City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Hello everybody. The call is made order. My name is It's Wednesday, Mayor April. Mayor Wednesday, April 29th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. Call this meeting to order. Um, director, please. Francancy here. Asian. Honkant here. Hubbert here. Moingham here. Nipper here. Fredo here. Rajic here. Shaw here. Swore here. Taylor here. Wilson here. Bour here.

Thank you. Thank you. Can we please stand for 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 everybody. Excuse me. Second. Is there any discussion? Motion to excuse all favor. All right. Thank you. And now approval of the agenda.

Motion to approve today's agenda. Second. Is there any discussion on this? All in favor? I thank you. Right into public comment. Is there anybody audience who would like to make a public comment? Right now to council president agenda. Motion to approve tonight's consent agenda which includes minutes from the April 20.

Second and consideration discussion. All in favor? I I don't have a I'm sorry, but we did have a beautiful day in ice cream out in Clarks. You really don't know how to get or do we have any council reports start with our student representative?

All right. Um I sent an email to over 40 different communities in Washington regarding the importance of a student rep on the council. So far, the mayor um pro Tim of Liberty Lake has responded, hoping the other communities will soon. Also, at the last meeting, I talked about the cowboy barbecue, but there is a council meeting that date, but for the people who are not on council, the barbecue is May 13th um from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. and it's $10. Year three, I encourage you to attend and support the Skills USA students. Also, the AHS musical, Once Upon a Battress, starts this Friday, May 1st, and again um Sunday, May 3rd. Then after that, the 8th, the 9th, and the 10th. That's all.

All right. Thank you. Yes. Are there any of the council reports?

Uh just a EDAC update. Uh after our workshop, we had another EDAC meeting and um we went over what we heard from council and uh one of the things that we heard pretty loud and clear that we had not been considering real heavily was youth activities. Uh we have invited Justin to join us and uh I talked to him just this evening. We're going to start brainstorming some ideas and and see what we can do to tackle that as well as the other priorities that we have discussed. Thanks. That's a question.

Well, I helped out clean that the air res about 107 pounds of air and 27 27 pounds. I was not the only one there. There's 10 people living there. Anybody? Um I also took part in the museum collection committee. Um, so a lot of the times we just go this stuff that doesn't have anything to do with a but this time there was the Finnish people about their lived experiences of everything and like stories. It's pretty cool listening to him talk about the the wish. There were some kids concerned about like going up and down and they mentioned that the that the guy that runs it was waving out and sure they were there was other ones talking about like oh the river what a smell there's other like really interesting little stories after

thank you in my building if you're interested in that. Okay, council person.

Yes, last Friday, council members and the Wilson and myself attended the small city connectors event in Elma. It's put on by association of Washington Cities. I saw a couple familiar faces from the council leaders exchange and made some acquaintances as well. Um, I really can't say enough good things about the events and the training opportunities that AWC offers. So, if you're not already taking advantage of those, you really should be. That's it. I I scheduled myself to go to that meeting. Yeah, I love going to those. They're very educational. Thank you. Account number staff reports administrative times.

Thank you, mayor. Um, we met this week. Um, I met with uh a team of directors to discuss the disability rate that we hope to bring to the council. Um, so this would be a disability lowinccome rate. So, it'll be similar to the senior low-inccome rate. So, more to come on that information as we crunch the numbers to see um if it's possible to introduce this new rate and how it will impact um those who don't qualify for the rate. So, um thank you to uh finance director Williamson who is working on that.

That's a good question. Is is that um disability disabled folks that might not be 16 years old? Yes. Correct. Customer Right. Right. but they do have to be low income. So, um, one of the things that, um, Katie has been able to do is to look at other cities and a lot of cities have a lot of different types ways that they go about introducing this rate. So, she's exploring and and seeing what the number she's been reached out to um, the PUB to see because they have a disability rate and to see how many customers they have. So, that gives us an idea of potentially how many customers will be applying for it. So, um, did you want to add anything to that or were you Okay.

Pretty good.

All right. Um, we also, uh, met with, uh, our community development group, our building official and director Lisa Scott to discuss the bath and building program and thection of that and the things that we'll be introducing um, in that program to encourage compliance. Um and that will be a partnership also included or that will be that will work in tandem with code enforcement. So more more to come on that as well. Um staff are working on a lot of different things. Um we also um we also met uh with M managers today um to give them an update on what's happening around the city. So this was the first meeting of its kind where we had all of the directors meet and we met with all the middle managers here at the city and just to discuss like the projects and things like that. So we planned to host that meeting twice a year. It seemed like um it was positive and they were able we were able to get a lot of information to them which ideally they would share with their teams. Um and lastly, we are working on a coordination model um an interdep departmental coordination model um to uh for homeless response. And so with that model um we will be hopefully introducing some of the model to our community um providers. That's like CAP um destination hope and recovery, DSHS. We we invited a whole slew of people of organizations to join us next Friday um at the log pavilion to discuss uh their processes and to see how the city can better organize. We we had met with them two years ago. I think I've stated that before. We met with them a couple years ago and and they loved the meeting that we hosted with them and and the hope was that they would take that and run recognizing that

there was a need for it, but they didn't. So this is the second meeting and again the city's hosting it. So I'm going to take that as the city is the lead organization on this coordination effort and that they are looking to the city for leadership. So I'm going to take that and run with it and see what we can come up with. Again that meeting is um next Friday at the log pavilion. Um, for those of you who are interested, I'd like to thank um, Council Member Moahan who will be attending that and is is going to champion that effort. Um, as well as, uh, Council Member Taylor, who will also be assisting me with kind of the EF effort as well due to his profession.

So, what time?

Um, that will be from 9:00 a.m. till noon. Um, it's not going to be open to the public because I want this to be a space where we're working and so it's just going to be just a meeting to meet with all of these. But other council members, yes, you're welcome to attend. Um, and then uh tomorrow I have my quarterly meeting with the city administrators, our Grace Harbor city administrators and the county administrator. That's something that we do quarterly to discuss what's going on in our city. So, I hope to learn from our counterparts and to share the exciting things that are happening in our games. Um, are there any questions about my report? And lastly, on tonight's schedule, we have um uh a 2026 legislative update from Shelley Helder, who with Gordon Thomas Honeywell, who is our lobbyist um for the levy project. She's graciously going to share just give us like a sneak peek of what's to come in this legislative session which is something important for us to be aware of as this is so that if the council feels strongly about something you can all take a position and we can work with our legislators to um to work for us here in Aberine as the largest city the economic hub of the as the largest city on the Washington coast the economic hub of Grace Harbor County and the populace hub so we're a very p powerful city and our um legis legislators know that and we're welcome to report in our favor. So, thank you.

Thank you. Excuse me. Are there any directors that wish to I'm going to give a quick one update for budget? You guys hear me? Is that better?

Okay. So, I'm going to get my presentation going and share my screen. And you do each have a copy at your places. I'm not going to go through the whole report. I'm kind of just going to hit a few of the the pieces. Um, and then there's because there's obviously a lot of detail so you have stuff to take with you and let me know if you have any questions. Okay. So, what we we'll kind of talk mostly about uh the general fund. So, for the first three quarters or three months of the year, so uh January, February, and March, um we're coming in right on budget for our revenue in collection. So, we're at 25% which is where we'd expect to be. Uh, we're a little bit higher with our expenditures in the first quarter. Uh, part of that is due to some one-time costs that we pay out lots of times in January and then those last for the whole year. An example of that is our yearly insurance payment. Um, and that comes out in January and it's a rather large payment and we don't make that again for the rest of the year. Um, we also continued to have the general fund subsidy for EMS because we weren't able to pass that rate increase until April. Um, and so we couldn't change that that that subsidy either. So that's another reason that you then kind of see some of the um general fund

numbers coming in on the expenditures a little bit higher. And we also had a use of um funds from reserves and I believe you know that was due to both that onetime payment and the containment subsidy for BMS. Uh so some of our revenue details um you know we have we haven't received our property tax any of our property tax for this year. So we will be receiving that in this next quarter and then we will receive more in October. So that's also on the lower side. Um, another one that I want to point out, we do have our intergovernmental revenues are at 79% and that is because we have a um, HC, so a healthcare authority jail re-entry program grant that we received and that was about a half million dollars. Um, that was was unbudgeted and that also is making that high. Otherwise, most the rest of our revenues are coming in pretty close to target. Um, these are the kind of the notes that I actually just talked about, so I skipped ahead a little bit. And then, um, comparatively to last year, we are up about $695,000 in revenues. Um, so we're we're doing right there. And on our general fund expenditures, again, we kind of talked about already, this is just a breakdown of where that money has gone, you know, different category types. Um, and then we we already talked about that we're at 29% and that little comment is just talking about the EMS subsidy that we continue to have through that first three months of the year. Um, and then the next slide is just going over our general fund reserves. So, um, we are at our net undesated reserves are at 3.5 million, which is

about 59 days in cash. Uh, we'd like to be at 90 days in cash. So, we still have some work to do there. Um, again, I think that once we see that subsidy for EMS change, we should start seeing this these reserves start to build up a little bit more. U, but we do still have to be really careful. you know, just still need to really really watch it so that we can continue to build those to get to our target. Um, and then I have some slides in here that kind of go over the utility funds. Um, I'm not really going to go through those too much just because it's a lot of detail. Um, I I provided them all for each of you. So, we can you can kind of go through those and let me know that you have any questions. Does anybody have any questions at this point? Well, I'll like I said, I'm not going to go through the rest of these slides because there's a lot of just numbers. So, let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Any other question? We have the presentation our specialists. So, I think I'm so uh Mayor Council, thank you uh for opportunity to do a little presentation tonight. Uh tonight, uh I uh have Colobby Lyall. He's our fire service specialist. Uh bring him in. Excuse me. uh to do a quick little presentation on our community risk reduction program. There's a lot of moving point parts in this program that we have. A lot of them that really speak to some of the EMS things that we we're still starting to have some discussions on. So, I thought it'd be really a great opportunity for Colby to come in and give you a quick snapshot of the programs he manages and those partners we work with. So, uh, instead of you having to listen to me anymore, uh, I'll introduce here, Kobe aisle, fire service special.

Not sure I'm much better, but uh, good evening. Thank you very much for having me. Uh, it's an honor to be here. Yeah, like Chief said, I'm just going to kind of go through a quick rundown on uh, what our community risk reduction plan is. Um, other departments throughout the area are starting these programs. what they call CARES. And basically it is to kind of do public outreach, education, and essentially prevent preventative measures to avoid um okay to kind of put some ease on the 911 system. As you all know, we are a very busy 911 system and so if we can uh catch the problem before it happens, that is the ultimate goal, which ultimately saves money, saves crews, and the whole snowball effect. So, uh community risk reduction, it's educating and comm or connecting our community with the appropriate resources and support. Um so, and we'll walk through kind of the whole process as it goes. Um, so what is community risk reduction? Uh, community risk reduction, so we'll say CRR for short, is a proactive program by the Aberine Fire Department, uh, dedicated to connecting residents with vital community resources and safety education. Um, our mission is essentially to go beyond emergency response by helping families access the support they need before the crisis occurs. Uh we have a highly vulnerable population. We have a lot of elderly citizens that do rely on the 911 system simply because we don't have a lot of medical resources in the area. So the go-to is call 911 and we figure it out from there. So, uh, essentially what will happen is or who who this affects is, um, that, uh, African Fire Department program provides proactive outreach and, uh, support to community members who may benefit from additional resources, connection to services or

wellness checks to help them live safely and independently. So this affects seniors living independently in the community, um families in need of support or resources, uh at risk individuals just requiring wellness checks and um frequent callers to the uh 911 system. So um essentially a lot of people call 911 when it's not necessarily a emergency, you know, something that's been going on for a while. They just don't know who to go to. So that's where I come in. I'm kind of the bridge between the emergency and getting them the resources that they need. So, um, so our services and programs, uh, the Avenue Fire Department community risk reduction program, uh, provides essential services to help keep our community safe. Our trained firefighters and staff work directly with residents to address safety concerns and connect them with vital resources. So, what happens is I will go in if I get a referral and I will do a home safety assessment. Um, someone's requesting help or it could be something as simple as just you need help in in the house. You you live by yourself and you just you can't manage everything by yourself. So, what I will do is I will go in and interview them and I will do also do a home safety survey. Look for trip hazards, fire hazards, you name it. And then going from there, I will build into who I will refer them to. So,

can I sorry, can I pause you for just a second? Um, I think you're on slide four and we're still looking at slide. Yeah, I that was probably online Casey for a lot of stuff. And see no thank you. You know what you're doing.

All right. Please tell me if that doesn't catch back. You're going to have to advance to

No. Go back to you hovered over the wrong just click it on the bottom there. Just just like a little bit.

The whole world's not

Oh, I know. That's just yeah just okay see how this goes together. So uh where was I? Number two resource referrals. So okay I'll go in and do my home assessment and determine what exactly you're looking for. And essentially, like I said, it could just be extra help at home or it could be they need inhome medical care, physical therapy, you name it. So, I will take that information and I have plenty of resources outside here. I'll list a few of them here in just a couple of minutes, but um essentially I will connect them with those resources that they need and then from there they'll take over and I will always follow up. I follow up like daily. But um just to make sure everything's on track, uh one of the biggest things we like to do as far as that like home safety uh assessment is fall prevention education. Um one of the biggest injury statistics for anybody of any age, it's falls. And typically as you get older, you don't take falls very well like you did when you were 8 years old. So I will look for trip hazards, anything like that to keep people from falling down because gravity is not there for it. Um, and another thing we do, uh, smoke alarm installation. We partner with the Red Cross, we get free smoke alarms, and if we find a resident that needs smoke alarms, we will go in, install them for free. And technically, we do this a lot on a 911 call. We put a survey as we're there and determine if they need smoke alarms or not. And that is successful. But actually did save a life right after this program got started. So,

okay, cool. Um, so, uh, some of the benefits of the community risk reduction program, uh, the AD fire department's CRR program delivers meaningful resource for our community and emergency response system. So, again, preventative care is the name of the game of this. So, catch the e or catch it before it becomes an emergency. So like again this I know it's kind of repetitive but we connect our residents the collateral resources that they need which in the end improves overall safety and health and reduces the non-emergency calls to 911 which in turn also spares our emergency room for extra people that could go to say urgent care or their doctor. Um again, so just kind of a breakdown what happens is I will receive a referral from our field workers and I will go out again and schedule an assessment with them, meet them in their home, meet them, family members and again go from there um I will conduct that home safety assessment and determine the resources they need. So it is a great great program and it is very effective and that's why more and more fire departments are going to this sort of cares route. So um these are just some of our local partners. I don't know if you guys can see it, but we work with uh the Olympic Area on Aging, CAP Coast Community Action Program, uh Sher Health, Harvest Home Health and Hospice, DSHS, the Department of Children and Youth and Families, uh BHR, Behavioral Health Services, uh APS, CPS, Red Cross, and many, many more. I got a list three pages long of different resources. So, it is very nice to have those individuals caring about our community. So, um this again, this is just my contact information. I'm still pretty new and I'm not the best public speaker.

Bear with me. You're doing great. So, um I will also leave my card back there. So, if you guys know anybody that needs help, feel free or contact me anytime. So, again, thank you for your time and uh see you on the duty. All right. Thank you. Any questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Now, we'll get an update on our legislative session.

Good evening. Ethan, can you hear me? Okay. Sound check. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Okay. Okay. Great. All right. Let me pull up my slides and I will get started. Okay. Well, hopefully you can see those slides. Um, good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Shelley Helder. I have the privilege of representing the city of Aberdine as your contract lobbyist um in partnership with the city of Hokquam and I'm honored to be with you this evening to provide an update on um the city's legislative program and specifically the outcomes of the 2026 state legislative session. So there's three sections to my presentation this evening. I'm going to start with an overview of the 2026 legislative session and then I'll review the outcomes of the city's uh legislative priorities and then we'll wrap up talking about what happens what happens now what comes next. So the 2026 legislative session was uh 60 days. It was referred to as the short session and it was the second year of the bianium. in uh the first year of the bienium, it's a a longer session and um similar as in the first year and this second year, Democrats held strong majorities in both chambers and so they set the priorities for the legislative session. Um some of the major themes that came up throughout this session were um responding to federal actions uh both policy and budget um an attempt to improve the affordability for Washingtonians and an effort to reform the state's tax code to be more uh uh more progressive, less regressive.

In a short session, the primary objective is to adopt supplemental budgets which are intended to just make small changes to the state's 2-year budget or the bianial budget. And then in addition to adopting those supplemental budgets, the legislature considers um thousands of policy issues. In the short session this year, there were over 1,200 bills introduced and um ultimately 268 passed into law. So, the state has three budgets, the operating, the capital, and the transportation budget. Um the circles on the screen here are my attempt at a proportional representation of the size of those budgets. Um the most challenging of the three to balance in this short session was the operating budget and that challenge came because of rising maintenance level costs. So not necessarily expanding programs but simply maintaining the cost of existing programs and that was because of the the increased case loads or the the increased um number of individuals eligible for existing programs as well as previous decisions that went into had delayed effective dates. So, um, often when the legislature passes new policies, they set an implementation date of 2 to 3 years into the future. Well, the 2 to 3 years have now come due. And many of the programs that um had expansions authorized, the bill is now due. So, that was some of the the major cost drivers um in the operating budget and why it was so out of balance heading into this short session. The supplemental operating budget

increased spending by $2.4 billion. 880 million of that amount is from the state's uh budget stabilization account, which is often referred to as the rainy day fund, and it's essentially the state's savings account. The largest expenditure in the supplemental operating budget is roughly a billion dollars to cover the state's self- insurance liability premium. Um, insurance rates for every level of government are continuing to rise and the state is not immune to that expense. The other two budgets, the transportation budget and the capital budget, um are traditionally developed in a bipartisan fashion and that uh was the case in this uh short session. The supplemental transportation budget adds 1.2 2 billion in additional spending. And the real focus for the supplemental budget is increasing investment in the state's um maintenance and preservation of the highway system. Um for several years, the legislature has prioritized system expansion and and and neglected maintenance. And um now many of the state's bridges and highways are in disrepair. and um there's a significant backlog that's needed. And so that was that was the focus of that increased um funding in the supplemental budget. Um then finally, the capital budget. It's the smallest of the three state budgets, and this supplemental budget authorized an additional 889 million. Um, one of the larger investments in the supplemental budget was an additional 123 million for the state's housing

trust fund, which is a competitive grant program um that funds affordable housing projects. So before jumping into specifics about um Aberdeen's priorities, I just want to provide a perspective on outcomes for cities across the state. Um so this is kind of a thousand foot view. How did cities do in this short session? And um I I think ultimately it was not terrible for cities, but it was also not exceptional. Um there were no additional resources distributed to cities um and there were there was no relief from the demands or the responsibilities that are placed on cities by the state. There were however some additional um uh flexibility that was given for existing fiscal tools that cities have. Um and in spite of it being a challenging budget year for the state, they did not reduce the amount of revenues that they share with cities um for the most part. The the one exception to that is um there is um one of the revenues is the cannabis revenue and there was a reduction of $5 million in the amount that's shared statewide, but otherwise all the other state shared revenues were maintained. Um, and that's typically not a a practice the legislature does when they're in a difficult budget. And so that was a good sign. Um, I think one of the more I guess concerning items when it comes to um, city's fiscal situations is the legislature in this um, legislative session authorized a tax on incomes above a million dollars. And in that

legislation, they also eliminated the sales tax on certain products. And the a result of that elimination of sales tax, it's not just the state sales tax, it's also the local sales tax. And so that has the downstream effect of reducing local sales tax revenues. And the legislature acknowledged this in the bill. And um in the 4-year budget outlook, the state allocated $200 million to help offset the impact of that reduction in sales tax revenue. Um that $200 million is intended to be shared amongst cities, counties, and transit agencies. Um but it's not yet determined how that funding would be distributed. So taking a look at it holistically um I would say there there is room for improvement um when we consider how cities fared in the short session. Um so I mentioned at the beginning that the city of Aberdine partners with the city of Hokquam to advance two major projects. Um the first is the flood protection project and the second is the US 12th grade separated crossing. Um the flood protection project is something that we began working to secure state funding for back in uh 2021. And that strategy set us up to then request 18.5 million in uh the 2325 uh bianium and then an additional 17 million in the 2527 bianium. Um and that strategy proved to be successful. A total of uh $ 35.5 million is now dedicated to the Aberdine Hokquam flood

protection project and that includes the Dry Creek pump station which of course is now complete um the Northshore levy and the Northshore levy west segment and as I'm sure you know um there is a funding gap to complete the Northshore levy and we're in the process of developing a strategy to secure additional state funding um in the upcoming bianium. But I I do want to set expectations for the future. Um the level of funding that we've secured so far really has been unprecedented. Um and we do have some um some new challenges in the years to come. For the last 16 years, the city has been fortunate to have uh Representative Steve Thinger serve um as a representative and as for the last 10 years, he served as the chair of the House Capital Budget Committee. And that role positioned him to be able to um develop a capital budget that invested in projects throughout the state and also prioritized really strategic investments, specifically the flood protection project. Um with his retirement from the legislature, we won't have that same level of influence over the capital budget that we have had in the past. And so part of our work over the interim months, the months between um when the 2026 session ends and when the 2020 session 2027 session begins, um our work is to strengthen the relationship and and really the knowledge base with uh the presumed new chair of the house capital budget who's uh representative Lisa Kalen from Isiqua. She uh took over development of the capital budget this last year while uh Representative Finger was out and um has

been the vice chair for several years. So, she's definitely familiar with the project. Um but it's uh important for us to continue um educating her on where things are and what the needs still what needs still remain. Um the other thing that's worth noting is that if we look at other cities around the state that have a population of similar size to that of Aberdeen and Hokquam combined. Um that would be cities like Tomwater or Moses Lake or Mercer Island. um these cities are receiving at most one to$2 million per bianium in capital budget investments. So if we compare that with the 35.5 million in the capital budget for the flood protection plan um the level of state investment in this project is unique and again really unprecedented. The city's other priority is the US12 grade separated crossing. Um, and this is a you all know a state highway that functions um as a local road and a major thoroughfare for commerce. Um, this uh project is really essential and the timing of this project is critical for the region um as well as for um ongoing freight mobility. So, as a result of our advocacy with u both the 19th district and the 24th district uh legislators, the state has allocated a little over 71 million to this project. Um and it's sequenced over the course of four years. And it um it was an unexpectedly unexpectedly large sum of money to be allocated to a project when there is um very little new

revenue available in the transportation budget because the primary source of funds for transportation budget is gas tax and that is a declining revenue source because uh fuel efficiency and electric cars. So the state is still trying to grapple with how to um create a sustainable revenue stream for transportation needs and in the meantime major projects like US12 are for the most part being pushed out. We were incredibly fortunate to um receive this large sum of money dedicated to the project and really our primary objective um has been to defend the funding. Um because dollars are in such short supply, everyone looks to large sums of money to take from other projects. Um as well as ensuring that the dollars are available in at the time that's needed. Um that's that's been challenging thing to balance as well. So, while there uh are two main uh priorities that the city focuses on, there were countless other issues that the legislature considered. Um I'm going to cover just two this evening. The first was um a priority that was advanced by Greater Grace Harbor, the um associate development organization in the regional chamber of commerce. And this uh request was initiated because of the lengthy timeline to secure a permit for projects that could spur the region's economy. Um, last summer, Greater Grace Harbor worked with Representative Adam Burnbomb and other stakeholders to to kind of try to figure out what are the root causes of the delays for permits um and specifically um permits that are administered by environmental agencies. And it was determined that often it's

not the initial issuance of the permit um but it's actually the appeal of a permit that results in lengthy delay. The environmental land use and hearings office is the state agency that oversees the pollution control hearings board and that's who reviews the permit appeals. That board is comprised of three members and state law requires that all three members be present to review each appeal. And so the sheer number of permits that are appealed means that the board cannot keep up with the volume of cases. Um and that that's resulted in up to a year of backlog. So to address this, Representative Burnbomb introduced House Bill 2426, and it allows a subset of the board um or qualified members from other boards to hear cases um when both parties agree to have their cases heard that way. And really, this option is um about government efficiency. It's about working smarter, not harder. Um, and it's intended to expedite the review of the more simple cases to create capacity for the board to review the more complex cases in a a faster time frame. So, the legislature passed the bill this session. It takes effect um June 11th. And while it's a seemingly small change, um the law the the law that it changed was preventing the government from working in a more efficient manner. And so this is just kind of a common sense um solution. And then on the topic of public safety, one notable bill that did not advance, and often we talk about what passed, but just as importantly is what uh bad ideas did not pass. And the one to note is House Bill 24.89.

This would have restricted law enforcement's ability to interact with individuals who are um experiencing homelessness or in encampments in public rights of way um if there wasn't adequate shelter space within a specific jurisdiction. And cities from around the state expressed uh really significant concerns with how this would play out and what the unintended consequences of this proposal would be. Um the bill did advance out of committee but it didn't make it any further in the process and I think that that should be and I think is considered a big win. This is the third year that the concept was introduced and so I do anticipate that it will um return in 2027. So now that the legislative session is over, um we are in as I refer to it as the interim the the months between the sessions. And I think really one of the important things to do in the interim months is to do outreach to your state legislators. Express gratitude for their um the work that they've done to represent your community. Um as I mentioned the being able to deliver on um supporting really significant projects in the region is not something that comes easily. Not every uh city or every community in the state gets that level of state investment. So it's really important to um express gratitude for um the legislator's work to make that happen. Um and then the the second most important thing to do is to implement. So to deliver the projects and I know that's something that um the city is working diligently on. And then educate um during the interim is when legislators have more time to dive deeper on issues. Um a good example is how Greater Grace Harbor met with

Representative Burnbomb last interim. um they dove deep on what problems that were facing um economic development in the region and found a solution. And so that's what really the interim months are all all about is for education and learning um both for local leaders on on what options or what tools are available at the state level as well as for legislators to better understand local challenges. And then um the 2027 session will begin on January 11th. And um the success of um outcomes in or I should say successful outcomes in a legislative session are directly related to the work that's done during the interim. And so I I can't emphasize enough how important um the work is that we do between now and next January. And with that, I will stop sharing and see if there are any questions.

Anybody have two questions? Go ahead, Josh. I'm curious about the Oh, left one. Is there any movement on that? Charlie, do you know anything about the left one? I think they robbed that account basically and if you can explain that to one of our council.

Yes. So, as I mentioned earlier, they took $880 million from the state's uh budget stabilization account and transferred that to the general fund. They then it's planned to um take that 880 80 million from the left one pension system and backfill the rainy day fund. And the the logic behind that, if you can call it logic, um is there's a a surplus of funds available in that left one retirement account. And for several years, the legislature has been grappling with, well, do we do anything with that money or do we do we have it be over overfunded? Um, so it's there there's no reduction in um pension uh payouts or any amount of pension promises to left one retirees. Um it it is an excess amount, but it's a question of what should be done with that amount. And this session, the legislature used it to backfill funds in the budget stabilization account.

Thank you. I was just a little bit interested in knowing why they're going to um bring up 24.89. Um again, was that not um is it very close the voting on that?

That's a great question. Yeah, you would think that after three years of an idea coming forward and failing that that would mean it's a bad idea and it shouldn't come back. Um, but I think the reason it will return is because several of the legislators that are championing this concept I expect will return. Um, and there's I think the the the root of the issue is a um a doubt in whether law enforcement are um truly helping individuals that are experiencing homelessness. And I think that's that's the crux of the issue is law are law enforcement officers doing their best to assist. And I think most people would say yes. Um the group of legislators that are bringing this policy forward think that not only law enforcement but also cities and counties and the state could and should be doing more to provide adequate shelter space and if there is this kind of um consequence for not having adequate shelter space then there will be more incentive to create it. Um, so I think one one of the push backs on 24.89 is you can um you can criminalize people sleeping outside all you want, but until you provide adequate shelter space for them to get inside, they have nowhere to go. And 2489 did nothing to create adequate shelter space. One of the other bills the legislature passed was House Bill 2266. and it is referred to as the step housing bill. Supportive housing um uh permanent permanent supportive housing, emergency shelters, transition shelters. It essentially preempts local

control and sighting over um emergency shelters in GMA planning jurisdictions. Um, so I I didn't mention it this evening since it's uh not applicable in Aberdine, but that's intended to um create more shelter capacity in the areas where it's needed most or where the legislature thinks it's needed most. So a situation that we have here in Aberdine is we have shelter but there are people who don't and choose not to utilize the shelter and we can't force them to use the shelter. So um and we don't have the budget, you know, or the means to provide all sorts of different types of places. I I hope the state's aware of what the city is up against when it comes to expenses. Yes, that is an that's an excellent point and I think that's really one of the strong arguments for why the bill didn't advance further than it did.

Oh, thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you, Shel. Appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Right now, we'll move on to finance chair freedom. Okay. Um, that's we have the first reading of bill 26-05 requesting city council approve the amended ordinance for AMC 13.80.130 regarding the ambulance bill charity program

seconded by president council president. Um, is there any discussion on this? What was that or was I sorry I sounded the same. Sorry. Seconded by council person. Sorry. Is there any discussion on this? Seeing none. Um, all in favor of requests to approve the amended ordinance for AMC 13.80.130 regarding the ambulance bill charity program, please say I.

I. in the follow that's adopted. Next, we have a resolution requesting city council law authorized the surplus of the 2001 GMC 3500 one ton dump truck by bed fiber by resolution

and moved by council person. Is there any discussion on this? Seeing none of council surplus of the 2001 GMC 3500 110 dump truck bed. Resolution say I I oppose. All right. Thank you. It's adopted. Move on to public safety with chairperson.

Okay. We have a few things tonight. Uh we have a report requesting city council approval of the interlocal agreement with the city of Elma for temporary boarding of seized and impounded animals. And I move that we accept this second by um is there any discussion? I don't know a lot about it. I It looks like we're going to be doing this for quite a few cities. Um I suppose that they're going to support us in

financially, right? It's in the agenda. Okay. Any more discussion? the city council to approve the interlocal agreement with the city of Elmo for temporary boarding proceeds at impound say I I adopted our next report is requesting city council approval of the interlocal agreement with the Grace Harbor County Sheriff's Office for temporary boarding of seized and impounded animals and I move that we accept this

second by counc Last person. Is there any questions during the discussion on this? None. Request all in favor for request to complete the inter local agreement with Grace Harbor County Sheriff's Office for temporary boarding of ceased and in say I.

I. Any opposed? This is adopted. Thank you. Our next report is requesting city council approval of the interlocal agreement with the city of Monteo for temporary boarding of seized and impounded animals. And I move that we accept this second by person. Is there any discussion on this? I just thought that maybe we should consider a countywide deal. There's a request by the city or by the council approved near local agreement that the city of Mona for temporary boarding of season. Say I

I uh our next report requesting the city council approval of the interlocal agreement with the city of Westport for temporary boarding of seized and impounded animals and I move that we accept this second person. Is there any questions or comments on this? All in favor of request to approve the inter local agreement with the city of Westport for temporary boarding and seized in say I. I close. That passes. Thank you.

And our last report requesting city council approve the second amendment to the agreement between the city of Oakland or city of sorry city of Aberdine and the Harbor Regional Health Community Hospital. And I move that we accept this. Second. and seconded by council person. Is there any discussion on this? None. All in favor request by council to approve the second amend the second amendment to the agreement between the city of Aberine and Harbor Regional Health India Hospital. Say I

I oppose. This passes. Thank you. All right. and moving on to public works with chairman. Uh at today's meeting we had a good discussion conveyance and wrote we dropped one item today and it's requesting the city council to authorize the mayor to sign the agreement with Sumat Simmons and I mean we accept this second by council person. in discussion. That's a person listening. Sorry.

Um, how did you get to this uh Somax Simmons undone? How was that decision made?

Um, this person Michelle Chester is the attorney that we're hoping to secure in this contract along with other team members. um became recommended from Vaness Feldman. Um Vaness Feldman is the group that we hired specifically Jenna Mandel Rice is who we hired to represent us in the negotiations with Tacoma Power for the Wii Dam perk license renewal. Um Tacoma Power is a very powerful group, no pun intended, but they really are. and they have um retainers and relationships with almost every law firm in Washington state. So, it was nearly impossible for us to find an a law firm here in the state that hadn't already represented Tacoma in some capacity. And because of that conflict, Jenna is no longer allow able to represent us if things progress with Tacoma Power. So um she recommended this group out of California which is allowed to practice law in Washington state. They're also very well verssed in water law and um licensing and all the things that we made you know that are related to the dam. So, so you thoroughly went through Seattle because I I used to work for um Stainless Slot Abod and I know that they have um some people in that area, but um I just wanted to make sure that because the amount of money per hour, the hourly rate and them being so far away, I was just a bit concerned about the charges or if they need to come up here and they're you're paying for flight time and hotel and that kind of thing. So, and just so that everybody knows uh when when attorneys charge it's it's going to

be very pricey.

Yeah. Um, so there are very few law firms that actually are deal with water law and environmental law and Cascadia Law was really the only one that has a good reputation and they represent um, Tacoma. Um, Jenna Mandel Price, she is about $798 an hour. Um, Michelle Chester is about $420 an hour. So, she is, you know, a lot less um in cost when it comes to um in comparing the two. Um but yes, you're right. Um but the two law firms that um uh recommended are Van Nessman and Cascadia Law. And so we want to make sure that we're getting um represented by the best attorneys that we can that come recommended by the other attorneys in that field. So, thank you. Yeah. Any discussion? So there's your request to authorize the mayor to sign the agreement with Sic Simmons and Deon. All in favor?

I thank you. Move on to special committee items with council president. Right. For special committee items, we just have the third reading of bill 26-03 requesting city council approve the amendments to AMC 8.08.040 regulations relating to shopping carts. I move accept this third reading. Second second.

None. February is the third reading of bill 26-3 requesting city council approve the amendment to AMC 8.08.040 regulations related to shopping cart. Say I. I third reading. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. Okay. Uh, Randy, yes. Yes. Hard. Yes. Boingham, yes. Nipper, yes. Fredo, yes. Bradic, yes. Shaw, yes. Tor, yes. Taylor, yes. Wilson, yes. Motion.

All right. Thank you very much. Now, we'll move on to public comments. again if there are any questions to making a public comment. Um three minutes and start with your name and all right seeing none. Is there anything for the good of the order? I'd just like to bring up that uh this coming Friday, the hospital is uh rolling out Meditech expanse uh new EMR program. Uh this been years and years in the making and tens of millions of dollars and this is bringing the local hospital up into state-of-the-art for your medical records and they're contributing. We also are opening the second floor which is a significant development and we are making great progress on the additional walkin capacity uh on the basics your milestones.

Thank you. Yes. To start, I want to remind everyone the town halls uh next week May 6 at Robert Grey Elementary 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and wards 4 and 6. May 20th 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. No junior high boards 1 2 and 3. Um with that, we also need to start thinking about budget workshops for this year. So, I would like to make a motion that we host a budget workshop both on June 3rd and September 2nd of this year.

Second by council. I will email these out. No need to write them down. Okay. All in favor of having the workshop on June 3rd and September 2nd say I. Hi.

Okay. Now we'll make a motion to close session in the performance of publicly b contracts and public knowledge regarding such consideration with the likelihood to increase costs for no more than 30 minutes. Mark explains. All in favor?

I thank you. Po6. I don't know why. I'll promise to see you right now. Motion to rec.

Second session. Motion to adjurnn. Second. I Thank you guys for coming. Have a wonderful night. I go down to 30