Division on hand if there are any questions for Executives Dash.

The utter failure of other local governments not to get the job done. We're going to get a briefing on this.

Jenny, yes.

Hold on, not yet, Jenny. Okay. These are my introductory remarks.

Okay, okay.

Parliamentary procedure. I'm going to tee this up. So Jenny, whatever she says will be far more responsible than what I'm about to say. Look, state law creates these drainage districts. They're all across the state. They're big and important things in eastern Washington where we have these drainage and irrigation districts. They fall under special purpose district authority and administrative and legislative codes form. Over here in some places, they're not as necessarily important. We continue to have problems with some of these drainage districts, even finding the commissioners to do their job. Just like we're a local government, they're a local government created by Washington state legislature, okay, signed by the governor. For whatever reason, the six legislators that represent that area in the 5th and 31st can't seem to do anything to correct this action after nearly a decade. nor has the governor weighed in. And so we have a lot of problems because I'm trying to be an accountable representative to the people. We weighed in and try and fix these problems again and again, including going as far as to recruit half a dozen candidates to fill these spots. Okay. We have done that. And it continues to be a problem. So we're going to take some emergency action if and only if you support it. But I want to fix this one problem and then I want to send a more broad message to my colleagues in state government after we discuss this. Hopefully that was an okay setup for you. You want to proceed? Go ahead.

Go ahead when you're ready, Jenny. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Dunn.

What an introduction. Good afternoon, council members. Jenny Yeo on council central staff. The proposed ordinance can be found on page two of your green folder that was sent out at 1057 today. Due to the emergency nature of this ordinance, there is no prepared staff report in the packet. Proposed Ordinance 2026-0256 would temporarily suspend the operations of drainage District 5 and 5A so as to authorize the executive to execute any agreements or easements necessary for the repair, maintenance, and operation of district infrastructure and would declare an emergency. The project at hand is a culvert replacement project on Drainage District 5 land. There was a culvert replacement project that happened in 2024 in this area. And during this past winter, a storm-related flooding occurred, causing damage to the culvert and around the adjoining bank. And riprap washed out onto the drainage. The repair work for this project involves the installation of ecology box and bank stabilization. By way of background and to provide some context to Councilmember Dunn's comments, Drainage District 5 is located just east of Enumclaw. It was created in 1916 and originally had its boundaries that included land that was within the city of Enumclaw. over half the land for the drainage district was located inside the city and the remainder of it was an unincorporated king county and for the past two years the district's then three-member board worked to remove land that was in the city of enon claw from the drainage district And with the passage of that effort, all three members of that drainage district became ineligible to be on that district because they were all residing within the city of Eden Clock. So right now there is a drainage district with no board members. The county needs to obtain agreements and easements for this emergency culvert work prior to construction. And without any board members present on this drainage district, we need to effectively take over the drainage district as so we could sign these easements and agreements and get this work done. The urgency behind this is related to a fish window, which closes on September 30th, according to the Roads Division.

Would you just say what a fish window is for those?

A fish window, it is effectively the work window for salmon, or excuse me, it's the work window where salmon are not migrating or not usually present along a portion of a stream or drainage, so that the work will minimize impacts to CMN. So because this is an emergency, Council has to suspend the rules to hold a public hearing less than seven days after the first reading and to take action without referral, which you've all done at the beginning of this meeting. And as a reminder, per Council rules, six affirmative votes are required to pass this item. Uh, that concludes my remarks. I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you council member. Would you like to comment on it? And then council member of our own has a question as well. Her vice chair.

Let me have any comments and it might have the questions might make more sense. Okay. So drainage just number five isn't located in claw prior to 26, 40% of that territory was located in unincorporated King County and 60 inside the city, the board members. ones that we worked hard to recruit, train, and I swore in some years ago now, determined that it was not in the best interest to continue having a mixed drainage district and in May of this year, I question the wisdom of this decision, but I'm not the one that was put on that board successfully completed the redrawing of the district boundaries. So only the unincorporated area remained in the district. The area within Enumclaw was assumed by the city, including the revenue, right? So they left all the unincorporated folks hanging out there. So now there are no board members for drainage district five. The three board members live in Enumclaw. And then the completion of the boundary review, they were disqualified from serving on the board. Therefore, since May 11th of this great year, the district has no board. September 1, and the only thing we're supposed to do is appoint. When there's vacancies, because we're the county authority report board members like we do for any other local district, right? That's it. We don't have ministerial or managerial responsibilities for this stuff. And on September 1st, the Roads Division tried to figure out this culvert. We got a culvert that's going to flood and create a lot of problems. We don't fix the culvert. We got to fix the culvert. but it's owned by the district. So it's necessary. It's important. Heavy rains are coming. October is flood awareness month. It's coming up. Driveways aren't going to be accessible. It's going to be a problem. It needs to be done quickly. Um, so in order to do this, there is thank goodness, uh, a specific, uh, place within the state statute that allows us, uh, allows the County to repair culverts. Um, if we, uh, use rcw 895.38.220 which i'm sure you all studied in law school which is the temporarily suspend the operations of the district order for the county to make a it's temporarily suspend the district to make temporary responsibilities to the district's operations for maintenance and operation this will allow the executive to enter into those agreements so the work being done and do it quick and then i will have comments on closing

Okay. Thank you, Vice Chair Dunn. Vice Chair Brown, you had a comment.

Just a quick question on this. I appreciate the culvert work, and so I realize that's something that the county will do. I just want to understand the language in section 2 that I think you referenced, Vice Chair Dunn. During the pendency of the suspension of drainage district 5 and 5A operations, the county accepts responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the district improvements. I just want to understand, do we know what that is, and is there any cost associated with that? beyond the work on the culvert. So make sure we're not committing to spending or we might be committing to some amount of money, but just want to understand kind of what the fiscal implications of this is.

Doug Hodson is here. Jenny, if you think he should speak to that. Kendall, would you like to have that question answered or would you like to speak before then?

I can speak to it if I may.

Please.

District has about a 100,000 dollars. Well, 1st of all. The cover that's being fixed is King counties culvert. And the actions that are being taken by roads. Are to have to go on to the district's property and and reinforce the culvert on the district's property. Um, but. The language that you read in Section 2, Council Member Barong, is language that's taken out of the statute. And in order to temporarily suspend the district, the county has to accept responsibility for the operation and maintenance of a district's improvements. The intention here is that King County roads will be paying and doing its work on its covert. However, should, The board not be reconstituted. Immediately or soon, which is also the expectation is that there will be a new board and therefore. The suspension can be reversed also pursuant to the statute. There is a 100,000 dollars in the. Districts account. uh that can be used to defray any maintenance or operations the county must undertake during its temporary operation of the district's infrastructure thank you vice chairman did you would you like to hear from doug hudson as well did that answer your questions i mean i think if doug has any additional information besides what kendall shared but it sounds like the answer is no i think that satisfies my question though

Doug, did you have anything more to add?

I did not. I could not have explained it any better than Kendall did. Thank you.

Here we go. Okay, thank you, Council Vice Chair Barone. Anyone, any other colleagues have questions or comments? Okay, next we have a title amendment. Council Member Dunn, would you please move title amendment T1?

Move T1.

It's before us. Would you like to speak to it?

That's a great title.

Okay, thank you to my colleagues. Have any discussion? No further discussion. Let's proceed with the vote. All those in favor of Title Amendment T1 say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. Amendment T1 is adopted. Moving now to underlying ordinance as amended. Are there any closing comments? Council Member, Vice Chair Dunn.

OK, first of all, I'd urge my colleagues support on this. We're going to temporarily take this over. We're going to make the repair. Hopefully we can make ourselves reimbursed from the 100K that's in the district's budget. I'd urge you to do on this one. We just want to avoid a nasty flooding scene. But moving forward. This continues to be a problem and it needs to be fixed at a different level. County Council Reagan Dunn's job to run these districts. It is the state of Washington's job and the state representatives and senators in the governor's office who need to fix this problem. What I recommend, if a wonderful government affairs friend there, Mac, is willing to work a little bit to figure out a better statutory solution here. district voting themselves out of their own district taking the revenue stream inside the city and then leaving a bunch of people that representation seems to me like a really bad policy choice it may need to be precluded either in a whack or by state law or the other option is to merge the unincorporated area with the next adjacent district I'm asking you to, without taking your top ten legislative district issues, to work sort of a tertiary issue down there to try and solve this problem. I'd also like to write a letter to the state representatives, as well as the governor's representative, to try and find a solution for this. To my staff, Tom, no you're not my staff, but to my good staff, Cody there. We are not going to continue to focus on District 5 drainage issues anymore in my office, unless it's a situation of emergency here, okay? I have 92,000 unincorporated residents. They don't have mayor. They don't have city council. They have us. They have me. They have you. We can't continue to do this. I want to be very, very clear. We're not going to work on this anymore. we're going to use the proper channels, which is the state government, to fix this problem. That said, I made my point. I urge your support. Thanks for considering it.

Thank you very much, Vice Chair Dunn. If there's no further discussion from my colleagues, let's proceed with the vote. Clerk Hay, will you please call the roll?

Thank you. Council Member Balducci. Council Member Barone.

Aye.

Council Member Dembowski. Aye. Council Member Dunn.

Aye.

Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda. Aye. Council Member Von Reichbauer. Chair Perry.

Aye.

The vote is seven ayes and Council Members Balducci and Von Reichbauer excused.

By our vote, we've adopted proposed ordinance 2026-0256 as amended. Thank you all. Thank you, Jenny. Turning next, the motion consent agenda. Vice Chair Barone, will you please move consent agenda item 13.

I move agenda item 13.

Agenda item 13 is before us. Claire Kay, will you please call the roll?

Thank you. Council Member Balducci. Council Member Barone.

Aye.

Council Member Domboski. Aye. Council Member Dunn.

Aye.

Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda. Aye. Council Member Von Reikbauer. Chair Perry. Aye. The vote is seven ayes and Council Members Balducci and Von Reikbauer excused.

Thank you. By our vote, we've adopted proposed motion 2026-0185. Turning to item 14, proposed motion 2026-0233, which requests that the executive transmit two reports relating to solid waste division financial planning and rate increase implementation. Council Member Domboski, will you please move proposed motion 2026-0233.

I move adoption. This is before the council on a do pass recommendation from the budget and fiscal management committee. The legislation was put together and sponsored by council member Fain as companion legislation to the solid waste division rate increase ordinance that we just adopted. I will defer to council member Fain to highlight her excellent work on this ordinance or motion.

Thank you. Council member Fain, would you like to speak to it? Thank you so much.

Appreciate the kind words. I just want to reiterate, I spoke about it earlier this afternoon and at our Budget and Fiscal Management Committee meeting. This motion requires two reports that will give us a clearer picture of how the additional 2027 revenue is being used, the division's debt and capital needs, whether the six-year rate forecast remains viable and how actual spending and reserves compare with the projections. And I think that, more importantly, it'll give us something that I don't think we had today, which is a clearer accounting of the cost control measures that the division has taken and the savings produced with specificity and what additional savings are planned. So before the next rate decision, we should... really know where the money went for this that will be collected from this rate increase what we've done to control costs and what we're asking ratepayers to fund next and I will close as well thank you

okay thank you very much we do have an amendment but before that i'll note that jake tracy and council central staff along with director rebecca singer and david pierce from solid waste division are available if members have questions with that do any of my colleagues have questions or comments for discussion Okay. Council Member Mosqueda, will you please move Amendment 1? Thank you, Chair.

I move Amendment 1.

Thank you. Amendment 1 is before us. Would you like to speak to it?

Absolutely. Thank you so much. I want to thank Council Member Fain for her work on this legislation and for her openness and interest in sharing a desire to see additional information about how we can get more people into the utility discount programs. We have been working on this amendment in partnership. I think this is a friendly amendment. with the sponsor. What this amendment is, is an effort to make sure that we are helping to get more people, more households enrolled into the discount program and doing everything that we can within our power to do so. I had originally requested the solid waste division to analyze the feasibility of instituting the low income curbside collection discount program which would automatically enroll eligible households based on their existing enrollment data in other county programs with similar eligibility criteria. And to be able to offer to those households a chance to opt out rather than opt in to taking advantage of the utility discount program. I learned from central staff that this option was analyzed by the division, but they found that it was not feasible in its form that they originally analyzed. Because renters generally are not listed on the garbage account holder information system, and thus it's hard to reach them. So now what we've done is pivoted slightly, and again thanks to the sponsor of the underlying legislation for her collaborative thought process on this. What we are asking in amendment number one is asking the department to report back on the final structure and eligibility criteria for their soon to be determined and implemented low income curbside collection discount program, their outreach to eligible households, the percentage of eligible households enrolling in the program, and the total cost of the program. I'm really hopeful that this will be a step so that it will enable us to evaluate if the program is meeting its stated goals and ultimately I think that we could do better. I do think that it is possible for us to utilize other data that is eligible that would make it clear that a household is eligible for the utility discount program and to auto enroll folks in that. Even just a simple opt out program box as people are filling out the information would allow for us to get more people to see that this program is eligible and doesn't require the additional step of clicking on that button so hopefully more to come but this is a good interim step and again i thank councilmember fain for her interest in collaborating on this concept

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda. I appreciate the idea because, of course, sometimes homeowners would not be eligible, but their renters would be, and then the homeowners would pass that cost, full cost, on to the renters, and there has to be a better program because we do need a healthy balance of ownership and rental, and it has to be affordable across the way so we can get out of this housing crisis for everybody. So thank you for your efforts there and to Council Member Fain. Do any of my colleagues have any discussion or any other questions? Any other questions before the vote? OK, seeing none, let's proceed. All those in favor of Amendment 1 say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay. Amendment 1 is adopted. Moving now to the underlying motion as amended. Any closing comments from my colleagues? From the sponsor, Council Member Fain.

Thank you so much. I didn't get to raise my hand fast enough, but I just wanted to thank Council Member Mosqueda for her work on the amendment. I'm very pleased to hear about the forthcoming curbside pickup discount program and appreciate the work with the district on reporting the program's reach and performance. I just wanted to also thank central staff, central policy staff, April Sanders, my chief of staff, Lily Hayward in the solid waste division for their collaboration on this motion, as well as my colleagues on the budget and fiscal management committee for advancing it unanimously and respectfully ask for your support.

Thank you very much. Seeing no further discussion, let's go ahead and proceed with the vote. Claire Kay, please call the roll. Thank you. Council Member Balducci.

Council Member Barone.

Aye.

Council Member Domboski. Aye. Council Member Dunn.

Aye.

Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda. Aye. Aye. Council Member Von Reichbauer. Chair Perry. Aye. The vote is seven ayes and Council Members Balducci and Von Reichbauer excused.

Thank you. By our vote, we've adopted proposed motion 2026-0233 as amended. Thank you for your work on that. Turning to our last action item today, which is the reappointment consent agenda. Vice Chair Barone, will you please move consent agenda item 15.

Move Agenda Item 15. Thank you.

Agenda Item 15 is before us.

Clerk Hay, will you please call the roll? Thank you. Council Member Balducci. Council Member Barone.

Aye.

Council Member Dabowski. Aye. Council Member Dunn. Aye. Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda. Aye. Council Member Von Reichbauer. Chair Perry. Aye. The vote is seven ayes, and Council Members Balducci and Von Reichbauer excused.

Thank you very much. By our vote, we've adopted Proposed Motion 2026-0209. If there's no objection, the published marked agenda, together with any changes made in today's meeting, will stand approved as the first reading referral and referral ordinances and motions. Item 16. through 22 as listed. Under other business, I'll note we have a proclamation of September 2026 as National Recovery Month in King County being presented in the community by Council Member Dunn. Additionally, a quick reminder to my colleagues that there's a flood board meeting following the conclusion of this council meeting. We will start that at 345. With that, do my colleagues have any other business for the good of the order? seeing no further business before us this meeting is adjourned thank you